Animal Encounters
July 2010 – Our spotted eagle rays are still hanging around, including one at the RMS Rhone weekly. We’re also seeing reef sharks at Ginger pretty regularly as well as some nice sized Nassau Groupers!
June 2010 – Wreck Week took place June 12-19 and we had some nice finds with 19 divers participating in the activities. A Juvenile trunkfish (tiny and hard to see!) won the best critter find contest amongst all divers.
May 2010 – This was a great month for finding critters! We’ve seen loads of black-spotted nudibranchs, eagle rays and sharks.
April 2010 – More rare species found in the BVI! Daryl Duda captured this great image of a yellow frogfish while on our Norman Island Safari trip.
March 2010 – The whales are still here along with the dolphins and turtles. New finds this month include 2 different frogfish (down near Norman) and a gold spotted eel.
February 2010 – It’s that time of year again….whale spotting time! Jeff got it started with 2 off of VG and they just keep coming. We’ve had dolphins around the boats a couple of times now and always enjoy seeing them. Johan was lucky enough to find a white spotted eel down at Norman Island and he even got some great photos.
January 2010 - A new year and new dive friends! Dive BVI is blessed to have a great group of dive buddies and is looking forward to seeing as many of them as possible this year.
December 2009 – We finished off the year with some great dives. From the tiniest black spotted sea goddess (at night on the Rhone!) to reef sharks at Ginger. We had a blast with all of our divers in 2009 and look forward to starting the new year with a dive.
November 2009 – The Devil Ray is back at Shark Point! Jeff, Johan, Menne, Kyle and Fraser (our Scubapro representative) went out to explore and found this big guy cruising the shallows off of Scrub Island. A spotted eagle ray flew by to check us out and Johan even spotted a rare golden-faced coney!
October 2009 – Most of the staff are back from vacation now – rested up and ready to dive again. Jeff and Casey jumped back into the swing of things and had 3 reef sharks on just 2 dives at Ginger Island.
September 2009 – No storms as of yet, so out we go! Schooling bar jacks are feasting on the baitfish and the tarpon are getting bigger than ever!
August 2009 – As the season starts to slow down, we’re pleased to report that the diving is still booming! Eagle rays at Wall to Wall, nurse sharks at Chimney and leopard flatworms are being enjoyed by our divers.
July 2009 – We’ve started the month off with a bang (fireworks pun intended)! A Caribbean Devil Ray was hanging out at Shark Point for a few days, along with 30 or so tarpon. We’ve even found a cute little pipefish on the stern on the RMS Rhone.
June 2009 – June has been awesome so far. We’ve seen an abundance of eels, stingrays and tarpon this month. The baitfish are really starting to stack up and that always brings in the bigger guys. The Chikuzen has been fantastic – 2 goliath groupers hanging out and posing for photos. Jeff finally found Cherry, the little red seahorse!
May 2009 – Another great month of diving in the BVI! We’ve still got Spotted Eagle Rays cruising around and loads of lobster everywhere.
April 2009 – What a great month of diving! Rudy and his dive buddies were visited by a large Bull shark at Wall to Wall on West Dog Island. The big fellow circled twice and then swam off into the blue, leaving behind a very excited dive group. Johan was visited by 4 bottle nosed dolphins at the Chikuzen. He’s even got photos to prove it!
March 2009 – Jeff finally found what he was looking for. He spotted a 12 ft long Hammerhead shark while out looking for a wayward anchor. Best part of it all – in only 30 ft of water and in the middle of the mooring field at St. Thomas Bay, just off the West side of Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour. A truly amazing sight and one he won’t forget for a long time. Casey had a great dive at Blonde Rock with a dozen lobsters, 2 curious amberjacks, and 2 big reef sharks. A great finish for a great week of diving with our friends from Louisiana. We also had another whale out in the Channel near Beef Island.
February 2009 – We’ve got a new friend at the RMS Rhone! His name is Lemondrop and he is a yellow/brown seahorse. He can usually be found hanging out near the bow sprit. He’s about 4 to 5 inches long and very photogenic. Here’s a picture Johan took with our new Sea Life DC 800 camera.
January 2009 – last week of the month and a group of our divers spotted a single humpback whale out past the Baths on their way to Ginger Island!
December 8, 2008 – Jeff and Johan enjoyed a rare treat at Wall to Wall. After a beautiful 45 minute dive, the divers came back to the boat to find two reef sharks swimming nearby. Expecting the sharks to scoot off, Jeff snapped a quick picture to prove they were there. Not only did they not leave, they kept swimming slowly around the coral heads. The divers were able to spend an additional 15 minutes watching a great show. All in all, it was the best shark encounter for both Jeff and Johan as it was completely natural and unexpected.
November 2008 – Anegada Trip is on again. Meron continues to amaze her guests with her ability to find turtles, stingrays and enormous parrotfish at Loblolly Bay.
Summer 2008 – Johan spots a Caribbean Devil Ray and shares his enthusiasm with everyone. We were lucky enough to dive with 2 large hammerhead sharks at POS. Rudy is still finding eels on every dive. Pleased to find a large goliath grouper hanging out on the RMS Rhone for about 2 months steady.
Spring 2008 – Almost 3 weeks of steady shark dives. The Aquarium off of Virgin Gorda has been sheltering around 20 nurse sharks both day and night.
Winter 2008 – Great start to the year! Whales, sharks and eagle rays galore!
Thanksgiving week 2007 – No photos of this dive but great nonetheless….Spotted eagle rays are coming in and Rudy spotted the elusive Ginger Island seahorse again.
March 2007 – still more wonderful animal action! Check out some of these shots! Caribbean Reef Shark at Ginger Island and a clinging crab from our night dive on the RMS Rhone.
January 2007 – Sharks sharks sharks! We’ve started the year off with some fantastic shark encounters. Lemons, Nurse, Black tip, and Caribbean Reef sharks have been seen on just about every day! Check out these big Lemon sharks that Casey and Jeff swam with at the Chikuzen on Jan 19th.
December 2006 – All month long – The spotted eagle rays are back! With the recent drop in water temperatures (all the way down to 79 F), our divers have been seeing lots of these rays throughout the islands. We’ve gotten some really great photos as well.
November 2006 – Casey had to out do us all again. While leading a dive tour at Ginger Island, she was lucky enough to get a nice sighting of a tiger shark. Estimated to be about 8 ft. long, it decided that the group was pretty scary and scooted on out of there!
June 18 – 25 was an awesome week for our divers. Bruce Gitlin, who has been diving with Dive BVI for over 20 years, is our lucky charm. He was visited by a Bottlenose Dolphin on Friday morning at Diamond Reef. The big guy swam around Jeff and Bruce checking them out for several minutes before swimming off into the blue. Later during the dive, it came back for some more close ups and quick passes. An amazing experience to say the least! On Bruce’s first dive at Shark Point, he saw 16 – 18 large tarpon, a king mackerel, loads of lobster, and a very shy school of unicorn filefish.
On Sunday, Bruce was out with us again and had the extreme pleasure of seeing a Hammerhead shark cruise by the group while diving at Wall to Wall off of West Dog Island. Steve, Dive BVI instructor, who has seen hundreds of hammerheads while in the Bahamas, was justifiably excited and making sure that all of his fellow staff knew about his sighting. He won’t shut up about it!
