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JADE MOUNTAIN and ANSE CHASTANET are pleased to jointly feature our premier scuba and snorkeling operation, Scuba St. Lucia, as one of the most scenic and ecologically rich locations the Caribbean has to offer – including an easily accessible coral-rich dive and snorkeling site right off shore. Scuba St. Lucia is not only the island’s longest established dive center, but a safe and well-staffed five-star PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) operation to round out the perfect vacation destination.
Scuba St. Lucia is part of our 600-acre resort estate voted to be one of the Top Five Caribbean Resorts by both Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler magazines. Beginners fear not because this can be the place to try scuba out for the first time. Cross off a bucket-list item, have some low maintenance tropical fun, expand your photography skills to below the water, or seriously channel your inner marine biologist from childhood Jacque Cousteau TV documentaries. This is the place. Please read more about our St. Lucia Dive Centre and Dive Resort below:
Scuba St. Lucia is just a mile and a half from the picturesque town of Soufriere on the island’s south-western Caribbean shoreline, and is part of our Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts. Nestled amidst tropical forests with soft sand beaches bordering on pristine coral reefs, ANSE CHASTANET is in complete harmony with its natural surroundings–and, along with Jade Mountain, possesses certified sustainable achievements that give back to the environment. This is the perfect scuba hideaway for those seeking a tranquil or romantic vacation spot.
Scuba St. Lucia is situated just steps away from ANSE CHASTANET beach – perfect for both BEACH AND BOAT DIVES with a complete range of guided activities and PADI courses for first-timers to advanced and deeper enriched air nitrox diving. Our well-equipped scuba store includes three compressors, rental dive gear, and an underwater photo and video center. Don’t dive yet? No worries. This is the ideal place to take and introductory novice course for a guided and safe shallow-water beginner dive. Take the classes for the complete PADI course “up north” (back home) and come down here with a letter to complete the outdoor practical exam while on vacation.
Scuba St. Lucia is more than a premier dive operation. In keeping with the resort’s sustainable no-impact goals and LEED Gold Certification, our center also walks the walk as the proud owner of the PADI Green Star™ Dive Center Award,identifying dive businesses that care about the environment and are acting to protect it.
With an international staff of a combined 125 years of diving experience, we operate three ecologically friendly and quiet dive boats fully outfitted with fresh drinking water, all manner of safety equipment, and a Diver Alert Network (DAN) Oxygen unit with an outstanding safety record through three decades of operation.
No need to worry about bringing equipment. You are on vacation. Everything from wet suits and masks to aluminum scuba tanks, regulators, and buoyancy compensation vests are always available and serviced regularly in excess of current safety standards. We even have photography equipment. Want pictures but don’t want the effort? On special request, the staff will be pleased to record your diving or snorkeling experience.
The ANSE CHASTANET reef makes an amazing and easy first – or any time –dive, day or night. Just 15 yards beyond the water’s edge, the reef’s remarkable ecosystem offers an amazing profusion of unusual tropical marine life in as little as 20 feet all the way to 140 feet of wall drop-off in calm clear water. Be sure to keep your eyes open for flounders, octopus, needle fish, and turtles. Or drop down over deeper dense coral growths to see puffers, moray eels, parrot fish, lobsters and even sea horses. The reef is a unique dive site for all abilities, and especially good for macro photography. Don’t have a camera? We’ve got you covered with our provided cameras and beginner photography activities.
And if you think summer may not be on the Caribbean travel radar, not so fast. Because that is when the sea creature action really is. From sea turtle nesting to coral spawning, our opportunities would even make Jacques Cousteau envious.
Coral spawning? Yes, that’s right. First discovered in the 1980’s at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, this annual mass reproduction phenomena overturned a long-held belief that most coral species reproduced by fertilizing their eggs internally and “branching out”. This newer external phase of reproduction is now known to be critical to coral reef – and our own ecosystem’s – survival.
Each year, the coral release millions of packets of reproductive cells that appear as an upward underwater “snowfall”. After they drift to the surface for fertilization, the sea will be partially covered by the slicks of coral larvae before they settle to the bottom destined to build the next generation of one of the ocean’s most vital organisms.Scientists from all over the world study these miraculous events and now know what triggers this annual wonder – a critical combination of temperature, day length, rate of temperature change, lunar cycles, time of sunset, and chemical synchrony.
The ideal time for the release of the reproductive cells at our reef is a week or so after a full August moon an hour or two after sunset providing the cover of darkness. Scuba St. Lucia offers special night dives during the predicted period to allow guests to witness this magnificent spectacle.
Tropical coral reefs, although out of sight, are essential to our world-wide food chains.Anse Chastanet is able to provide access to this event and resource in close proximity due to its exemplary and progressive sustainable designs and architecture by minimizing impervious surfaces, keeping shorelines green and stable, and completely preventing runoff from entering the water – preserving this wonder for future generations.
Coral appreciation is one popular piece of the larger conservation puzzle, so don’t forget to learn about other critters. The Anse Chastanet reef is the perfect place as an easy shore-accessible experience with more than 150 different fish species on a marine plateau with a dramatic fall away. It is so easy, the Anse Chastanet reef is a required first dive for all our guests, allowing divers to re-acclimate if a bit out of practice as well as refresh skills in equipment use and buoyancy compensation to the satisfaction of our dive staff and themselves. This assures not only an enriching and fun experience but protects the marine reserve as well.
Ready for more? After the reef, let one of the resort’s amply outfitted dive boats take you to dramatic walls beneath the majestic Piton Mountains. Even better, “drift dive” it at Superman’s Flight at the base of the Petit Piton used in the filming of Superman II. Soft corals,sea whips, gorgonians, large feather duster worms, and a profusion of fish life abound. This is also the place to try a first wreck dive for the newly certified.
Frequently, wrecks are at challenging depths requiring additional experience and skills, but not here. The sunken freighter, Lesleen M, is a 20 minute boat ride to what is now an artificial reef project by the Department of Fisheries,and home to soft coral, sponges, hydroids,sea turtles, juvenile fishes, and of course whatever preys on them. Spectacular closer-to-home afternoon boat dives include Fairyland, Turtle Reef, Grand Caille, Trou Diable, and The Pinnacles. Don’t forget Turtle Reef to see rare and endangered sea turtle species adjacent to turtle grass beds.
Full appreciation of the reef’s marine biology is only achieved with a surreal night dive, revealing critters of the evening such as bioluminescent organisms, octopus, lobsters, starfish, sleeping parrot fish, and even “the thing” – a mysterious resident creature yet to be identified even by our expert guides. Maybe you will be the one? Go to our other pages to learn of even more dive opportunities and details.
Don’t want to dive but still yearn for a National Geographic experience? No problem. Some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean is right over the Anse Chastanet reef. In front of our dive center with easy shore access, the area has been buoyed off to boating for safety with depths between 5 and 25 feet – and also a favorite of professional underwater photographers. Take snorkeling lessons and go on one of our guided snorkel trips within the marine park and under the majestic Pitons.
Not to be outdone, Scuba St. Lucia is once again on the marine ecology cutting edge with its innovative and unique Lionfish removal program. Invasive – or non-natural occurring – species from human activity are a chronic problem world-wide. This once-prized ornamental aquarium fish from the Pacific Ocean has found its way into the Caribbean from cumulative releases into the wild reducing Atlantic biodiversity and adversely altering habitat.
Lionfish are not meant to be in the Atlantic. To this end, Scuba St. Lucia institutes an incentivized and contemporary mass removal program as an effective means to put things back in order. Non-St. Lucian visitors are now authorized by special permit to remove the invasive Lionfish from our reefs as part of a win-win sustainable tourism partnership.
Take traditional fishing to the next level by spearing the fish as part of our removal process! Our resorts’ chefs may even be able to prepare it to your liking if large enough as a true hunt-to-table parallel to our farm-to-table menu. Sign up for our specialty PADI Invasive Lionfish experience to show proficient pole spear safety and even get your specialty card – helping record our progress in our database along the way.
Scuba St. Lucia is the ideal place to learn to divewith warm clear waters and a shallow protected reef close to the dive center. The introductory scuba course is offered daily and Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Dive master, Assistant Instructor, and Specialty courses are available upon request.You can even take your classes “up north” and the final practical here since we are a universal referral center. Please review our diverse offering of training opportunities and how to enroll on our COURSES page.
And for those who may prefer above-the-water enjoyment and nature appreciation, please also visit BIKE ST LUCIA and KAYAK ST LUCIA to learn more about our many other amazing adventure facilities right here at ANSE CHASTANET.
