St. Maarten & St. Martin

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It is not difficult to summarise the type of diving you are likely to experience in St. Maarten/Martin. The diving is generally fairly shallow, typically 60 feet or less, and the sites are a mixture of artificial reefs made by wrecks, old coral reefs, and encrusted rocks. That is the simplistic view of St. Maarten/Martin diving.

Keen divers should consider St. Maarten/Martin as the centre of a diving area that includes Saba, Statia, Anguilla and St. Barts. See the book for details of how to dive the surrounding islands.

Not all of St. Maarten/Martin's reef sites are actually coral reefs. Many of the sites are rock formations encrusted with sponges, hydroids and coral. In the north, in particular, there are some interesting layered rock formations. In the south, Proselyte Reef (see sample dive below), was formed by lava flows. In other areas, old coral reefs can be seen below new growth of coral and sponges.

Operators dive on 11 wreck sites. Some are there by design, others by accident, or more specifically by the hand of hurricanes Luis or Bertha.

The sites we dived were all well endowed with fish. In particular, sergeant majors, blue tangs, surgeonfish, blue and brown chromis, trumpetfish, filefish, and trunkfish are permanent residents on all the sites.