Statia

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One of Statia's (properly called St. Eustatia) assets is the variety of diving. There are deep sites and shallow areas. There are ancient unrecognisable wrecks and modern wrecks underwater no more than a few months. Though Statia does not have a fringing reef system, some of the coral that has grown on the rocks has now become coral reef.

The last volcanic eruption on Statia was 1,600 years ago, and evidence of the volcano’s output is easily found on the seabed. Though many sites are close together the terrain is varied depending whether you are diving on top of a lava flow, in one of the trenches or over basalt blocks and in some areas the substratum looks so much as if it has been hewn by human hands that it is hard to imagine that it results from natural phenomena

Until recently the wrecks that divers were visiting were so old that they were barely distinguishable as ships. All of the wood had long ago rotted away and only the ballast stones remained. But before the wood disappeared, the ballast stones were cemented in place by coral action, so you can still see the outlines of the ship’s hulls. They are interesting archaeological sites and tremendous fish magnets.

More recently, the marine park has been creating an artificial reef with sunken ships. Two tugs, two barges and even some old oil pipes are now available for diver exploration.

See the book for 30 pages describing Statia’s 33 dive sites and 3 dive stores, plus lots of information about the island, après dive activities, diving rules and regulations and marine life.

Checkout dive site 4 - The Cliffs

1 Dive Statia

2 Scubaqua

3 Golden Rock Dive Center

Statia dive sites and dive operators

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HOT NEWS Updated August 2000

The Old Gin House

The Old Gin House on Statia has reopened.  This is a great addition to Statia’s hotel accommodations. Apart from offering accommodation in a beautiful traditional building, it is only a few yards from the dive stores.  For more information on The Old Gin House, go to http://www.oldginhouse.com

As far as diving is concerned, Glenn of Golden Rock tells us that the reefs are looking very good and they have been seeing a lot of gray reef sharks and turtles.