PargueraPirate
SUMMARY: Desecheo Island is a beautiful, if limited dive site, but it can be extremely dangerous. This is no place for novice divers.TITLE: Beautiful, but Dangerous Tripadvisor 13 Mar 2014GENERAL: I have been horrified to learn that 3 or 4 dive shops on the NW coast are taking novice divers to Desecheo Island. Some of these divers have contacted me for advice. I told them not to go. They went anyway and were lucky. The dive shops will kill someone.DESCRIPTION: Big rock in the Mona Passage relatively close to Puerto Rico. Usually diving is on the protected south side. Subject to sudden, very strong oceanic currents. There is a narrow slope in drivable depth. Not much coral development, but lots of fishes. There are some shallow caves under the island, but usually each has a resident giant Green Moray. For fish watchers, Cottonwicks and Creolefish are common here and rare on the main island.RECOMMENDATIONS: [A] Always go hand-by-hand down the anchor line and always return hand-by-hand up the anchor line. [B] Have a tag line trailing behind the boat.HISTORY: [A] I have been diving at Desecheo when there as a strong current running 1 direction at the surface, another 1 in a different direction in mid-water, and a 3rd 1 in a different direction on the bottom. [B] Some fellow pirates reported coming up from a night dive at Desecheo. A sudden strong current (+1 knot) hit them and all they could do was hold on to the anchor line until it quit. [1] [C] An organization with the best-trained, best equipped, most experienced, and with the most safety requirements and precautions of any divers in the world [2] have gotten in trouble at Desecheo. If it can happen to them, it can happen to you. [D] My favorite Pirate and Captain of many of my voyages, Uchee, used to go out to Desecheo salvage all the outboard motors from sunken boats and sell them back to their owners. It is a treacherous place even for locals.FOOTNOTES[1] A diver cannot swim against a current of more than 1 knot.[2] I refuse to embarrass them by identification. I have great admiration for their work and sacrifices.Cottonwick, Haemulon melanurumCreolefish, Paranthirus furcifer
