Tobago Dive Experience, Trinidad and Tobago: Undercurrent 06/2025

Tobago Dive Experience, Trinidad and Tobago

a throwback to a more casual age

from the June, 2025 issue of Undercurrent

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Dear Fellow Diver,

On my first dive in Tobago, I backrolled into the water and the past. Black Jack Hole looked more like the Caribbean of 25 years ago than today's, with no evidence of SCTLD: it was filled with lush stony and soft corals, enormous sponges, and lots of fish, though few big ones. Squid, barracuda, Southern sennet, queen triggerfish, gray, French, and queen angelfish ... it was dazzling. While some hard corals I saw had black band disease, some algae, and evidence of bleaching, the reefs were nearly pristine. In 13 dives over six days, I saw fish I'd never seen in the Caribbean and rejoiced as I dived among pretty darn healthy reefs.

Pirogue-style dive boat My spouse and I spent a March week in Tobago with old friends, famed naturalists Anna and Ned DeLoach and underwater photographer Eric Reisch. The DeLoaches often lead trips for REEF (the Reef Environmental Educational Foundation), which Ned and the late Paul Humann founded. But this trip was personal, a chance for friends to kick back and check out this far corner of the Caribbean. I know that diving with Anna and Ned made the staff of Tobago Dive Experience eager to please, but we took no favors, and they provided the same top-notch service to every diver.

Tobago is more in the Atlantic than the Caribbean, as it lies 20 miles north of the country's main island, Trinidad, and 85 miles north of South America. Dive shop owner Sean Robinson, a native of T&T, has been diving forever (he says he has over 30,000 dives) and seems to know everyone in the industry and on the island. Setting a high bar for his staff, he runs his dive operation with sedulous attention to detail, particularly when it comes to teaching and training. Everyone working there is local, well-trained, professional, and helpful. Our guide, Ricardo, a passionate naturalist, did his best to find rare or endemic species. My only cavil was "island time." We showed up as asked -- 8:30 A.M. -- but sometimes waited around for an hour before getting underway. At least once, I think they held up the departure awaiting Sean, who ambled in late, sipping his coffee....

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