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For Divers since 1975 The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 |
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Beqa Adventure Divers/The Pearl: "Another great experience! - #2", Sep, 2016,by David E Reubush, VA, US ( Top Contributor 68 reports with 35 Helpful votes). Report 9226.
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No photos available at this time | |||
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Accommodations |  |
Food |  |
| Service and Attitude |  |
Environmental Sensitivity | |
| Dive Operation | |
Shore Diving | N/A |
| Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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| Value for $$ | |
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| Beginners | |
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| Comments | Before our live-aboard trip on the Nai'a (led by Burt Jones and Hergen Spalink) we spent 3 days in Pacific Harbor shark diving with Aqua-Trek (2 days-previous report) and Beqa Adventure Divers (1 day-this report). Both of the operators do a great job, but the dives are structured a bit differently and I would recommend that, if you have time, to try both. Both do 2-tank dives in the morning, which we participated in. Beqa Adventure Divers conducts their dives on a slope in the range of 15 to just over 90 feet deep. For the 2 dives I did the dives were 37 minutes and 41 minutes. The first of the 2 dives started at the deepest point of just over 90 feet where they have a "wall" built of coral rubble which you knelt behind while the sharks were fed tuna heads in front of you. While there were a number of miscellaneous other small fish and sharks around the numbers were not as great as at the Aqua-Trek location. As with Aqua-Trek when the tuna heads came out the stars of the show, the big bull sharks, arrived and everyone else deferred to them. The actors were all accustomed to what was going to happen and there was nothing like a feeding frenzy which occurred. The big bulls all circled around gracefully and at random intervals one approached the feeder and took the offered tuna head. There were safety divers which were stationed behind the kneeling divers with long aluminum poles which could be used to fend off any feeding shark that might get too excited, but they were never needed in the 2 dives we did. Beqa Adventure Divers conducts more structured dives than Aqua-Trek. Everyone stays in-place. The deep part of the dive lasts exactly 18 minutes, at which point you ascend to 30 feet where they feed white-tips, black-tips and other smaller sharks. After this part of the dive is finished you ascend to 15 feet for your safety stop and they feed again, even smaller actors. Between dives there is about an hour surface interval with drinks and small snacks on the boat. The boats are small, with no head, so if the need arises you have to jump in to resolve the issue. The second dive is not a repeat of the first. During the second dive you descend to about 50 feet and lay down on your stomach on concrete pads while they feed the bull sharks directly in front of you. They also sprinkle "fairy dust" (chum) from above directly over your heads so that the sharks will swim very close. This enabled us to get some really "up close and personal" shots, but we never felt threatened as there were plenty of safely divers and none of the sharks ever got excited. Everyone knew their part in the play. We stayed in the year-old section of the Pearl in Pacific Harbor. The hotel was clean, the beds were comfortable, the grounds were beautiful, and I had no issue drinking the water. The only problem that I became aware of was that they were having trouble with the phone system and the phones did not work in some rooms or only worked as speaker phones. The phone in my room worked fine. The WiFi was not free, but not terribly expensive and not especially fast. The hotel had 3 restaurants (breakfast was included in the room rate); a lobby restaurant, a deli, and a high-end restaurant (which I did not try). All of the food that I had was good, but not outstanding. There was a small shopping area within walking distance that had several restaurants with good food that we also tried. | ||
| Websites | Beqa Adventure Divers The Pearl | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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| Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
| Where else diving | Australia, Belize, Bimini, Bonaire, Caymans, Curacao, Fiji, Galapagos, Indonesia (Wakatobi, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Lembeh, Bali, Banda Sea), Philippines, Red Sea, Solomon Islands, Southern Bahamas, St. Thomas, Turks & Caicos | ||
| Closest Airport | Nadi, Fiji | Getting There | Fly to LAX, transfer to Fiji Air, fly to Nadi, overland about 2.5 hours to Pacific Harbor |
Dive Conditions |
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| Weather | sunny, dry | Seas | calm, no currents |
| Water Temp | 79-80°F / 26-27°C | Wetsuit Thickness | |
| Water Visibility | 80-90 Ft/ 24-27 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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| Dive own profile | no | ||
| Enforced diving restrictions | Follow the instructions. | ||
| Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | no |
What I Saw |
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| Sharks | Lots | Mantas | None |
| Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
| Turtles | None | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Corals | N/A | Tropical Fish | N/A |
| Small Critters | N/A | Large Fish | N/A |
| Large Pelagics | |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Subject Matter | |
Boat Facilities |  |
| Overall rating for UWP's | |
Shore Facilities | N/A |
| UW Photo Comments | Like Aqua-Trek the cameras were handled carefully, but rinsing etc. had to wait until I returned to the hotel and did it in the shower. | ||
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above. |
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