Dive Review of Cente des Islets in
Guadeloupe (Caribbean)/Cousteau Marine Park/Pigeon Is

Other Guadeloupe (Caribbean) reports
Subscriber Content Preview
Active subscribers go here

Cente des Islets: "Lovely reef but no photography in the Cousteau marine reserve!!", Mar, 2024, by Keith Willmott, FL, US ( Sr. Contributor 23 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 13095.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Turned up at the small dive shop on the beach at 7.30am to find a bunch of divers already kitting up. Somewhat chaotic, we left most our stuff in the shop, space was limited on the boat. We dived the Franjack wreck, a 50x7m sand barge sunk in 1980s about halfway to Pigeon Island. Depth 23m at sand, wreck had lots orange, yellow and purple tubular sponges, small gorgonians, schools barjack & snapper, yellowfin grouper, black grouper, huge green moray, one lobster - decent fish abundance but fairly low coral/sponge diversity on a rather plain wreck. ‘Surface interval’ was return to dive shop to swap out tanks among 50 or so other divers from our and 2 adjacent dive shops. At this point we were informed for the first time that CAMERAS WERE NOT ALLOWED in the marine park. Given that this park is the top destination for divers in the country, and that one assumes a good number of divers are primarily photographers, it seemed astonishing that this restriction was not front and center on the webpages of all dive operations and communicated clearly to anyone booking a dive in the reserve. To our great relief we had only one dive booked, but could easily have been staying a week and planning to dive and photograph every day. Anyway, crammed onto a boat with 22 other divers we were dropped in on S side of Pigeon Island, and swam S and W around the island. Sloping reef with hummocks, boulders, shallow canyons, very scenic sponges and soft corals, some massive hard corals, good diversity and abundance of fish (noticeably higher than outside reserve), two fingerprint Cyphoma. We did a night dive same night on Franjack, 22 divers on a boat that comfortably could have held 10, difficult to move without stepping on someone or their equipment. Sleeping turtle, sleeping parrotfish, slipper lobster, overall rather less nocturnal activity than other night dives in Caribbean, eg St Vincent. Conclusion: the park was a lovely dive, if you’re not a keen photographer, but for more variety and peaceful dive operation I’d suggest diving with Bleue Passion, who also dive the park from their shop a few km south of the chaos of Malendure Beach.
Websites	Cente des Islets
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Belize, Panama (Coiba, Pearl Is) St Vincent and Grenadines, UK, Red Sea (Sharm), Myanmar, Sulawesi (Wakatobi), Philippines (Mindoro, Palawan), Solomons (Guadalcanal), New Zealand (Poor Knights), Papua New Guinea, west Australia
Closest Airport	Point-a-Pitre airport	Getting There	Rented car at airport, 1 hr or so drive.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	24-24°F / -4--4°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	15-20 M / 49-66 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	NO CAMERAS ALLOWED IN THE RESERVE! Sorry, but I haven’t got over this yet. Photography was allowed on Franjack wreck outside the reserve, but boat was exceptionally crowded and chances of someone stepping on a camera seemed high.

Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here

Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 11 dive reviews of Guadeloupe (Caribbean) and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

All Guadeloupe (Caribbean) Dive Reviews and Reports
Diving Guide to Guadeloupe (Caribbean)
Diving Reviews for All Dive Destinations

Want to assemble your own collection of Guadeloupe (Caribbean) reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

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.

Undercurrent Home

Page computed and displayed in 0.08 seconds

Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email. And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent
Get a free monthly email and a sample issue!

Dive Review of Cente des Islets in Guadeloupe (Caribbean)/Cousteau Marine Park/Pigeon Is

Cente des Islets: "Lovely reef but no photography in the Cousteau marine reserve!!", Mar, 2024,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Cente des Islets in
Guadeloupe (Caribbean)/Cousteau Marine Park/Pigeon Is