Friday, February 14, 2025, 9:13AM |  23°
MENU
Advertisement
Through a porthole of the Atlantis, tourists can see a diver sprinkling dog food to attract fish off Saint Martin in the Caribbean Sea.
2
MORE

Marine life in the Caribbean Sea as viewed from a submarine

Si Liberman

Marine life in the Caribbean Sea as viewed from a submarine

IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA — Snorkelers or scuba divers we’re not, but we recently spent at least two hours under water examining ghostly reef habitats and their squirmy sea life in waters off Barbados and Saint Martin.

My wife, Dorothy, and I did it the easy way. We booked submarine excursions – one of which took us to a depth of 140 feet off the western edge of Barbados — during an eight-day southern Caribbean cruise.

First, we looked through porthole windows below the deck of the Explorer, a 70-foot semi-submersible sub. We joined a chorus of a couple dozen tourists oohing and aahing as a diver swam around the vessel seemingly wrapped in a smorgasbord of quivering fish.

Advertisement

The scuba diver, one of three Saint Martin crew members, used fish and dog food to lure the scaly critters into the amazing embrace. Another crewman steered the vessel, and a third, using a microphone, described and elaborated on what came into view.

It was part of a 3½-hour tour ($49 per person) of St. Maarten, the Dutch section of the island, and Saint Martin, the French side.

“We may have different languages and governments,” the tour bus driver explained, “but we’re the same people.” 

While coasting over a reef about 10 feet below the surface, we saw the lazy approach of a black stingray.

Advertisement

“Not a very mature one,” the female crew member said.

It looked like a harmless, flapping kite with a tail. That bony tail can inflict severe injury, however. To tropical islanders, rays are devil fishes capable of growing into 10- or 15-foot monsters.

After sizing up our mechanical monster, the stingray gracefully turned and retreated into deeper and darker waters.

“To your left, 10 o’clock, see it? A sea turtle,” the crew member enthused. “Here, here it comes.”

We barely caught sight of the creature, about the size of a beach ball, as it floated away.

“Almost everything you see on the bottom is alive, those fluttering plants, the orange coral, everything,” she continued.

“This is a protected area. Small fish make their home and hide from predators among the coral. If you dive. don’t ever touch the yellow stain you see on those rocks. It’s acidy and can be very painful.”

The last time we had seen colorful angelfish and sergeant majors they were in an aquarium. Now in their tropical natural habitat, we watched as the 6-inch yellow-tailed angels and majors with their impressive vertical black stripes foraged for their next meal.

Female angelfish, we learned, sometimes become males as they mature. After depositing eggs, females usually move on, leaving the stronger males to fertilize and protect them. It’s one of Mother Nature’s methods of self-preservation.

Still curious and emboldened by the semi-submersible sub experience, we opted for a 2½-hour tour ($95 each) on a real submarine the next day in Barbados. It promised marine views up to 150 feet below the surface.

The excursion boat captain assured his passengers as we neared the submarine a couple miles offshore: “Been doing this for 16 years, and we’ve never lost a tourist yet.”

Nearly 50 of us cautiously stepped off the boat onto the cigar-shaped Atlantis submarine. Facing backward, we then climbed down a ladder into its air-conditioned, pressurized interior. As in the semi-submersible sub, we found ourselves in back-to-back seats in front of porthole windows with adjacent color charts of fish species.

This time, however, we were in the hands of a two-man crew – the pilot who faced a large bubble-shaped window in the front and a lecturer in the rear whose accent and staticky microphone were of little help. We missed much of what was said.

Thousands of bubbles poured from the sub as we descended into the deep. After a few minutes, we passed a barnacle-encrusted sunken ship much larger than our 65-foot submarine. It appeared to be parked on a reef. The year of the vessel’s demise and fate of its crew remain a mystery.

At 140 feet, the ocean bottom resembled a barren desert. A school of yellowtail snappers came by as did a swarm of 6-inch blue fish and other small fish we had also observed off Saint Martin. Here and there, we spotted brain coral the size of basketballs, and a 2-foot barracuda made a brief appearance.

Sharks, grouper and other large inhabitants were nowhere to be seen, but flora and fauna adorned the ocean floor.

Both the Atlantis submarine in Barbados and the semi-submersible one in Saint Martin are owned by the same Canadian private company, Atlantis Submarines International Inc. Founded by Dennis Hurd, a former designer of submersibles for North Sea oil rigs, the company builds and operates the submarines. Its fleet of 12 recreational subs caters to tourists in Hawaii, Grand Cayman, Aruba, Guam, St. Thomas and Cozumel, Mexico.

Hurd, president and CEO, launched Atlantis in 1983 with $3 million stitched together from friends and relatives. and claims to have exposed portions of the undersea world to 12 million passengers during its 29 years of operation.

Upon disembarking in Bridgetown, Barbados, passengers were handed dive certificates, designating each of us an “Atlantis Submariner.”

Like those sergeant majors, we felt we had earned our stripes.

Si Liberman, 98, is the retired editor of the Asbury Park Sunday Press.

First Published: January 29, 2023, 11:00 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (1)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
The Three Sisters’ bridges are suspended over the Allegheny River as the sun rises over Downtown and PNC Park on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.
1
business
SEA board approves slew of stadium upgrades for Steelers, Pirates, Penguins; Pittsburgh tourism reaches 2019 levels
During a Tuesday, Feb. 11, press appearance, Elon Musk mentioned the Iron Mountain storage facility in Butler County, pictured in this 2016 photo.
2
news
What is the Butler County mine Elon Musk mentioned in a White House appearance?
Hockey legend Mario Lemieux hands Canada forward Sidney Crosby a commemorative banner prior to the first period of 4 Nations Face-Off hockey action against Sweden in Montreal, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
3
sports
Jason Mackey: Fenway Sports Group's tepid relationship with Mario Lemieux must improve
Competitors in the Flagship Ice Open wait to get started in the predawn darkness on Feb. 1. The event drew 51 two-person teams.
4
life
Lake Erie ice fishing tournament pulls in over 100 anglers and a 2.17-pound yellow perch
A cutout batter sits in the bullpen at Pirate City, the spring training facility of the Pittsburgh Pirates, during a spring training baseball workout in Bradenton, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015.
5
sports
Joe Starkey: Bad news Pirates outdid themselves on Day 1
Through a porthole of the Atlantis, tourists can see a diver sprinkling dog food to attract fish off Saint Martin in the Caribbean Sea.  (Si Liberman)
The submarine Atlantis takes tourists on underwater tours of the Caribbean Sea off Barbados.  (Si Liberman)
Si Liberman
Advertisement
LATEST life
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story