Dominica does not have any wrecks to speak of. A couple of old tugboats don't really count. But this could soon change. Along the shoreline are a number of ships stranded by my friend Lenny and other hurricanes of the past. The National Development Corporation and Minister of Tourism are aware that they are a bit unsightly and one solution favoured by local dive businesses is to sink them as artificial reefs.
Meanwhile, the Castaways dive centre on the central west coast has just begun
its own artificial reef project using concrete “reef balls”. These hollow
honeycomb blocks are cast in concrete and laid along the sand off the beach in
front of the resort.
Earlier this year 2 batches of 12 or so balls were cast and sunk, with more to follow. The objective is to lay a continuous chain across the sand to the reef crest 200 metres out to sea.
I did not have a chance to dive on them, but have been informed
that fish and octopus have already set up home.
More about reef balls and the reef ball coalition