Saba Island

Saba Island is a small rocky island off St. Thomas that gives its name to an intermediate dive site whose character combines accessible rocky reef diving with the intermediate-level conditions that make the site more interesting and productive than the purely beginner sites in the more sheltered nearby waters. The island sits in a position of modest current exposure, and this exposure brings the biological richness that flowing water delivers to any reef it visits consistently. The dive at Saba Island follows the rocky base of the islet in the typical fashion of Virgin Islands island diving — the substrate descending from the surface over boulders and coral formations to the sandy base at intermediate depth. The current exposure has influenced the community composition in predictable ways: filter feeders are more numerous and better developed than on the calmer sites, the gorgonian sea fans are larger and more numerous, and the fish assemblages include more of the mid-water schooling species that use current zones as feeding areas. Fish life around Saba Island is notably more pelagic in character than the sheltered bay sites. Horse-eye jacks form circling formations in the current zone off the island's more exposed face. Creole wrasse sweep along the reef face in the enormous schools for which they are famous in the Virgin Islands. The schooling species attract the predators that follow them — barracuda are regular presences at Saba Island, and the open water beyond the island occasionally provides reef shark sightings for divers who keep their eyes directed outward from the reef. The coral formations on the island's more sheltered faces are in good condition, with the variety of hard coral species typical of a healthy Virgin Islands reef under reasonable protection. Large parrotfish feed across the coral surfaces. Moray eels occupy the deeper crevices in the rock formations. The combination of current-influenced fish activity on the exposed side and calmer reef observation on the sheltered side makes Saba Island a site with two distinct experiences within a single dive — a quality that gives intermediate divers a reason to plan multiple visits.