St. Eustatius · Caribbean Netherlands · Reef
The Humps
Coral-covered lava bombs standing out of white sand at 16 m
Area photo: SV Zanshin · CC BY-SA 3.0
Coral-covered lava bombs and fingers standing out of white sand at the southern end of the island, dived to 16 m. The contrast between dark, overgrown rock and open sand is the character of the site, and it is shallow and gentle enough to work as either a straightforward reef dive or a slow macro dive.
Where it is and how deep
17.4623° N, 62.9755° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The seabed here is white sand with lava bombs and fingers of old flow sitting on it, all of them covered in coral. Sixteen metres is the deepest it gets, so the dive is a matter of moving between the raised rock and the open sand rather than managing a profile, and the contrast between the two is what the site is named for.
It works at two speeds. Divers new to the island can swim the humps as a straightforward reef tour, and photographers can spend the whole tank on one or two of them; Scubaqua recommends the site for macro photography for exactly that reason. It sits inside the marine reserve at the south end of the island, on the same stretch of coast as the deeper wall dives.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime |
Season follows St. Eustatius: December to April is the drier stretch; August and September carry the hurricane peak, and diving may pause in September.
Questions divers ask
How deep is The Humps?+
The maximum is 16 m, which makes it an Open Water site with a long, unhurried bottom time.
Sources
- St. Eustatius Dive Sites — Scubaqua
- Humps - Dive Site — PADI
More dive sites in St. Eustatius
Reef
A coral-covered French anchor of the 1750s, hooked into the reef
Reef
Barracuda over a volcanic mini-wall, in groups of five to twenty
Reef
A small coral island with a vertical wall, to 19 m
Muck & macro
Seventeenth-century Dutch beads in the sand at 17 m
Wreck
A 100 m cable layer with a 40 m cable corridor through her hull
Wreck
A 52 m Taiwanese trawler, top at 15 m and seabed at 27 m
Reef
Ballast fused into the shape of a ship, and two anchors at 18 m
Wall
An almost vertical drop at the island's southern tip
Similar dives elsewhere
Coral heads standing 8 m off the sand, full of swim-throughs
Coral ridges in north-south lines with sand lanes between
Up to ten reef sharks over a 15 m patch reef
Short boat ride to a varied reef no deeper than 18 m (60 ft)