Diving in Statia: A Photographer’s Guide to St. Eustatius

Diving in Statia

By William Drumm, underwater photographer and ocean ambassador

Statia is eight square miles of Dutch Caribbean that almost nobody has heard of. It sits between St. Kitts and Saba with a dormant volcano at one end, about 3,200 people, one small airport, and a coastline ringed with healthy reef, a 327 foot shipwreck, and colonial artifacts lying in the sand where they were dropped 250 years ago.

I had never heard of St. Eustatius before I was sent there. I have now been twice, on assignment with Golden Rock Resort, Scuba Diving International and Cressi, and it has become one of my favourite places in the Caribbean to put a camera in the water. This is everything I know about diving it.

Why Statia Is the Caribbean’s Most Underrated Dive Destination

Divers heading to the Caribbean default to Bonaire, Cayman or Cozumel. Statia almost never makes the shortlist, and that is precisely why it is still good.

The island is tiny, visitor numbers are low, and the dive sites sit inside a marine park that has been actively managed since 1996. The result is reef that feels less trafficked and more alive than a lot of the Caribbean. Groups are small. Nobody is racing you along a wall. On most dives you will not see another boat.

Where Is Statia (St. Eustatius)?

Statia sits at roughly 17.49°N, 62.97°W in the northeastern Caribbean, in the Lesser Antilles, about 9 miles north of St. Kitts and 17 miles southeast of Saba. It is a special municipality, or public body, of the Netherlands, which means it is part of the Kingdom without being a province of it. Total area is 8.1 square miles. Population is around 3,200.

The BES Islands

Statia is one of three islands known collectively as the Caribbean Netherlands, or the BES Islands: Bonaire, Eustatius and Saba. All three are public bodies of the Netherlands rather than constituent countries like Aruba or Curacao. The grouping became official in 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. They use the US dollar and share broadly similar entry requirements, which makes stringing two or three of them together into one dive trip refreshingly simple. Bonaire is the famous one. Saba has the walls. Statia has the wrecks and the quiet.

Getting there

There is one airport, F.D. Roosevelt Airport (EUX), and it is served by Winair from St. Maarten (SXM). The flight is under twenty minutes in a small aircraft and the schedule is limited, so most divers connect through SXM and overnight there on at least one end of the trip. There is no direct international service to Statia and no ferry. Check the current Winair schedule before you book anything, because it moves.

A Small Island With an Outsized History

In 1776 Statia became the first foreign territory to formally salute the flag of the United States, when the guns of Fort Oranje answered a salute from the American brig Andrew Doria. The island was one of the busiest trading ports in the world at the time, a free port selling arms and goods to anyone with money, including a set of rebelling colonies.

That history is still on the seafloor. Divers routinely find glass bottles, ceramic shards, ballast stones and anchors around the old anchorage. The blue trade beads, used as currency in the colonial era, still turn up in the sand near the harbour. Statia is one of the very few places where a shore dive doubles as an archaeological site.

What the Diving Is Like

Sites are a 5 to 30 minute boat ride from town, and depths run roughly 30 to 100 feet. Visibility swings hard depending on conditions, with the leeward side usually the clearer water.

The first dive of my second trip was a mediocre one on paper. Visibility was 40 to 60 feet and the water was green. We still saw stingrays crossing the sand, soft corals working in the current, barrel sponges the size of oil drums, and morays folded into the rock. A few lionfish, which are the one thing here nobody is happy to see. The other group, on a different site, spent the dive with a reef shark.

The next dive, at the Aquarium, was a different planet. Eighty to a hundred feet of visibility and reef in every direction. Yellow filefish, a pufferfish, a lobster wedged inside a barrel sponge, and a green turtle grazing seagrass with total indifference to the four of us. Then a Caribbean reef squid came drifting down out of the blue, slowly enough that I could swim alongside and watch the chromatophores fire across its skin. At one point it lifted two tentacles and swam backwards, doing a passable impression of a cuttlefish.

That is Statia. Uneven, occasionally green, and then it hands you something you have never seen before.

Statia’s Best Dive Sites

There are more than 30 mapped sites around an island you can drive across in fifteen minutes. These are the ones worth planning around.

• The Aquarium. Named, like every Caribbean site called the Aquarium, for the visibility and the density of life. Turtles, reef squid, lobster, filefish, pufferfish. The best photography site on the island.
• Charles L. Brown. The big wreck. Details below.
• Chien Tong. The second wreck. A 170 foot Taiwanese trawler put down in Orange Bay as an artificial reef, sitting upright in around 80 feet. Horse eye jacks, barracuda and southern stingrays, and eagle rays overhead when there is current. It is also the best night dive on the island, because the green and hawksbill turtles come in to sleep on it.
• Anchor Point. Named for the colonial anchors still embedded in the rock. Shallow, artifact heavy, and a strong second dive.
• Crook’s Castle. Named for a 17th century smuggler’s warehouse on the shore above it. Coral reef with the occasional eagle ray.
• Hangover Reef. A long ridge down the leeward side with consistent hard and soft coral cover.
• Double Wreck. The remains of two 18th century cargo ships in about 60 feet of water, with two and a half centuries of reef built up over them.

The Charles L. Brown

The Charles L. Brown, which everyone calls the Charlie Brown, is a 327 foot cable laying ship built in Italy in 1954 and deliberately sunk off Statia in 2003 as an artificial reef. It lies in roughly 80 to 100 feet of water and it is one of the largest and most photogenic wrecks in the eastern Caribbean.

It is big enough that you cannot see it all in one dive, and intact enough that the interior is genuinely interesting. Two decades underwater have covered it in growth and filled it with fish. Swimming a corridor of it with a light, and finding something large already in there with you, is the sort of thing you go diving for.

Bring Advanced Open Water if you have it. The depth and the current here reward experience, and the shops will check your card before they put you on it.

Sea Turtles in Statia

Statia is one of the more dependable Caribbean islands for turtles. Green and hawksbill turtles are both common, resting on the reef or feeding in the seagrass beds, and the seagrass is the reason. Those beds also support conch, juvenile fish and a long list of species that quietly need them.

What is unusual here is how relaxed the animals are. You can settle in a few metres away and stay for several minutes while a turtle keeps eating, which almost never happens in places where turtles get chased. I have spent whole dives at the Aquarium doing nothing else.

Everything Else in the Water

Beyond the turtles and the wreck: southern stingrays and eagle rays over the sand, barracuda hanging in the blue, Caribbean reef squid, moray eels, lobster, and reef sharks often enough that you should not be surprised, but not so often that you should count on it.

Lionfish are the exception to all of it. They are invasive, they eat everything small, and the local divers cull them. If a guide disappears with a spear mid dive, that is what is happening.

Dive Shops on Statia

There are two long established operations, plus the resort’s own.

Scubaqua Dive Center is a five star centre in town that has been running on Statia for close to three decades, and its staff have been voted among the best in the Caribbean by Scuba Diving readers. Golden Rock Dive Center is the other long running shop on the island. Golden Rock Resort also runs its own operation, Statia Divers, for guests staying at the property.

All of them run small groups with calm briefings and guides who know the sites in detail. Statia does not have a cattle boat problem, and given the size of the island it is unlikely to develop one.

Above Water: Hiking the Quill

The Quill is a dormant volcano at the south end of the island, rising 1,972 feet, which makes it the second highest mountain in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. That is a better piece of trivia than it has any right to be.

The climb takes about 90 minutes. From the rim you can drop another 45 minutes down into the crater, which holds a self contained rainforest: sandbox trees, hanging vines, ferns, and a flat crater floor that feels nothing like the dry scrub you walked up through. Coming out of the water in the morning and standing inside a volcano in the afternoon is a strange way to spend a day, in the best sense.

Bring water. Wear real shoes, not flip flops. Start early, because the trail is unpleasant in midday heat and slick after rain.

Where to Stay

Golden Rock Dive and Nature Resort is the island’s luxury property, built into the hillside between the interior and the sea, off grid, with an infinity pool over the water. I have worked with them on both trips, photographing the grounds, the dive operation and the reef.

What made those assignments easy is that the conservation angle is not marketing. STENAPA, the national parks foundation, monitors what happens above and below the water on Statia, and the resort operates inside that. There is also the Old Gin House in town, a long standing property near the waterfront, if a smaller and more historic base suits you better.

A Photographer’s Take on Statia

Both trips left me with the same impression. This is a place that rewards people who care about depth over volume. There is no tourist strip, no crowded pier, no queue at the mooring line. It is a small island with good reef, a working volcano, a ludicrous amount of history for its size, and a pace that has largely disappeared from the Caribbean.

If you want a dive trip that feels more like going somewhere than going on holiday, Statia does that better than almost anywhere I have been.

If you want more Caribbean and Atlantic diving, I have written about what the Bermuda Triangle actually looks like underwater, and if you are heading the other direction, the Cabo Pulmo guide covers the best conservation story in the Sea of Cortez. Prints from these trips are in the shop, and a portion of every sale goes to marine conservation.

Related Images

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Frequently Asked Questions About Diving in Statia

Where is St. Eustatius?

Statia sits in the northeastern Caribbean, in the Lesser Antilles, between St. Kitts to the south and Saba to the northwest. It is a special municipality, or public body, of the Netherlands, about 8 square miles with a population of roughly 3,200. The nearest international airport is on St. Maarten (SXM), and Winair flies the short hop to F.D. Roosevelt Airport (EUX) on Statia in under 20 minutes.

What are the BES Islands, and is Statia one of them?

Yes. Statia is one of three islands known as the BES Islands, or the Caribbean Netherlands: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. All three are special municipalities, or public bodies, of the Netherlands rather than constituent countries like Aruba or Curacao. They use the US dollar and share similar entry requirements, which makes a multi island Caribbean Netherlands trip straightforward to plan. The grouping became official in 2010 when the Netherlands Antilles dissolved.

Is St. Eustatius good for diving?

Yes, and it is one of the most underrated dive destinations in the Caribbean. Statia has more than 30 mapped dive sites, a marine park actively managed since 1996, healthy reefs, several wrecks, dependable sea turtle encounters and very few divers. The sites suit everyone from newly certified divers to experienced wreck divers.

What dive shops are on Statia?

The two long standing operations are Scubaqua Dive Center, a five star centre that has been on the island for close to three decades, and Golden Rock Dive Center. Golden Rock Resort also runs its own dive operation, Statia Divers, for guests. All of them run small groups. There is no cattle boat diving here.

What is the Charles L. Brown wreck?

The Charles L. Brown, usually just called the Charlie Brown, is a 327 foot former cable laying ship built in 1954 and deliberately sunk off Statia in 2003 as an artificial reef. It sits in roughly 80 to 100 feet of water and is one of the largest and most photogenic wrecks in the eastern Caribbean.

What marine life can you see diving in Statia?

Green and hawksbill turtles, Caribbean reef squid, southern stingrays, eagle rays, barracuda, moray eels, lobster, enormous barrel sponges, soft corals and the full range of Caribbean reef fish. Reef sharks turn up regularly, though not on every dive. Invasive lionfish are present and actively managed by local divers.

What is the best time to dive Statia?

Diving is good year round. Conditions are usually best from December through May. Hurricane season runs June through November, with the highest risk in August and September. Water temperature stays between about 78 and 84F, so a 3mm wetsuit is enough in any season.

Do I need a special certification to dive Statia?

No. A standard Open Water certification covers most sites, and Advanced Open Water is useful for the deeper wreck dives such as the Charles L. Brown. Shops accept all the major certification agencies. A small marine park fee is collected on every dive and it funds reef management.

How do I get to Statia?

Fly into St. Maarten (SXM), then take a Winair flight to F.D. Roosevelt Airport (EUX) on Statia. The flight is under 20 minutes. Schedules are limited and there is no direct international service and no ferry, so build in buffer time and expect to overnight in St. Maarten on at least one end of the trip.

What else is there to do on Statia besides diving?

Hike the Quill. It is a dormant volcano rising 1,972 feet at the south end of the island, which makes it the second highest mountain in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The climb takes roughly 90 minutes and you can descend into the crater, which holds its own rainforest. Oranjestad has the 1776 fort, colonial ruins and the island’s trade bead history.

Is Statia good for underwater photography?

It is excellent. The water at sites like the Aquarium can open up to 80 to 100 feet of visibility, the turtles are unusually relaxed around divers, the Charles L. Brown gives you a large wreck with good light, and the colonial artifacts on the seafloor are unlike anything else in the Caribbean. Both main shops are used to working with photographers and will slow the pace down if you ask.