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Punta Cana - La Romana - Bayahibe⎜Dominican Republic
We craft tailor-made private excursions and scuba diving trips like no other!
MEET OUR FAVORITE UNDERWATER RESIDENTS AND HOW LIKELY WE ARE TO MEET THEM WHEN DIVING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC!
Say hello to our little friends!
The Cotubanamá National Park and the Punta Cana reef (in season) boast an incredible diversity of flora and fauna, both above and below sea level!
Here are some of our favorite underwater Saona and Catalina Marine Reserve residents, where they like to hang out, and how likely we are to encounter them during our adventures snorkeling and diving in the Dominican Republic...
Hawksbill, Green, and Leatherback Turtles
The most popular residents of the Dominican Republic waters love to hang out off the coast of Palmilla & Saona. By experience, we know that when diving there, there's a 50% chance to cross the path of those gentle creatures. We saw them on some rare occasions around the West Coast of Catalina and the Punta Cana reef.
Trumpet Fish
We personally love Trumpet Fish. The body shape, behavior, and various colors of this animal are fascinating. They're very common in the waters of Saona, Palmilla, and Catalina with a 99% chance of meeting them.
Personal anecdote... We once saw what maybe was a giant Blue Spotted Cornet Fish (a close cousin, but we keep thinking it was something else, some kind of magical creature...)
There are so many things we don't know and are there for us to discover! Especially what's going on at the bottom of the oceans, 70% of our planet's surface...
Southern Stingray
Another fascinating Dominican waters resident, the Southern Stingray particularly likes to hang out on the sandbank off the coast of Palmilla, at El Peñon and Acuario dive sites.
They can grow up to an impressive size and encountering a 4 to 5 feet of diameter beauty isn't uncommon!
Yellow Stingray
This tiny cousin of the Southern Stingray usually hides among the coral reef and under rock formations all around the Marine Reserve. Only need to dive "al pasito" and work on mastering your buoyancy to observe those incredible creatures.
Eagle Ray
The elusive Eagle Ray is a majestic animal that can be observed on rare occasions between Palmilla and Saona. We know a spot close to Saona, on the edge of the Catuano Channel where we crossed their path several times while diving and snorkeling.
Moray Eel
Giant, Green, and Honeycomb Morays are quite common in the Marine Reserve, with juveniles and small adults hanging out in rock cavities on the coral reef.
Large adults such as the one pictured are rarer, with a slight chance of crossing their path at the Catalina Wall.
Nurse Shark
Nurse Sharks are the most commonly encountered type of sharks around. Quite rare to admire though, the best chance to get this privilege is on the Punta Cana reef in season, and off the coast of Saona island, where they spend their days resting under rocks, being one of the few sharks species that don't have to constantly swim to oxygenate themselves.
Stone Fish
This master of camouflage is quite common though hard to spot due to its perfect disguise, giving it the appearance of the rocks they lay on while waiting for an unsuspected prey to pass by and be sucked in by its powerful jaws.
It's also the perfect reminder that you should never touch anything while scuba diving, as the spines on its body are incredibly venomous...
Spiny Lobster
Not only a local delicacy, the Caribbean Spiny Lobster is a beautiful creature quite common all around the island. They can grow up to an incredible size (up to 4 or 5 feet) and tend to be less shy during the mating season from March 1st to June 30th. Fishing them is forbidden during this period, so please don't encourage restaurants that don't respect the preservation of those essential reef residents!
Great Barracuda
One of the apex predators of the Dominican waters can be encountered quite frequently in a specific spot on the Punta Cana reef (in season), thanks to a cleaning station where they like to have their massive and sharp teeth cleaned. On rarer occasions, we can meet them coming from the blue while diving in the Marine Reserve.
Bottlenose Dolphin
Encountering those magnificent mammals underwater is like winning the lottery... So we advise you to lower your expectations. The rare occasions we crossed their path were in Punta Cana and around the Catuano channel, where seeing them playing at the surface from the boat is much more common...
Humpback Whale
The Humpback Whale season is from mid-January until the end of March. They gather each year from the cold waters of the Northern Atlantic to mate and lay their calves at the Silver Bank and the Samana Bay (North and North East of the country).
During this period scuba diving in these protected areas is forbidden. But... Some of those gentle giants often wander off the coast of Punta Cana, and we even saw (from the boat) some off the coast of Saona.
We never crossed their path underwater despite often hearing them. We once surfaced at the end of a dive just to discover that a mother and her calf were swimming 100 yards from us... 😭