TravelWorld International Magazine, Spring 2022 - Spring into Travel

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A diver swins up to a
barrel sponge protruding
from the face of a vertical
wall at Northwest Point.
A diver comes face to face with a large Nassau
Grouper beneath a section of the Dome.
Aggressor usually begins the Turks
and Caicos dive adventure by
visiting dive sites located within
Providenciales’ Northwest Point
Marine National Park at the west
end of Provo. This area offers
more than a dozen excellent dive
sites scattered along a three mile
stretch of undersea walls. These
wall dives are well known for their
magnificent formations of colorful
tube sponges, bright orange
elephant ear sponges, and massive
barrel sponges. The sponges serve as an
interesting backdrop for some of the
local residents, including eagle rays,
turtles, moray eels and reef sharks.
Even the sites selected for “checkout
dives” provide plenty of excitement. Eel
Garden is named for a large expanse
of sand in the shallows at the top of
the wall, that is home to large numbers
of garden eels. Divers like this area
because they are able to closely observe
the large southern rays and roughtail
rays that are drawn to this area to feed
Large green moray eels can be found out on the
reefs during the day in TCI, even though they are
mostly known as nocturnal hunters.
Diving in Providenciales
Octopuses are often
found in the open on
night dives at the Eel
Garden.
on the garden eels. This site is also
one of the better night dives along
Northwest Point, where divers
will regularly see octopuses and
moray eels hunting in the open.
Black jacks swim in and around
the beams of the divers’ lights,
using the illumination to help spot
their prey. Divers also frequently
encounter slipper lobsters, large
channel clinging crabs, flounders
and an incredible variety of macro
subjects in the shallow areas.
ne of the most unique dive
sites at Northwest Point is
called the “ThunderDome.”
How often do you get to
dive a site that got its name
because it used to be part of the
set for a television game show. The main
feature of this site is the “Dome,” which
was originally constructed as the focal
point of a French television game show
called “Le Tresor de Pago Pago” or The
Treasure of Pago Pago. This show was
filmed in the Turks and Caicos Islands
in 1992 and was Broadcast on French
TV in 1993 and 1994. On the TV show,
contestants had to free dive (on a single
breath of air) through a rectangular
opening in the top of the dome and
gather pearls that were “spit out” into
the water by a man-made, metal stove
pipe sponge that sat inside the dome.
The base of the structure sat on a flat
sandy bottom at a depth of 30 feet, and
the top was at a depth of 15 feet. During
the course of each contest segment, the
contestants would grab as many pearls
as possible on a single breath of air
and would receive 250 Francs for each
pearl. Fortunately, no-one died during
the show, but the show was canceled
after several contestants suffered air
embolisms or similar “dive-related”
medical issues, and had to receive
treatment at the local recompression
chamber to recover.
Although the dome collapsed during
hurricane Francis in 2004, the large
pieces of the dome scattered about the
bottom provide shelter to an incredible
variety of marine life. Divers will
encounter schools of grunt, goatfish,
schoolmasters and snapper that take
refuge beneath the sections. There is a
plethora of friendly angelfish, Nassau
grouper, squirrelfish, moray eels, and
other marine animals wandering in
and out of the protected areas of the
Dome, which seem unconcerned by
the close proximity of the divers, thus
allowing endless opportunities for
photos and video.
Schools of
grunts and
Schoolmasters
can be always
be found taking
refuge under
the scattered
sections of the
Thunderdome.
A Caribbean reef shark
patrols the wall at
Highway to Heaven.
This image of the Thunderdome was taken in
1999 prior to the structure being collapsed by
hurricane Francis in 2004.
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