All activities / Scuba Diving / Alice Town
Scuba Diving in Alice Town
The main settlement on North Bimini, the Bahamian island group closest to Florida, strung along a narrow key between the Gulf Stream and a shallow lagoon. Each winter its dive boats run one of the world's most reliable great hammerhead shark encounters, alongside reef sharks, wild dolphins and the Sapona wreck.
Why here
Bimini is where you dive with great hammerheads. From late autumn to spring, huge great hammerhead sharks, some over four metres long, gather in the shallows off North Bimini, and dive boats out of Alice Town put divers on the sand in about six metres of water to watch them sweep past at arm's length. It is one of the rarest big-shark encounters on the planet and among the most dependable, run in bright, shallow water rather than the deep blue. Bimini backs the hammerheads with a full season of diving: Caribbean reef and nurse sharks, stingray dives, the sunken hull of the SS Sapona standing out of the water since a 1920s hurricane, and wild Atlantic spotted dolphins that ride the boats' bow wake on the bank. The island sits right on the edge of the Gulf Stream a short hop from Florida, which is how it became a sportfishing and diving legend, and why the shark diving here is both world-class and easy to reach.
Best months
Great hammerhead safaris run only in the cool season, roughly November to April, with the peak in January and February; outside that window the hammerheads are gone but reef shark, wreck and dolphin diving continue. The hammerhead dive is shallow, around six metres, so bottom time is long, but it is a baited encounter with very large animals and operators enforce strict positioning. Wild dolphin trips are snorkel encounters on the shallow bank and depend on sightings. Water is warm and generally clear; winter can bring wind that shifts trips to sheltered sites.
Getting there & around
Bimini is one of the easiest Out Islands to reach, a short flight or fast ferry from the Florida coast, or a hop from Nassau, and the dive shops sit at the marinas in Alice Town on North Bimini. Hammerhead season is winter, so book dives and rooms together well ahead for the January to February peak, when demand is high and daily group sizes are capped. Bring certification cards for fun diving; wild dolphin trips are snorkel-based and open to non-divers.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Bimini Undersea
OutfitterBimini Undersea is a long-running water-sports and dive center on North Bimini, established by Bill and Nowdla Keefe, best known for its wild dolphin excursions, which it has run since 1996 with a documented high success rate at finding Atlantic spotted dolphins on the shallow bank. It also offers scuba diving, snorkeling, SNUBA, and kayak and paddleboard trips, and dives the reef and wreck sites off Bimini.
Neal Watson's Bimini Scuba Center
OutfitterNeal Watson's Bimini Scuba Center operates from the Bimini Big Game Club in Alice Town on North Bimini and was the first operator on the island to run great hammerhead safaris, in the cool season from about November to April. Named for diving pioneer Neal Watson, the center runs a fleet of around ten boats, including a sixty-foot glass-bottom vessel, and dives reef sharks, stingrays, the Sapona wreck and wild dolphins alongside the hammerheads.