Now you're talking about one of my passions. My wife and I have been diving since the late 70's. I studied marine biology back in the early 70's so have always had an interest in marine life and underwater photography. I started taking pictures with a Nikonos 5 in the 80's and have since moved up to a Canon 5D2 in a Subal housing.
We've dived mostly in the Caribbean, Cozumel is nice and popular with new divers since it's drift diving. A lot of larger fishes.
Belize is dependant on the winds, you either get outside of the barrier reef where it's really nice or dive inside the lagoon which is so-so.
Roatan is one of our favorites, great reefs, good quantity of marine life, but the no-see-ums can be fierce.
We've been on a few liveaboard trips when then Nekton Pilot was still around in the remote reefs of the Bahamas and the outer islands of Belize. The Bahamas are really nice if you do a liveaboard.
Another favorite is Grand Turk in the Turks & Caicos islands. Nice reef walls and very close to the beach (short boat rides).
Virgin Islands are just kinda okay.
A couple years ago we spent 2 weeks on Bonaire and found our newest favorite place. Dutch owned, good facilities, groceries, etc. Mostly shore diving so you rent a truck, pickup tanks and dive as much as you want, whenever and wherever you want. Great diving and good variety of marine life.
Check out my facebook albums for pictures of Bonaire. We are thinking of a month of Bonaire either this winter or next year.
If we ever make it to the Keys in the coach we'll dive there. I think the wreck diving in the Atlantic is kind of deep and has currents to contend with. One thing is we've given up deep diving. We find much more marine life in the shallower waters and much longer bottom times. Nitrox is your friend.
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