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Freeport has had a devastating year to overcome. It wasn’t bad enough that they experienced a disastrous hurricane but that was followed by an equally devastating tornado. Signs of the carnage are everywhere with missing roof sections and buildings ravaged. A lot of the area is still closed and needing to be rebuilt. The good news is the work is progressing and many of the shops and restaurants are already back in business. Definitely plan your trip to Freeport just expect to see some damage and some services to not be open yet. The damage even extends to underwater as well. The Seastar which has been a signature dive for the area was severely damaged. The entire stern section has been turned 90 degrees to the bow section. However, it is still intact and very diveable. In general the reefs themselves don’t appear to have suffered any damage, while the wreck of the Poppa Doc is gradually succumbing to the inevitable ravages of it’s long submersion.


	Seastar


	Poppa Doc


	She’s slowly sinking into the sand and her bow has split with a gaping hole torn the full height.

There’s a coral reclamation project getting started aimed at reseeding the area with staghorn corals. The idea is to anchor “trees” made of pvc midwater and attaching pieces of live coral to these. When the pieces mature enough they will be transferred to the reef to continue to grow. Here Arnold and Alana are testing the sand depth to see if there is enough depth to hold the anchors that the “trees” are attached to.


		The Reef



French Angel



	Trumpetfish


	The overall reef is looking healthy with plenty of marine life of most any variety you would expect to see in the Caribbean.




			Spotted Eagle Ray




		Spadefish


		Pearly Jawfish

	And of course Freeport is still one of the best places to see free swimming sharks . UNEXSO still has their famous shark dive under the capable supervision of the ‘Shark Lady’ Cristina Zenato and offers the chance to get really close to these animals. But you also will always run into several sharks on many of the dives like Poppa Doc and the Chamber.




			Up close and personal


	You can see the bite mark on this little lady’s side which is most likely from courtship which can get a little rough - especially on the girls!


	And, of course, now you can’t go diving anywhere in the Caribbean without running into the Aliens of the Pacific - the Lionfish. The only good thing you can say about these dudes is they are extremely delicious.


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