was recently invited to a dive convention in Singapore to present a slide show documenting my
three decades as a scuba photojournalist. As I prepared the show, the images seemed to organize
logically into several of my favorite destinations that most consistently produced iconic images.
Naturally, I included the Bahamas; I’ve traveled there more than two dozen times, both on
assignment and just for fun. A powerful visual module evolved from my many years of dive
travel throughout that nation’s 700 islands, and as the images appeared on the big screen, there was
palpable excitement among the audience.
I found it fascinating that after the slide show, when we broke into a Q&A session, almost all the interest
and specific questions from the audience were about the Bahamas. “Is the water really so clear?” “Were you afraid
to be around all those sharks?” “The beaches are so beautiful, are they actually that secluded?” They asked about
the wrecks and the reefs and the walls, genuinely curious and amazed. This seemed a little strange to me, only
because this was a group of seasoned divers who consistently booked dive holidays in their home waters of the Coral
Triangle, the acknowledged heart of marine biodiversity on the planet. The sites we in North America dream of as
exotic are the ones these residents of Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea consider quick getaways. Yet they
were mesmerized by images of a destination very near my home, just across the Gulf Stream as the frigate flies
Then it occurred to me: The things the various islands of the Bahamas offer to traveling divers are truly unique.
North Americans are lucky these islands of magic and allure are so easily accessible. After removing the rose-
colored glasses of familiarity and proximity, we find the Bahamas standing tall on its own merits, its in-water
essence replicated nowhere else.
Big.
Text and Photos by Stephen Frink
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