one of the major attractions for the island of Saint John in the U.S Virgin Islands is the fact that it's mostly protected by the National Park Service because of this protection two-thirds of the Island's landscape is an untouched Bounty of Natural Beauty with thick Lush vegetation equally as attractive and intriguing are the waters that surround the island in fact Saint John has some of the best beaches in the Caribbean to include Trump Bay one of the top 10 beaches in the world in terms of sandy beaches probably has close to 20 25 beaches that you would consider are nice and Sandy things look this good on the surface just imagine this scenery that's why today I decided to strap on a scuba gear once again and explore the wonderful world under the water [Music] by some of the staff at Loki water sports who are going to take us on an amazing adventure so let's not waste any time let's hop on board and go diving well not so fast so before I go in the water I have to watch about a 10-20 minute video and go over a few instructions but you got to do that Safety First I'm not a certified diver and what we are going to do today is simply a discover scuba dive so this training video is absolutely important to the three things the captain would be long over expansion drowning or air problems they put the they put the the least problematic one last but you know Theo is about 10 to 15 minutes long hey I remember some of these hand signals alrighty hand signals talking underwater okay this is a question and an answer anytime I look at you I'm asking are you okay okay okay back to the present I have to focus and remember these signals okay okay thumbs up thumbs down wait go up go down no it's bad for your problem okay stop okay now I'm ready for the boat hey hi how are you I'm fine I'm Janisha good to meet you Jeremy nice to meet you guys yes very excited so what are we going to experience today oh we're gonna go do some diving you know where we're gonna die we gotta it's a beautiful day we're gonna head out just south of St Thomas to cow Rock and then we're gonna maybe head over to little St James the privately owned Island okay in between St John and St Thomas and then we'll see where it takes us from there wow let's go then let's do it all right let's do it laughs again today we'll be diving in the area known as little Saint James it's a private island about three and a half miles Southwest of Coos Bay the boat ride takes about 10 to 15 minutes to get there foreign it's a beautiful day for diving the water is calm and the weather is fantastic with me are Jeremy Forrest and Steve and of course my camera crew Jeremy and Forest both work for low-key water sports a local dive shop on St John's Steve does a lot of underwater video work for Loki oh yeah he's also an excellent diver and knows this area very well here we are at uh at cow Rock and these two rocks out here um got their name because from the shore it looks like a cow and a calf whale coming up and going down the two rocks look like the backs of the whales okay some people also say their name Cow and calf because you would never go in between the cow and the calf the mother and the daughter because that would be dangerous and here it's shallow so if you went between the two rocks you could hit the bottom in fact when President Clinton was here years ago one of two of his secret service guys they were in a um a go fast boat and they were patrolling the shores of Saint Thomas at night and they actually hit the rocks and they both were killed in the boat sank yeah and not many people know that story but that's a true story yeah and the remains of the boat are still down here according to reports the incident did happen while on patrol as part of President Bill Clinton's protection detail a criminal investigator for the U.S customs office and two others were severely injured in the crash the criminal investigator died days later as a result of the crash now a little bit about what we're going to actually do and how we're going to get in the water and everything what we'll ask you to do is sit in front of your equipment and with your equipment right behind you go ahead and put your fins on put your weight belt on maybe even weight belt first the more comfortable then put your fins on and then we'll help you to slip into the jacket will also lift up from the tank um when you're ready to get and stand up to make it a little easier to stand up and then just walk to the very back of the boat uh shuffle your feet you know uh um very small and don't take big steps like ducks walk you know we don't want you to trip and fall so just keep yourself safe just kind of shuffle your feet step down onto the swim platform and then with everything on ready to go meaning your mask on your regulator in your mouth then you just go ahead and do a giant stride entry in and what we mean by giant stride is reach out with your leg as far as you can go and just try to step on the same time okay okay so just and then you will Splash in the water and you'll barely go underwater you'll come right back to the surface this is little St James um nice little privately owned Island by a man who likes to dabble in the stock market um he's the as you can see he's put in his own Beach um nice little cow um it's fake but uh very nice Ledges on the other side of the island which we're going to be diving where lobsters eels like to hang out and play a couple of nurse sharks every once in a while so this is little St James we've got a greater St James over here and cow and calf off in the distance really really nice dive site right here the gentleman owns the island but he doesn't own the water so we get privileged the diving's absolutely amazing um there's like I said there's a nice little ledge system just on the other side um and so a lot of a lot of reef fish um like to hide underneath the ledges um and at night they like they all come out and uh and play and feed um so you we get a lot of puffer fish um lobsters eels surgeon Majors we get a lot of a lot of marine life out here we're gonna head just around the point here um to around the the west side of the island and tie up to a mooring Go Down The Mooring line and see what we can find under the water now I'm definitely excited let's get up and do some diving oh boy I must admit although I've done this before I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right about now the truth is I'm not really a water person got it the gear is on and it's time to dive in wait did I mention I'm not a water person okay okay one two three okay get your sea legs okay take a left don't cross your skis just Shuffle like a duck and when you're ready I want you to look out at St Thomas right out there and take a big okay whenever you're ready good job you all right okay now I'm extremely nervous I'm not sure if this is gonna happen today [Music] so I made it to the sea floor but this doesn't last too long today is just not my day to dive so instead Rashawn one of our crew members will step up and fill in for me led by Forest Rashawn immediately sees why this area is so special to divers the sea floor is teeming with vibrant colors of fish and corals okay either Force has a tummy ache or he sees something that he likes to eat oh in that case that makes two of us foreign [Music] s are a delicacy in some cultures but I think Forest just wants to be friends with this little fella as you can see Rashawn wants no part of it however with a little encouragement he learns to see egg won't stick him but simply stick to his hands thank you here's another Lobster and these things are sea anemones they're absolutely beautiful anemones are predatory sea dwellings named after the anemone flower there are several types of sea anemones many of them feed on small fish and shrimp which they capture using their tentacles foreign mentioned earlier the shell formations formed by the corals are great places to see schools of fish Rashawn and Forest seem to have come upon something under the Shelf [Music] hey I know this fella it's a spotted drum fish here's a fun fact spotted drums are one of 275 species belonging to the same family it is one of three that actually live in coral reefs [Music] the underwater life in this area is absolutely spectacular [Music] thank you it seems that the guys have found a spider crab family consists of 700 marine species of crabs they fall under the class crustacea they're scavengers of dead flesh dead starfish and mollusks are a part of their diet spider crabs can be found in the Atlantic as well as the Pacific regions many inhabit Rocky areas while some prefer muddy region thank you all right hey we got to a little St James and we we just got up from a dive we were we were under for almost an hour and we were swimming down there with uh seeing all kinds of fish we saw a schooling French grunts we saw a couple of lobsters um and then Rashawn pointed out a crab at the end that was really cool on the way back a big clean crab underneath the ledge uh we got some uh really nice uh experience looking at um the coral morphs which are like anemones very colorful um like little pods and pads of all these purple and green colored things that were great we saw a school of blue tangs and we swam along with the blue tanks and that was pretty cool a lot of a lot of fish down there uh then we we got to this one part where there were a bunch of uh School Masters and French grunts underneath the ledge this place is called the legends of little St James there's lots of Ledges and that's where all the fish seem to hang out they like the shade so we saw a lot of French grunts they were yellow and white striped and they're one of the bigger fish down there they were probably about that big you know that tall and they're yellowish mostly yellow a little bit White they call them School Masters because they always hang out together in groups the Highlight today was I'm getting the opportunity to touch a sea egg when you put it in your hand if I guess if you let it sit for a while it sucks onto your hand you can actually flip your hand over and it'll stay there for a while uh it looks like it's prickly so I was kind of timid and touching it um but another advisement of my director my seat director it was okay after touching it those people that have never tried scuba diving or seeing the stuff that we just saw it's an entirely different world under there it's very colorful it's very it's very psychedelic and and really weird and like you mentioned the textures of things like you might look at something and think that it's going to be soft to touch it's only to find out that it's really hard and other things you think are going to be really hard end up being soft and so it's um it's unlike anything on the on the planet um or anything on land underwater there's so many colors and the fish are so uh just Dynamic with all their different colors and everything and patterns it's uh that's that's what I think I've drove many places around the world but uh I've lived in the Caribbean now for about 25 years interestingly enough every place has its own um like special assemblage of of the different marine organisms well either the coral fish or creatures but one of the things that I find in the U.S Virgin Islands is just so many of our reefs here are shallow in St John and St Thomas that we have a lot of sunlight a lot of color especially on the underside of Ledges where the sun doesn't shine that's where the uh the really colorful encrusting sponges that are red orange yellow so we have a lot of warm colored um you know creatures Coral I should say and that makes it really colorful if you've never done this before you should definitely come out and do this this is is just a totally different world it's just amazing so I couldn't let Rashawn have all the fun so I'm gonna do something a little bit more my speed which is snorkeling and one of the top 10 beaches in the world Trunk Bay Trunk Bay is probably the most visited beach in all of the Virgin Islands uh Megan's bay may be right up there as well but I think in terms of overall people Trunk Bay is one of the most popular beaches certainly and it's been also named by National Geographic magazine as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world it is a very beautiful beach and I sheltered Bay for the most part has underwater circling Trail which is quite unique one of the first ones ever to be developed where you swim above plaques that are down at the bottom and 10 feet of water it's a natural Preserve where no fishing is allowed as well once again by Steve who will be leading us through the trail but before we do that I'm just going to enjoy this water just a little bit [Music] Trunk Bay is about two and a half miles Northeast of cruise Bay one of the two main towns on St John it is the only beach in the national park where visitors have to pay a fee to enter but believe me it's definitely worth it there's no question why this beach is so popular it's gorgeous the fluffy white sand [Music] the palm trees in a distance and of course the crystal clear water okay it's time to go on the trail about six to nine feet of water and although we're not scuba diving there are still some interesting things to see and what's even better there are signs to lead you along the trail oh how cute again people from all over the world come to Saint John to swim at Trunk Bay and snorkel the trail it's a small Trail for the underwater scenery definitely makes up for its size are incredible I hope you guys had just as much fun as I did on this episode of Rediscover St John until next time always remember and cherish your home this beautiful island but most of all cherish each other