Hanover is a parish located on the northwestern tip of the island of Jamaica. It is a part of the county of Cornwall, bordered by St. James in the east and Westmoreland in the south. With the exception of Kingston, it is the smallest parish on the island. Hanover is the birth parish of Alexander Bustamante, labor leader, first head of government of Jamaica under universal suffrage, and one of seven Jamaican National Heroes. Its capital is Lucea.
Date: May 28, 2022
Depth 45ft / 13.7m
Temp: 80.6F / 27C
Our first time setting fins in Hanover waters was from a beautiful cove called Half Moon Bay, close to Green Island. It was a shore dive that we had no prior knowledge of the terrain. As a means of not going in blind, we flew the drone and got a decent layout of where the reef would be and the drop-off. From above, we realize the drop-off was going to be quite a swim (even with our scooters Cooter and Sea Cocky) so we kept it as close to the nearby reef as we could. The majority of the dive was approximately 25ft where the reef was mostly spur and groove formation. Abundant with juvenile fish, lionfish, and anemone. The reef was in decent shape with the exception of the loss of pillar coral from stony coral tissue loss disease and even more currently the massive loss of diadema (long spine sea urchins) that can only be described as a plague of the long spine black sea urchins. We observed a large number of unregulated fish traps spaced approximately 20ft apart lining the edge where the reef meets the sand. Overall, it's a fun dive and snorkeling/freediving site, however, quite disappointing to see another beautiful location in Jamaica plagued by overfishing.