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excerpted from Scuba Diving Magazine

Ready to book a live-aboard vacation? We've got the most comprehensive list of live-aboard boats on the web, from the Arctic Ocean to the Turks & Caicos islands and everything in between.

Divers exploring a water-filled sinkhole in the Bahama Islands recently recovered one of the world's largest and most pristinely preserved collections of animal and plant fossils from a tropical island.

Like a time machine, the fossils reveal in stages what ecosystems were like on the island of Abaco from periods between 12,000 to 1,000 years ago.

"Their ultra-high quality of preservation puts the fossils in a category all their own," David Steadman, who led the project and is curator of ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told Discovery News.

"The potential for future analysis involves physical as well as chemical analysis," he added before explaining that stable isotopes, or atomic particles, can show what certain species ate, allowing scientists to reconstruct entire ecosystems.

The "blue hole," called Sawmill Sink, is a water-filled void in limestone bedrock that's open at the surface. The water, depleted of oxygen, necessitated special diving equipment and methods.

By Stephen Frink | August 2007 | excerpted from Scuba Diving Magazine

Underwater, the Exumas are marked by a variety of spectactular walls. Photo by Tom Stack.

Once you get your head around the fact that the Bahamas cover 100,000 square miles of the planet and that only 5,382 square miles of that is dry land, you quickly realize that the greatest part of this island nation lies beneath the waves. Accept it: There's no way to see it all.

To help you find exactly the underwater portion of the Bahamas that suits your diving desires, we've put together an adventure guide to the best the islands have to offer. Whether you're looking for pulse-pounding shark action, bottomless blue holes, effortless drift diving or irresistible wrecks, it's just a matter of choosing an island and naming your adventure. You can save the other 99,000-plus square miles for your next trip. 

May 2007 | Excerpted from Scuba Diving Magazine

Pack your gear and grab your passport--you've gota lot of diving to do.

Destinations:

Bahamas Out Islands

Photo by Stephen Frink

Why go? From freewheeling Bimini to secluded San Salvador, the Out Islands of the Bahamas offer as many different travel experiences as there are points on the map.

How to dive it Here's a look at the most popular dive areas to help you pick the island that best suits your ideal:

• The Abacos: This horseshoe-shaped archipelago at the northeast end of the island chain offers several popular dive spots, including Marsh Harbour and Green Turtle Cay. Shallow, sunlit coral gardens make the area popular with new divers.


• Andros: This large, barely populated island offers deep wall diving and both ocean and inland blue holes to explore.


• The Biminis: Just 55 miles west of downtown Miami is a chain of small islands that sit front and center on the Gulf Stream. Come for the active shallow reefs and deep drop-offs; stay for the small-island charm.


• Cat Island: Remote shallow reefs and wall diving are found off this island in the central Bahamas.


• Eleuthera and Harbour Island: Quaint Harbour Island is the diving epicenter for its neighbor Eleuthera. Wrecks, reefs and inland blue holes--as well as the Current Cut, an exhilarating drift dive--are yours to explore.


• The Exumas: You can dive this long string of islands fronted by shallow reefs and ocean blue holes from land or by live-aboard boat.


• Long Island: Long Island offers shark diving, reefs, wrecks and day trips to the near-virgin walls of Rum Cay and Conception Island, plus miles of beaches.


• San Salvador: This island offers sheer vertical walls and a better-than-average chance of encounters with big pelagics, including hammerhead sharks.

Don't Miss The Hermitage on Mt. Alvernia. Set on a cliff on Cat Island, this picturesque monastery offers panoramic views of the island.

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