Business View Caribbean | Volume 9, Issue 3

34 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 there’s a dive site you can swim to from our beach, you can dive right off of our beach, or snorkel. It’s ideal.” With 86 dive sites around the island, Harbour Village attracts diving and snorkeling enthusiasts from near and far. The resort’s five- star services including a complimentary diving and snorkeling concierge service, that makes diving a breeze. Guests’ dive equipment is ready and waiting for them on the boat, then carried back, rinsed and stored for the next dive. Other activites include scheduled boat dives and snorkel trips, personalized diving instruction, private guides, and boat charters. The resort also provides kayaks and paddle boards for those who would prefer to explore the water from above. Reef restoration is an ongoing priority at Harbour Village, and was continued throughout the pandemic, when the resort was closed for business. Gonzalez reports that during this time new fish life appeared, and turtles began nesting on the beach. Coral restoration efforts, which have been happening for 10 years were also continued. She explains, “We have 10 underwater coral restoration trees. The “trees” are constructed of PVC piping that are used to hang at-risk coral. The coral is grown there and maintained by our dive shop staff and guests, and then transplanted back to the house reef.” A new ocean temperature monitoring system was recently added and the resort also updated an underwater reef camera. “We have an electrified reef project and installed a reef cam in 2015 whose live feed is visible on the web,” says Gonzalez. Guests are able to work towards a specialty dive certification in reef restoration if they are already dive certified. “One of our dive masters holds a weekly reef chat at the hotel,” Gonzalez adds. “We try to educate the guests, and many of them, if they don’t get the specialties, they’ll just come and help us, because they want to help to maintain the beauty of the reef.”