Service· Ocho Rios· Other Caribbean
Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory & Hyperbaric Chamber (UWI)
18° 28.1′ N · 77° 24.9′ W
The University of the West Indies' marine field station, founded in 1965 by Professor Thomas F. Goreau, with dive boats, air, nitrox and trimix, and Jamaica's only hyperbaric (recompression) chamber.
Practical
Position from OpenStreetMap ('Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory'). Owned and run by UWI Mona; Kaiser Bauxite donated the land in 1968. The double-lock recompression chamber treats decompression illness and is run by the lab's Diving Safety Officer; charges are on the lab's rate sheet. Gas fills are only for 'qualified users' under the lab's dive programme: it is not a public dive shop. It is primarily a research and education station (residential space for groups, labs, a summer eco-camp), so book any visit or use ahead. Contact through UWI Mona, tel (876) 927-1660-9. Make sure every diver aboard knows where it is: it is the nearest chamber to any Jamaican north-coast dive.
Best for
Diving emergencies anywhere on Jamaica's north coast
Nearby
- Discovery Bay Reef & Back-Reef Snorkel0.2 NM away
- Discovery Bay Anchorage0.6 NM away
- Rio Bueno Harbour2.4 NM away
- St. Ann's Bay Hospital11.8 NM away
- St. Ann's Bay Anchorage (Lee Reef)12.4 NM away
- Falmouth Harbour (Bush Cay)13.1 NM away
- Dunn's River & Mammee Bay Reefs (Ocho Rios Marine Park Zone B)16.1 NM away
- Dunn's River Falls16.1 NM away