Dive Review of Belize Aggressor III/N/A in
Belize/Turneffe and Lighthouse

Other Belize reports
Subscriber Content Preview
Active subscribers go here

Belize Aggressor III/N/A: "BELIZE AGGRESSOR III REVIEW", Jul, 2023, by NEAL LANGERMAN, CA, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 12512.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The Belize Aggressor III is one of a pair of liveaboard boats operating from Belize City. They dive sites around Turneffe Atoll and Lighthouse Reef, including The Great Blue Hole. The diving at both these atolls is excellent, with every site offering a wide variety of corals, fish, and invertebrates. Sharks, stingrays, and eagle rays are common along walls. The Aggressor III has a maximum dive depth of 110 feet (37 meters), except for The Great Blue Hole dive, for which 140 foot (45 meters) excursions were common. Nitrox at 31-32% was used for all dives, except The Great Blue Hole, for which tanks were filled with a 23-25% mix. A “return to the boat with 500 psi” rule was used and generally respected. The water was a comfortable 83-84oF (28.5-29.5oC), but a 2-3mm wetsuit helped with the chill of 20 – 24 dives over the 5-1/2 days of diving. The two atolls are near the middle of the Mesoamerican Reef. Their rich flora and fauna make them distinct from the southern end of the reef around Roatan and the current-swept northern end off Cozumel. Exploring the entire Mesoamerican Reef requires diving in all three regions. All dives from the Aggressor III were from the boat and were “out and back” dives. A crew member was in the water and swam a circuitous route usually along a wall at around 80 feet (23 meters) for 25-30 minutes and then meandering back to the boat in 25-35 foot (8 -12 meters) for a total dive time of 45-60 minutes. The crew was clear that they were not your guides or buddies. They dove with cameras and clearly were interested in shooting, not your dive profile or status. I made it clear that I would focus on my photography, not navigation and I would rely on them to guide me back to the boat. This dichotomy worked and the crew really did provide a modicum of guide support. Several of the crew were exceptional at pointing out interesting photo subjects. I have been diving extensively in the middle of the Mesoamerican reef for the past four years. I know the waters around both atolls and I know what to expect for both diving and photography. The Aggressor III took us to several sites which were close to familiar sites but revealed more of the richness of the Reef. Four dives were done on the west side of Turneffe Atoll and all others at Lighthouse Reef. Dives at Lighthouse were either on the west side of Long Caye or on the east side of Half Moon Caye. The latter are my favorite sites of the entire Reef. Accommodations were adequate. My wife and I had an upper deck cabin with a small queen-sized bed. While comfortable, the cabin was not conducive to hanging out. The galley sitting area was filled with comfortable couches and chairs. There also was a table with 120-volt power that I used to download files from my cameras every evening. The dining room was well-appointed, comfortable, and more than roomy for the eight passengers onboard. The dive deck was roomy and typical of Aggressor layouts. Each diver station had a tank kit-well, a large storage area, and a hanger rack. Every two stations had a fill whip which made filling tanks between dives fast and efficient. The typical day was two morning dives, lunch, two afternoon dives, dinner, and a night dive. For me, four dives a day was more than adequate. PHOTOGRAPHY The boat has a large camera table positioned central to the dive deck. There is a second large shelf set up for battery charging. Batteries were only allowed to be charged when people were present in the area. All chargers were powered down at 2200 hours and brought back online at 0500 hours. I had no trouble keeping my Ikelite D160 batteries, my two video light batteries, my Nikon D500 batteries, and my Hero10 batteries charged. I strongly recommend that all chargers and batteries clearly show your name, as things can become confusing with several shooters charging devices. No unattended charging was allowed in cabins. These life safety rules are a direct result of the lessons learned from the Conception tragedy. The dive deck also had a very large camera rinse tank. The tank was restricted to rinsing camera and computers and the water was changed at least twice during the trip. The crew was great in handling cameras, including my large combined DSLR and video kit. Often a crew member would take it from me while doing my safety stop and transfer it to a deck person. It would be rinsed and often placed on the camera table. As a serious shooter, the camera set-up on Aggressor III was exceptional. As a sidenote, the Aggressor IV had two small camera tables and a small rinse tank. Had I booked IV, I would have been very unhappy. FOOD The master chef, Bernard, was exceptional beyond description. Every meal was a work of culinary art. The taste, textures, and presentation were world-class. His dinners would certainly earn a 5-star Michelin rating. And he was an incredible, personable man. Breakfast was a combination of a light bread and fruit offering plus a typical what you want offering. Lunch was a combination of a buffet and served platter. Lunch always began with a wonderful soup. I do wish Bernard would adopt the insulated bowls of the Roatan Aggressor for soup service, which assure a really hot soup service. Dinner was a formal sit-down service, and every meal was a gourmet delight. The menu, flavors, textures, and presentation were what I expect in the best restaurants of the world. The crew, acting as servers, achieved exactly the right degree of attention. It is hard to imagine that such gourmet service was presented on a liveaboard, but Bernard did it. THE CREW The crew was professional, efficient, friendly, and highly competent, with a singular exception. By way of background, I have done about a dozen Aggressors and several hundred live-aboard trips. While I try to be easy-going, I will come down hard when my expectations are not met. Chef Bernard, Sous-chef Venessa, Dive Master Pablo, Engineer Fermin, Dive Assistant Randy, and Boat Safety Officer Edward were everything I expect from Aggressor crew members. I cannot say the same for Captain Daniel. Perhaps it was a personality conflict, but neither my wife nor I connected with him in a positive manner. He was authoritarian, opinionated, and lacked crew to passenger management skill. His in-your-face, I-told-you-so style of passenger interaction was deficient in basic human interaction. If I were the franchise owner, Daniel would not be an employee. While he mellowed as the trip went on and a bit of a pleasant persona emerged, you could never escape the “Captain role” he maintained. At one point, as I considered how to open a discussion of his domineering approach to my wife, I decided to use a “Captain, may I have permission to speak freely” approach. Circumstances developed that I did not need to do this, but it reflects how I reacted to him. Even as I disembarked, I could not bring myself to thank him for the quality of the trip. I was seriously disappointed by Captain Daniel. A Belize Aggressor staff-person, not a crew member, was Liz. She arranged boat to airport transport. She typically schedules a late morning and early afternoon run to the airport. However, there is a very late afternoon American flight to DFW which doesn’t work well with these two runs. When we boarded, I told her I wanted to be at the airport at about 1400 hours for a 1700 departure. She pushed back and we finally agreed to deal with it at the end of the trip. On Friday, she offered us the choice of an 11:30 or a 15:30 departure to the airport. Neither were acceptable to me, and I again informed her I wanted to be at the airport at 1400 hours. Angry words were exchanged. I told her I was willing to pay for a taxi myself at the time I wanted, but she pointedly ignored this repeated offer. The Aggressor Fleet does not have the right to cause me stress and Liz violated this. She is not an asset to the franchise or the Fleet. As an aside, the sister vessel to this boat, the Belize Aggressor IV, operated in concert with the III. The two boats were always within visual distance of each other. As we came to learn, the IV had several mechanical issues, including failure of both its compressors. This strongly suggests an ineffective preventive maintenance program. The franchise owner would be well-advised to fix this before the franchise’s reputation suffers. I am glad we did this trip to the central portion of the Mesoamerican Reef on the Aggressor III. The week was enjoyable in all respects. I would do it again.
Websites	Belize Aggressor III
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	All of continental USA; Caribbean, Gulf, Sea of Cortez, Eastern & Western Pacific & more
Closest Airport	Belize City	Getting There	Easy connections from most major hubs in US and EU
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	28-30°C / 82-86°F	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-50 M / 98-164 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Return with >500 psi; maximum depth 110 feet (33.5 meters)
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	See review. Camera table excellent; Crew handling of cameras very good.

Subscriber's Comments

By Diane Nash in VA, US at Aug 18, 2023 22:19 EST

I agree with Mr. Langerman about the maintenance not being addressed enough. We were on Aggressor IV when they lost the compressors and we lost 4 dives. But we commend our crew for the hard work of taking tanks back and forth between the two boats to fill the tanks. We appreciated Aggressor III for making it possible for us to dive.

Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here

Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 503 dive reviews of Belize and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

Other dive reports on Aggressor Fleet

All Belize Dive Reviews and Reports
Diving Guide to Belize
Diving Reviews for All Dive Destinations

Want to assemble your own collection of Belize reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

Undercurrent Home

Page computed and displayed in 0.77 seconds

Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email. And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent
Get a free monthly email and a sample issue!

Dive Review of Belize Aggressor III/N/A in Belize/Turneffe and Lighthouse

Belize Aggressor III/N/A: "BELIZE AGGRESSOR III REVIEW", Jul, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Belize Aggressor III/N/A in
Belize/Turneffe and Lighthouse