Madagascar??

[Lochmonster]

Hey,
I am planning a trip to Madagascar in February of 2003. Was wondering if anyone has any info about scuba and freediving sites there. Also any info on the spearfishing laws of the country would be greatly appreciated.
I plan on visiting Fort Dauphin in the south and then Ifaty along the western coast.
Also any other info about Madagascar woudl be greatly appreciated. I am aware they recently had a power struggle over their presidential elections, know they speak french, and basically all you could learn from the travel guides and web. I am looking for first hand accounts or cultural info and some do's and don'ts beyond the obvious.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks a bunch!
Also this is my first post!! Love this site and the forums

 

[SASpearo]

What a lovely country ...

Spearfishing is permitted, I'm not sure about the actual legalities / permits needed - the last time I was there was in 1998, I had my speargun inside my Kayak on board the airplane ... he he he.

The french they speak is not really french - it's close to french, but kind of like the english the hawaiins speak - hard to understand if you're not familiar with the local syaings etc ...

They're having a fair bit of trouble at the moment, it's not a very safe place to go - customs might frown on you if you try to get through with a speargun ... also, there's NO parts available for spearguns on the island itself, no spearguns for sale etc ...

The best bet would probable be to book a (scuba) scharter with one of the local operators - try and find one that caters for spearo's as well - for this you might have to find a deep-sea fishing charter that caters for Tuna and billfish - they normally take on spearos ...

Do's - Do take malaria tablets
Do drink NOTHING but bottled water (or beer - he he he - their rum's also pretty good)
Do take LOTS of sunscreen
Don't eat anything that's raw
Don't eat anything that you can't identify (or spell the name correctly in english)
Don't walk in the rice paddies - they're full of snakes and the local's don't like it
Don't get lost in Antananarivo - it's chaos trying to get out of the back streets

Hope this helps ... things have changed a lot since I was last there. And it wil probably be a LONG time before I go there again.

 

[Abriapnea]

Welcome ,LOCH .
divingwise most of the action is at the northwestern tip at Nosi Be