Underwater Trail Blazers

Jane Shahmanesh was in a quandary. The single mom didn’t want to miss one of the Caribbean’s most famous snorkeling reefs, but she also didn’t want to spring for an expensive excursion her 7-year-old would hate.

She took a chance and signed herself and her daughter Allison up for an all-day boat trip to Buck Island National Reef Monument. The mostly underwater national park is six miles off the coast of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is famous for its marine gardens.

Shahmanesh’s gamble paid off big time. Allison, who had never snorkeled, was mesmerized by the fish, her mother reported. “She didn’t want to get out of the water.”

Indeed, the day turned out to be one of the highlights of their vacation. It didn’t hurt that the water was calm and the weather was perfect.

“Just getting there and back on the boat was such an adventure for the kids,” explained Shahmanesh from her New York City office.

Allison was joined by two other little girls, as Shahmanesh had arranged to join another family on the excursion so her daughter wouldn’t be the only young snorkeler. Wearing life vests and hanging on to a rubber ring, the trio could comfortably explore the underwater world, watching colorful fish dart in and out of the coral formations.

“I thought I’d be throwing out my money, that Allison would complain, but she just loved it,” Shahmanesh said.

Of course, it’s not always that easy.

My 6-year-old, Melanie, decked out in pink snorkel with matching fins, refused to jump off the boat to join us in the water the day we visited Buck Island. I was frustrated because the fish were amazing: blue angelfish, striped sergeant majors, red-checkered parrotfish. But no amount of coaxing would get Melanie to snorkel the established underwater trail. She didn’t like the waves. She didn’t like being so far from shore. So she took a nap on the boat while we snorkeled, not at all concerned about what she might be missing.

“Kids worry that the fish will come after them and nibble at their toes,” said park ranger Pat Dinisio when I told her my snorkeling tale of woe. Dinisio is the head lifeguard at Trunk Bay beach on St. John, which is part of Virgin Islands National Park and popular with beginner snorkelers. Much is visible within a few strokes of shore, and the National Park Service has established a buoy-to-buoy trail 25 yards from the beach, with underwater signs to help snorkelers identify what they’re seeing. One sample: “Parrotfish eat dead coral, turning it into white sand.”

There are many kinds of coral: giant brain coral, ivory tube coral and large flower coral, for example.

“People don’t realize that if they touch coral, it dies,” said Dinisio. They also don’t realize how easily they can get scratched from its razor-sharp edges.

Though St. John is famous for its beaches, more snorkelers come to Trunk Bay than anywhere else, and its underwater trail draws 1,000 people a day. That’s why Dinisio advises families to come early to avoid the cruise ship crowds.

Here are some other tips for safely introducing children to the underwater world:

* Practice with a snorkel and mask in a swimming pool.

* Always wear a life jacket.

* Stay together in the water, assigning each family member a buddy.

* Seek out beaches where the coral reefs are close to shore. Wherever there is a reef, there’s plenty of marine life.

* Bring a life raft or air mattress so the kids can float along, putting their face in the water only when they want to. They’ll get less tired, Dinisio said, and they might not be so reluctant to explore farther offshore. That strategy worked with Melanie, though she still wouldn’t venture very far from the beach.

Another wise investment was a waterproof copy of “Guide to Corals & Fishes” by Idaz and Jerry Greenberg (Seahawk Press, $19.95), which helped us identify the fish and coral we saw. Of course, Melanie, her brother and sister kept a running tally of who had seen which fish.

My best investment, though, proved to be snorkeling gear for each of us. Melanie’s was about $25, and it more than paid for itself in the money we saved on rentals. (Typically rentals ran $5 or more per person per day.) Even better, we saved a lot of time and were in the water while others waited in line to get gear.

Rita Pieters had another reason for buying her 5-year-old daughter, Brittany, her own snorkel and mask before their trip to St. John. Quality equipment wasn’t as likely to leak, the Zeeland, Mich., mom explained. And Brittany could try out her snorkel any time she liked at the hotel pool or the beach.

“You’ve got to have a lot of patience,” Pieters said, noting that the year before, Brittany had tried snorkeling just once. That lasted less than 10 minutes before she decided she’d rather be playing on the beach.

“If your child isn’t ready, you’ve just got to go slow,” Pieters said. The patience and the pool practice certainly paid off for their family. Brittany snorkeled with her dad for nearly an hour at Trunk Bay without getting tired.

“I loved how the fish all swam in a line,” Brittany said, obviously proud of her accomplishment. She’s been drawing pictures of the fish she saw ever since.

As for Melanie, I’m taking it as a positive sign that she’s been pretending her doll is snorkeling in the bathtub. Maybe next trip.

Taking the Kids appears the first and third week of every month.