USVI-On-Line

Talking with my family, we all agree. The water around St. John is "sweeter" than the water around Hawaii. Is it possible it's less salty?

In Hawaii the water made me a little nauseous when I sucked it up off my snorkel, and I felt crusty and icky after the ocean dried on my skin. In St. John no problems.

Just wondering.

while salt content can vary (depending on evaporation/precipitation/freshwater inflow from rivers etc) other things can influence composition of sea water--and what you experienced may be due to things other than differences in salinity-(such as differences in the types or concentrations of marine organisms, etc)

http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salty_ocean.htm

Although I can claim no expertice on the subject, I did notice I was, let's say, VERY bouyant when I was snorkeling in Hawaii and the tour guide did mention something (mai-tai memory loss here) about the salt content being high. I do know that in the dead sea a person can float like a leaf on a pond due to the mineral content of the water.

Interesting!

I also remember that after shaving my legs and jumping into the waters of Hawaii, there was a very painful salt-on-a-wound type of reaction.

Didn't notice that on STJ.