I took the book portion in college and did the final open water cert. with Dive Abaco in Abaco, Bahamas which is a group of out islands east of nassau. All the diving was done at an underwater preserve/ Bahamian nat'l park. It was pretty high priced compared to some other places but incredible.
I think I'm going back in March, this time I'm going to try and do a shark feeding dive now that I have the cert. Shark feeds were outlawed in FL and the US I think, not for the danger but because environmentalist say it spoils how the sharks naturally feed, or something along those lines. In that area the local sharks are predominantly reefs, some lemon sharks too. There are some bull sharks and tiger sharks but they are less likely to encounter and they are more dangerous so that is a good thing.
cool, i think we are doing the book portion here in NJ and the actual cert dives in the keys.