Page 257 - The British Big Four
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very wall is similar, yet different: pro- wall provide hiding places and living quar- plummet directly into the great trenches
ters for tunicates, mollusks, crinoids, crabs thousands of feet deep that line the ar-
E file, shape, size and predominant colors and other invertebrates of all sizes and chipelago. The world famous Andros Wall
shapes, plus, of course, sponges and coral. dive experience ranges from shallow water,
vary from site to site. What makes Bahami- wreck and blue-hole dives to dramatic wall
an walls so special are several deep - very M any walls are so heavily blanketed dives off the 6,000-feet-deep Tongue of the
deep - basins across the Bahama Platform. with marine life that you can spend Ocean. About 1-1½ miles off the east coast
The one separating Eleuthera and South an entire dive observing the tiny creatures of Andros sits the Andros Barrier Reef, the
Abaco plunges three miles - almost triple that inhabit just a few square yards of the world’s fourth-largest barrier reef, measur-
the depth of Arizona’s Grand Canyon. The wall. However, don’t become so engrossed ing 190 miles long and home to more than
Exuma Sound, bordered by Exuma, Cat Is- that you forget to occasionally glance over 160 species of coral and fish.
land and South Eleuthera, is just as deep. your shoulder to see what might be passing
by in the blue water behind you. T hese spellbinding walls can run for hun-
O ne of the thrills of diving a wall is dreds of miles below the waters of the
the marine life. The wall and the reef T he Islands Of The Bahamas’ walls of- Bahamas, diving down and often plunging
atop it serve as a barrier between deep, fer breathtaking vistas, populated by thousands of feet. Along these vertical es-
open ocean and the shallower, protected colorful marine life. Whether inland or sub- carpments, as you dive, Bahamas marine-
water on the shoreward side. Pelagics of- merged in the sea, the incredible blue holes life will surround you and you’ll encounter
ten emerge from the depths to feed on the are the result of centuries of freshwater beautiful tube sponges, a rainbow of hard
smaller fishes that inhabit shallower water. dissolving and redepositing limestone. The corals, enchanted hanging algae and ethe-
The wall itself provides domain for innu- Bahama Walls, the most generally dramatic real angelfish.
merable smaller creatures. The honeycomb expression of the coral reef, will at times
of tiny cracks, crevices and holes that dot a
