Page 68 - Central America

any walls are so heavily blanketed Seafans, bryozoans, seawhips and Black and so on until everything appears brown.

M with marine life that you can spend Coral mix and mingle with the sponges, Strobe lights and flashlights, however, bring
an entire dive observing the tiny creatures creating a garden carpet of life. More color those colors back. Lurking inside crevices

that inhabit just a few square yards of the and the addition of motion is provided from you may see moray eels, shrimp, spiny lob-

wall. However, don’t become so engrossed solitary and schooling reef fish. Every wall is sters and even squid and baby octopuses,

that you forget to occasionally glance over similar, yet different: Profile, shape, size and waiting for nightfall. Then there are the

your shoulder to see what might be passing predominant colors vary from site to site. big pelagics, fish normally found out in the

by in the blue water behind you. W alls offer an opportunity for divers to open sea. Anything could be cruising the
experience much of the ocean’s di- wall which adds to its mystique. Out of the
G reat big groupers, turtles, billfish and versity in one place. At the top you’ll find depths, come eagle and manta rays, marlins,
tuna are all usually on patrol, and it’s tunas, kingfish, mackerel, mahi mahi and

not uncommon to see sweeping eagle rays, the kaleidoscope of corals and small fish sharks of all types, including hammerhead,

or even hammerhead and tiger sharks out that you would expect to see at any healthy bull, tiger and reef sharks, to cruise the wall

sniffing for their prey. As if all this wasn’t reef - star, brain, elkhorn and staghorn cor- for their next meal.

enough to make you want to dive, the Bay als, sea urchins, sponges, sea fans, parrot- A dvanced divers can try “wall flying,”
Islands drop-offs are punctured with awe- fish, trumpetfish, angelfish, queen trigger- with an underwater vehicle, zipping in
some caverns, tunnels and swim-throughs. fish, sergeant majors, and more. Descend

Walls are found throughout The Bay Islands further and the harder corals give way to and out of small caves and crevices 60 feet

and their profiles range from those that forests of gorgonians and soft corals, which below the surface. Technically you reach

end at sand bottoms 60 to 100 feet deep, reach out in a silent rhythmic dance. Spong- a top speed of only 2.4 mph, but it feels a

to seemingly infinite vertical descents. It is es appear in their most magnificent forms lot faster. The DPV (diver propulsion vehi-

along these escarpments of the deep reef - all shapes and sizes. With less sun penetra- cle) allows divers to see more sites in less

that the majesty of coral spires and the tion, one by one, the colors disappear as time and experience the fun of underwater

magnificence of sponges is fully realized. you descend - first red, then orange, green, travel.