Page 3 - Mexico Diving From the Caribbean to Pacific Isles
P. 3
Portable Cards and eBooks The eBooks contain
links to the 3DAVI
We appreciate you purchasing the Mexico: Mesoa- Explore the Sea
merican Barrier Reef to the Socorro Islands eBook module of over 400
and the hours of enjoyment in the form of written web pages that
text, maps, video, slideshows and hyperlinks to describes Coral,
external information. Click on the periodic video Sponges and Sea
symbols. Critters.
C ozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea manatees, with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 of
off the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatán them. Some northern areas of the reef system
Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close near Isla Contoy are home to the largest fish on
to the Yucatán Channel. Cozumel is located on the planet, the whale shark. The normally solitary
the northern edge of The Meso-American Barrier whale sharks congregate there in social groups
Reef which is second in size in the world after to eat and to mate.
Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The Mesoameri-
can Barrier Reef System is a marine region that This largest of Mexico’s islands located in the
stretches over 1000 km from Isla Contoy at the Caribbean, has grown into a leading dive
tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to Belize, and vacation destination. The Maya are believed
Guatemala and the Bay Islands of Honduras. The to have first settled Cozumel by the early part
reef system is home to more than 65 species of of the 1st millennium AD. The island was sacred
stony coral, 350 species of mollusk and more to Ix Chel, the one of the Mayan gods, and the
than 500 species of fish. The reef system is home temples here were a place of pilgrimage.
to one of the world’s largest populations of
