Belize Barrier Reef System

Some of the best diving in Belize is just 10 to 30 minutes from Belize Diving Services’ pier – in and around the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve, St. George’s Cay and San Pedro. The Belize Barrier Reef is an excellent example of a coastal reef system and dozens of dive sites—Tackle Box, Esmerelda, North Cut, Rock Beauty, Cypress Tunnel, Sand Trap, Long Caye Canyons, Gallows Point, Margarita Canyons, just to name a few—within 50 miles mean we can offer a different tour every day. The nutrients and food introduced into the system by the rivers and mangroves of the mainland make the barrier reef the best place to see marine mammals (dolphins especially) and large reef fishes. Of course, since this is a coastal reef system, the visibility can be as low as 40 ft., and the seas are frequently rough, making these dives more advanced than most of the atoll dives.

The northern San Pedro is known for its friendly Nurse Sharks and large grouper. In this area, you will also find more than 160 species of fish and 40 species of corals, sponges, algae, and sea turtles. The topography of the area has a sloping shelf, dramatically cut with deep cracks and crevices winding to the reef’s outer edge where the continental shelf begins its plunge into the Caribbean trench.

Caye Caulker Marine Reserve and its surroundings offer some of the most natural diving in the region. Here you will see a beautiful, healthy reef with copious amounts of live corals and juvenile fishes. Plus, there have been some remarkable encounters with hammerhead and turtles and other shy species, as it is less crowded than the northern area of the reef.