The diversity of marine life on these healthy coral reefs is incredible. Brightly coloured reefs are covered in a variety of hard and soft corals and complemented by a profusion of beautiful Caribbean reef and pelagic fish. If a reef has healthy corals it usually follows that the fish life is equally rich.
There are rare species of fish such as seahorse and frogfish, along with schools of common reef fish like snappers, yellow goat fish, grunts and creole wrasse.
Barbados has its fair share of large pelagic fish like tarpon, mackerel and various species of jacks. Sting rays, eagle rays and many eels are common residents and ready to dazzle the most experienced divers. There are occasional sightings of manta rays but they are not as common.
Outstanding examples of orange, yellow, purple and green sponges add a wealth of brilliant colour to the reefs.
Present year round and very popular with everyone are turtles. Barbados is regularly visited by hawksbill, green and leatherback turtles. Hawksbill turtles are a regular spectacle on most dive sites and on both coasts. There is one dive on the south coast called 'the Boot' where it is almost a certainty to see a turtle.
The wreck of the Friars Craig, also on the south coast, has a resident hawksbill turtle, which can be seen resting on the sand in the middle section at certain times of the day. Their peak nesting season is between June and September on any of the beaches.
The Barbados Sea Turtle Programme, launched in 1998 to outlaw harvesting of any turtles or their eggs, has proven very successful as numbers are rising. |
