A world-famous dive site featuring sheer vertical walls, excellent visibility and incredible marine life.

One of the most pristine underwater sites in the world, Bloody Bay Wall is part of a unique ocean reef system surrounding Little Cayman Island, a popular destination for scuba divers in the British West Indies. The unusual characteristics of the reef's architecture provide exceptional underwater visibility, and a diverse profusion of marine life thrives on and about its submerged cliff walls.

 

The Cayman Islands are part of an undersea mountain range, the flattened tips just barely emerging from the water to form the islands. Clinging to the tops and sides of these mountains, in the shallower water that rings the islands, is one of the richest accumulations of coral-reef marine life anywhere in the world. At Bloody Bay Wall, on the north shore of Little Cayman Island, the sea floor ends abruptly at a depth of only 18 - 25 feet, dropping off into a 6,000 foot vertical cliff. Many types of hard and soft coral grow along its craggy face.  Sharing living space with the corals are vivid yellow tube sponges, red rope sponges and wondrous sea fans. Thousands of mobile creatures inhabit the wall as well, some seeking the wall's excellent protection from predators, and others searching its shelters for prey. Tiny shrimp, brittle stars, Christmas tree worms, lobsters, sea cucumbers, moray eels, and countless varieties of small brilliantly colored fish coexist in timeless balance. Turtles, stingrays, eagle rays, barracudas, groupers and sharks are often found swimming nearby.

Where in the world is this place?

The Cayman Islands are located near the Cayman trench in the middle of the Caribbean Sea

 

The Cayman Islands are a group of three small tropical islands in the Caribbean Sea, located between Cuba and Honduras, approximately 150 miles south of Cuba and 180 miles west of Jamaica. They consist of the large island, Grand Cayman, and two smaller islands 75 miles to the northeast and a mile apart called Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. The three islands are outcroppings of the Cayman Ridge, a range of submarine mountains bisecting the area. Clear blue water surrounds the islands that are encircled by coral reefs. The climate is tropical, with warm rainy summers and relatively cooler, dry winters.

Discovered in 1503 by Christopher Columbus, the Caymans have been an overseas territory of Britain since 1670 when the Spanish ceded the islands to them as part of the Treaty of Madrid. Ships of many nations would stop there to replenish their stores of water and supplies with the turtles, wild fowl, and large lizards that were so plentiful on the islands during the 1700's. The name Cayman is believed to derive from the Carib word for crocodile. The Caymans have a long and colorful history as a pirate haven during the age of privateers and pirates. Bloody Bay at Little Cayman Island is named for a famous pirate battle. After government sponsored piracy, called privateering, was outlawed, rouge pirates used the island as a refuge. Today, its primary industries are banking and tourism, and the Cayman Islands have become well known as both a corporate tax haven, and one of the most pristine scuba diving locations in the world. The late Philippe Cousteau honored Little Cayman as one of the three best diving areas in the world.