Dive 365: Chain Reef
Location: Northwest side, Grand Cayman; GPS: N19 22.083 / W81 24.518
Chain Reef is a beautiful shallow reef site on the Northwest side of Grand Cayman. As soon as you start to make your descent on this site, you can see how it got its name. Wrapped around a number of the coral heads & outcroppings is a giant chain that was from a large ship that had to drop its anchor here many years ago. The chain is an attraction itself, covered in growth and wrapped in bits of coral that has grown over it throughout the years.
The bottom of the mooring line is approximtely 25 ft deep, so this dive site is also great for snorkellers and all levels of divers. It is a photographer's paradise. This part of the reef has a small mini wall shape that you can follow; it leads over to a very large coral bommie. This bommie has super overhangs that attract the Caribbean spotted lobster, where it acrobatically hangs upside down all day. Even the reef fish think the world has turned on its head, as they hang upside down in this overhang, too. Upon leaving the bommie you adventure over a rubble flat that has large numbers of yellow-headed jawfish that float above their homes; they look like small ghostly figures protecting their habitat. If you are lucky, you may even see a male jawfish incubating eggs in his mouth.
On the other side of the rubble flat is a long coral finger that leads out toward the deep ocean. On either side are large sand flats that attract southern stingrays and sometimes eagle rays that venture to the shallower water to forage in the sand. Making your way back to shallower areas, there are some small tunnel like swim-throughs that lead you back on top of the mini wall towards the ‘chain reef’ area. You can spend the remaining part of the dive following the chain wrapped around this reef area, checking out the many juvenile reef fish that this site holds. Also home to many of Cayman’s eels, keep a look out for the small goldentail moray that hides in the holes to the larger green moray that rests under one of the many overhangs. Chain Reef is a great dive site to showcase the marine life that Grand Cayman holds!
Courtesy: Emma-Jane Nicholsby, Divetech
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