Chain Wall is a vertical wall on Lighthouse Reef that drops to 21 m, from sunlit shallows into deeper blue. Divers come for the sharks and big fish that work the face: Caribbean reef sharks, bull sharks and giant grouper all frequent the site.
Where it is and how deep
17.2047° N, 87.5411° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The dive runs along the face of the wall, from sunlit shallows down to 21 m where it fades into deeper blue. Crevices in the rock shelter small reef fish and invertebrates, while Caribbean reef sharks, bull sharks and giant grouper each work different parts of the terrain.
Marine life and season
- Reef sharks
- Bull sharks
- Groupers
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Belize Barrier Reef: March to May is the dry season, when visibility at Turneffe can pass 30 m (100 ft); rain and northerly winds take the shine off the other months.
Dive videos
Chain Wall Dive 1, Belize 2015 09 17 3 · Justin Jolly, My Underwater Life on YouTube
Sources
- Chain Wall, Belize — DiveSight
- Lighthouse Reef Atoll Diving - Belize — Dive The World
- Making The Most of a Trip to Belize Half Moon Caye — Dive The World
Photo credits
- Empty sandy shore fringed with grass and palm trees beside clear turquoise shallows, with birds circling over the wooded caye by dronepicr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Belize Barrier Reef
Reef
Gullies cut across a submerged spur-and-groove reef
Reef
One big coral bommie ringed by schooling bar jacks
Wall
Eagle rays off a sponge-hung wall on Turneffe's east coast
Pelagic & blue water
Whale sharks feeding on snapper spawn between March and June
Ice-age stalactites hanging from 30 m inside a 124-metre shaft
Garden eels on the sand, then a wall that falls past 914 m (3,000 ft)
A 9-metre reef cut, with nurse sharks and stingrays next door
Three big parrotfish species along the top of the wall
Similar dives elsewhere
Two facing walls a quarter mile apart, cut by a prehistoric river
The Cathedral, a sunlit cavern swim-through at 12 m full of silversides
Large numbers of lobster and octopus on night dives
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Wall top at 15 m with a lobster-covered sand flat at 21 m