Bimini · Bahamas · Wreck
Hesperus
A shallow seagrass wreck with resident loggerhead turtles
Area photo: mattk1979 · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Hesperus is a small wreck lying on the bank east of Bimini in 7 m of water, surrounded by seagrass rather than coral. Visibility over the shallow bank can be murky and green, but the wreck holds a large population of loggerhead sea turtles, which is the reason most divers make the trip out to it.
Where it is and how deep
25.8512° N, 79.1044° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
The wreck sits on the bank in about 7 metres, shallow enough that the whole dive can be spent on and around the structure without any real depth planning. Seagrass surrounds it, so the wreck is the only hard structure in sight, and what lives on this part of the bank tends to be on or around it rather than spread over a reef nearby.
The water here is not the blue of the western drop-offs; it can be murky and green, so photographs work better close in than wide. What makes the dive is the turtles: a large population of loggerheads uses the wreck and the grass around it, and they are the reason boats come out to a small wreck on the bank at all.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Hesperus
- Type
- Small wreck, vessel type not recorded
- Cause
- Not documented in published accounts of the site.
- Lies
- On the bank in 7 m of water, surrounded by seagrass.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good |
Season follows Bimini: Great hammerheads are most consistent December–March; September–October bring peak hurricane risk to the northern Bahamas.
Sources
- Hesperus (Wreck) — Scubago
More dive sites in Bimini
Reef
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Sand slope
Great hammerheads on open sand at roughly 6 m
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Coral patches worked as a mild north-bound drift
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Research cables and old anchors scattered over white sand
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A long reef drift on the lip of the Gulf Stream drop-off
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