Laje de Santos · Brazil · Reef
Boca da Baleia
A shallow rock at the islet's edge where turtles gather
Photo: mlsouza85@hotmail.co… · CC BY-SA 3.0
Boca da Baleia — Whale's Mouth — is a rock formation on the Laje itself, dived to a maximum of 18 m. Turtles and fish gather around it and larger fish come through off the rock, which makes it one of the shallower dives in the park. It needs calm water, though: the backwash over the formation can be violent when there is any sea running.
Where it is and how deep
24.3227° S, 46.1777° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
This is the shallow end of the park's diving. The formation bottoms out at 18 m, so bottom time is generous and the dive is spent working the rock rather than watching a computer. Turtles are the sighting the site is known for, and fish gather thickly around the formation, so it is worth turning away from the rock now and then to look into open water, where larger fish come past.
Conditions decide whether the site is dived at all. The point demands ideal conditions, because the backwash off the formation can be very violent, which makes it a settled-sea dive that comes off the plan as soon as there is swell working onto the rock. On a calm day the whole thing stays comfortably inside recreational depth limits, with the 18 m maximum leaving no-stop time to spare.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Laje de Santos: Autumn and winter (Mar–Sep) bring the clearest water and the manta ray aggregation; summer is warmer but rain and runoff cut visibility, and strong wind can close the park to boats.
Know before you go
- The backwash over the formation can be violent, so the site is only dived in ideal conditions and is dropped from the plan when there is a sea running.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Boca da Baleia?+
It reaches a maximum of 18 m, shallower than the other Laje sites with a published depth, so the dive is limited more by gas and by the surface conditions than by no-stop time.
Sources
- Laje de Santos Marine State Park — Wikipedia
- Conheça os pontos de Mergulho da Laje de Santos — Jornada Sub
Photo credits
- Grey granite dome of the Laje de Santos islet with a lighthouse and sign at its base, seen from the water by mlsouza85@hotmail.co…, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Where to dive with sea turtlesBig animals · 15 min read
More dive sites in Laje de Santos
A U-shaped passage under an arch that stands above the water
An iron fishing boat scuttled to seed an artificial reef
Fishing anchors lost in the boulders off the Laje's west side
Similar dives elsewhere
Fish-crowded boulder outcrop with rays on the sand
A submerged Christ the Redeemer statue and an aeroplane wreck at the south end
The refuge's low-difficulty mooring, shallow enough for try-dives
A large chamber full of fish at the island's southern point