Turks & Caicos · Turks & Caicos Islands · Wall
Black Forest
Black coral under an overhang at 21 to 27 m
Area photo: SNORKELINGDIVES.COM · CC BY 2.0
An overhang on the drop-off between 21 and 27 m, hung with black coral thick enough to give the site its name — pinnate and wire species among them. Gorgonian fans and wide expanses of plate coral cover the rock around it, and the reef above the lip holds schools of grunts and parrotfish, with groupers on the ledges and turtles passing through.
Where it is and how deep
21.8500° N, 72.3000° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Drop onto the reef, cross to the lip of the drop-off and work down the face to the overhang, which runs between 21 and 27 m. Underneath it the rock carries black coral of several species, pinnate and wire among them, growing out of the shade the way black coral does. This is both the point of the dive and its deepest part, so it comes first rather than last.
Around the overhang the wall is covered in healthy gorgonian fans and broad plates of coral, and it pays to swim it slowly rather than press along the face. Moray eels sit back in the nooks and there is a lot of small life in the cracks that a diver moving at wall-diving pace goes straight past. Groupers hold station on the ledges and turtles come through on their own schedule.
Come back up the face and finish over the reef top, where schools of grunts and parrotfish work the coral in the shallows. That shallow return leg is what makes the profile manageable after a start at 27 m: it absorbs the ascent and carries the safety stop without anyone having to hang in open water off the wall.
Marine life and season
- Groupers
- Sea turtles
- Reef fish swarms
- Pristine corals
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Good |
Season follows Turks & Caicos: January–April brings calm seas and the humpback whale migration through the Turks Island Passage; September–October is peak hurricane season.
Know before you go
- The overhang bottoms out at 27 m, which leaves little no-decompression time for the rest of the dive — take it first and treat everything after it as the ascent.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Black Forest?+
The overhang that gives the site its name runs between 21 and 27 m, so the deep part of the dive is the first part. Above it the reef shallows out, and most dives finish on the reef top with the grunts and parrotfish.
What kind of coral grows at Black Forest?+
Several black coral species grow under the overhang, including pinnate and wire forms. The rock around them carries healthy gorgonian fans and wide expanses of plate coral.
Sources
- Turks and Caicos Islands Dive Sites — Dive The World
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