Turks & Caicos · Turks & Caicos Islands · Wall · Reef
Elephant Ear Canyon
A canyon from the wall top that opens onto a wide sand chute
Area photo: SNORKELINGDIVES.COM · CC BY 2.0
Elephant Ear Canyon is a wall dive in Turks and Caicos where a canyon cuts down from the reef top into a sloping sand chute. The wall face drops past 30 m (100 ft) in a colourful mix, and hawksbill turtles are regular company on the reef.
Where it is and how deep
No published position for this site — the map shows Turks & Caicos and its other sites; operators know the mooring.
The dive
The coral along the top of the wall sits at about 15 m (50 ft), split into sections by sand chutes. The main canyon starts at the wall top and opens out onto a wide, sloping sand chute, while beside it the wall face tumbles past 30 m (100 ft). Hawksbill turtles are common here, and the dive finishes on the sand under the boat, where garden eels, stingrays and tilefish live.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
- Stingrays
| 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.
Dive videos
Elephant Ear Canyon, West Caicos 🇹🇨 (#577) · Matthew Brown on YouTube
Sources
- Dive Sites Provo — Dive Provo
- Diving in the Turks and Caicos Islands — Divers Alert Network
More dive sites in Turks & Caicos
Wall
An undercut amphitheater in the wall, lipped with black coral
Wall
Near-continuous schools of grunts and snappers on the wall top
Wall
Black coral under an overhang at 21 to 27 m
Wall
Twin pinnacles beside a coral-carpeted slope off French Cay
Wall
A sand chute from 15 m to a coral ledge at 30 m
Wall
A sand gully out to a coral wall dropping to 30 m
Wall
Wall top at 15 m with a lobster-covered sand flat at 21 m
Wall
A south-facing wall that drops past 1,829 m (6,000 ft)
Similar dives elsewhere
Sand-beach entry onto a reef that slopes past 30 m
Nineteenth-century anchors lie along a wall that drops past 975 m
Coral gardens on the shelf, steep drops below to 27 m
Wall
Congo Cay
St. John · U.S. Virgin Islands
Plate corals below the wall off the south-eastern tip of Congo Point