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Diving/Snorkeling

By George Oxford Miller

Divers and snorkelers rate Curaçao as Caribbean's best environment

Scuba Diver magazine readers rate Curaçao as the healthiest marine environment in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and top three in marine life, beginner diving, shore diving, and overall, with outstanding natural beauty.

Curaçao earns this reputation from 60 named sites, 57 species of coral, and 500 species of tropical fish that ply its turquoise waters, with visibility up to 100 feet. Coral gardens, plunging walls, and wrecks offer world-class diving and accessible snorkeling.

Lagun Beach/Mushroom Forest
The reef, 150 yards offshore, teems with sparkling tropical fish, turtles, lobsters, morays, caves, and star coral. Sport Diver magazine acclaims it as one of the world's best dives.

Sponge Forest
Near Landhuis San Nicolas, accessible by boat, the Caribbean's most spectacular sponges thrive on this wall.

Superior Producer
A great dive wreck, this 200-foot ship sits near Willemstad harbor. A plane wreck lies a few hundred yards west.

SS Oranje Nassau
Offshore from the Sea Aquarium, this accessible 1894 steamship peeks above the surface, delighting divers and snorkelers with elkhorn coral, morays, and brilliant fish.

Jan Thiel Beach
With coral heads and gorgonian beds, the sloping terrace and coral-crusted wall of this protected lagoon offers easy accessibility to snorkelers and divers.

Tugboat
Resting at just 17 feet, this popular playground features a nearby wall that drops to 100 feet, with abundant corals, morays, scorpion fish, and lobsters.

Klein Curaçao
Take a day trip to this tiny island 15 miles offshore for silky beaches, astounding coral, underwater caves, and an old lighthouse.

Sandy's Plateau
Barracudas guard this lovely reef. The site is a favorite among local dive masters.

Small Wall
Look for big green morays and a resident Nassau grouper in hiding places along this wall, which drops from 15 feet to 40 feet.

Cornellius Bay
A beautiful wall and vibrant coral mark this site, which is still largely unexplored.

Director's Bay
Sea horses and frogfish like to hang out here.

Diver's Leap
Jump in and join the resident scaly-tail mantis shrimp.

Sex Lives of Corals

By Els Kroon

That's not a snowstorm, that's the coral spawning

Coral reefs explode in wild orgies late each summer, triggered by high temperatures. The events may look like underwater snowstorms, but they are actually corals spawning.

Like other animals, corals have to reproduce. In the Caribbean, the miraculous events happen twice a year, in September and October, a week after the full moons. For a few days, several species of hard corals, soft corals, sea urchins, worms, brittle stars, and sponges release their eggs and sperm.

Voyeurs make night dives to observe the events because they take place between 8 and 10 p.m. The do-not-touch-me sponge can be observed from 2-5 p.m. Scuba divers travel from around the world to witness the exciting phenomenon.

Since 1991, spawning in Curaçao has been monitored by marine biologists, with help from local divers, resulting in predictable patterns. The event is a big dive happening, coordinated by local dive organizations.

Get dive site and beaches locations in the Map section.

Read about Curaçao's Annual Dive Festival.

Read unbiased opinions about Curaçao activities at TripAdvisor.