New Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas

Cat Island Wall

The Cat Island Wall is a vertical reef drop along the southwest coast of Cat Island where the coral plateau ends abruptly and falls thousands of meters into deep ocean. Divers cruise the wall top in 20 to 30 meters with rich hard-coral cover, large barrel sponges, and gorgonians decorating the lip. The island's location at the edge of deep oceanic waters makes it a magnet for pelagic life: large groupers, schools of horse-eye jacks, eagle rays, and Caribbean reef sharks are common, and the area is best known for seasonal aggregations of oceanic whitetip sharks from April through June. These open-ocean sharks come in close to the wall during the spring season, drawing photographers and shark divers from around the world. Visibility is consistently excellent thanks to the deep oceanic exposure. Currents can be moderate and the depth profile demands advanced training and good buoyancy. Cat Island remains one of the more remote Bahamian dive destinations, with limited resort access and minimal diver pressure, which has preserved both reef health and the relative tameness of pelagic encounters. The wall extends along much of the southwestern shore, with multiple named sites strung along it that are typically run as a multi-day itinerary.