Cayos Cochinos, Bay Islands, Honduras

Cayo Menor Wall

Cayo Menor Wall is a wall and slope dive off the smaller of the two main Cayos Cochinos islands, inside the marine reserve. The dive begins on a coral plateau at 8 to 10 meters with stands of brain coral, sea rods and large barrel sponges, and runs to a stepped wall that drops from 18 past 35 meters. The wall is decorated with deep-water gorgonians, rope sponges, tube sponges and clusters of black coral, with crevices that shelter spotted moray, lobster and channel-clinging crabs. Reef fauna is consistently rich: hawksbill turtle, queen and French angelfish, schooling creole wrasse and grunt, midnight parrotfish and reliable spotted eagle ray fly-bys. The deeper wall is occasionally visited by Caribbean reef shark and large grouper. Conditions inside the reserve are usually calm with visibility of 25 to 30 meters.