Great Wall West
Bloody Bay, Little Cayman
Great Wall West is the western anchor of the Bloody Bay Wall Marine Park on Little Cayman, considered by many divers to be among the world's most pristine vertical reef walls. The dive begins on the reef plateau at roughly 6 to 8 metres and divers cross a healthy coral top to the wall lip, which starts as shallow as 6 metres before plunging straight down beyond 1,800 metres into the deep Caribbean. The wall face is festooned with massive orange elephant-ear sponges, giant barrel sponges, deepwater sea fans, black coral bushes, sheet corals, rope sponges and yellow tube sponges, all completely untouched within the strictly protected Marine Park. Resident wildlife is consistently exceptional: Nassau grouper holding station in the cuts, midnight parrotfish patrolling the lip, hawksbill turtles, green turtles, eagle rays, Caribbean reef sharks, schools of horse-eye jacks, blue chromis, Creole wrasse, queen angelfish, French angelfish and large midnight parrotfish. Year-round visibility commonly exceeds 30 metres in the MPA. Currents are typically light, suiting intermediate divers comfortable with depth. Best conditions December to May.
