Stocking Island, Exuma Cays, Bahamas

Mystery Cave

Mystery Cave is a partially submerged cave system on Stocking Island near Great Exuma, running through limestone and tied into a network of fissures and chambers. Entry is through a vertical chimney from the seafloor in roughly 12 meters of water, descending into wider rooms decorated with stalactites and stalagmites — geological features that indicate the cave was dry during lower-sea-level Pleistocene periods. The cave's interior offers strong cathedral-like beams of light through openings to the surface, and the overhead environment is rich with shrimp, lobster, and the occasional resting nurse shark in the lower chambers. Strong tidal currents flow in and out of the cave; dives must be timed to slack tide. The site is generally restricted to advanced and cavern-trained divers given the overhead environment, sediment, and depth. A unique geological dive in the Exumas. Visibility can vary dramatically with the tide cycle, with murk on the flow and gin-clear conditions on slack. Photographers chase the light shafts and the skeletal coral structures along the entry chamber walls. The site is operated under tight protocols by Exumas-based dive shops, often as a special-request itinerary rather than a standard offering.