Anse Cochon - Marine Reserve & Wreck Bay - Saint Lucia

About Anse Cochon - Marine Reserve & Wreck Bay

A shallow, sheltered crescent on the northwest coast, Anse Cochon is one of Saint Lucia's success stories: a community-run marine reserve where overfished reef has come back as coral, and the graveyard of the Lesleen M, a 50-metre freighter sunk deliberately in 1986 that has become one of the Caribbean's most celebrated artificial reefs. Four dives cover the bay in a morning and an afternoon - the upright, coral-draped wreck resting on sand at 20 metres, the brain-coral gardens of Anse Cochon Reef with their bumphead parrotfish and cruising turtles, the easy nursery slope of Anse Cochon North, and the semicircular reef wall and turtle sanctuary of Virgin Cove next door. Operationally it is the island's most low-key dive day: launches come off Ti Kaye Resort's jetty in minutes, the water is nearly always flat inside the bay, and the whole ground sits twenty-five minutes from Rodney Bay and an hour from Castries, making it a natural half-day for northern-based divers or a chill full day for guests of the resort itself.

Highlights

• ✓Lesleen M - a 50-metre freighter sunk in 1986, upright on the sand and furred in soft coral and giant barrel sponges
• ✓Anse Cochon Reef - shallow brain-coral garden with green turtles and huge bumphead parrotfish
• ✓Anse Cochon North - boulder-and-sand nursery slope, the classic refresher and training ground
• ✓Virgin Cove - a semicircular reef wall and turtle sanctuary among spider crabs and lobsters
• ✓A community marine reserve - diving here directly funds the protection that rebuilt the reef

Getting There

Anse Cochon sits on the northwest coast between Castries and Gros Islet, about 25 minutes from George F.L. Charles (SLU) airport via the Labrelotte Bay road; Hewanorra (UVF) in the south is a two-hour drive. Dive boats launch from the jetty at Ti Kaye Resort, which holds the on-site dive shop, and from small shore bases nearby; the wreck lies a few minutes out, the reefs within sight of the beach. Rodney Bay operators run day trips here, and the reserve entry fee is usually bundled into the dive price by the shop.