Anse Cochon North - Anse Cochon - Marine Reserve & Wreck Bay, Saint Lucia

Site Overview

Anse Cochon North is the marine reserve's gentlest corner - a very shallow, sheltered reef at the northern shoulder of the bay that begins at almost wading depth and eases down to about 18 metres, and that consequently stays flat, warm, clear and diveable on days when every more exposed site on the coast has been blown out. It is a diver's safety-net and a naturalist's slow lane: coral patches, scattered sponge-furred boulders and open sand, all crowded with the small, cryptic residents of a protected nursery ground - Caribbean reef octopus working the crevices, morays and spotted morays poked from the rock, clouds of juvenile sergeant majors and butterflyfish sheltering in the shallows, and the occasional grazing turtle or patrolling ray. Because so much of the reef sits within arm's reach of the surface in glassy water, the light is superb for close-focus photography and the whole site is as good snorkelled as dived, which makes it the reserve's premier mixed-ability ground. It does not pretend to be dramatic - there are no walls, no wrecks and no big-drop topography here. What it offers is an easy, reliable, life-rich shallow reef where a nervous new diver, a refresher, a macro photographer or a snorkelling partner can all have a genuinely good time in the calmest water on the northwest coast.