Kirby's Rock

KIRBY'S ROCK

Location:

The Northeast face of Caban Island.

Access:

10 min by boat from EAGLE POINT pier Southwest across the Maricaban Strait.

Conditions:

Generally calm with strong currents. Snorkellers should understand tide tables, choose slack water and stay on the shallow reef, inshore of the rock. Visibility can reach 30m (100ft).

Average depth:

12m (40ft)

Maximum depth:

33m (108ft)

Kirby's Rock sticks out of the water. On its shoreward side it drops to 5m(16ft), from where the reef slopes upwards to the shore. This side of the rock and the reef to the shore have good coral cover and fish life, including soft and leathery corals, crinoids, hydroids, Feather Duster Worms, Christmas-tree Worms, blue sea squirts, Linckia sea stars, cushion stars and Bohadschia sea cucumbers, and is teeming with reef fish.

On the seaward side the rock drops as a wall to 20m(65ft) and then shelves slowly off on sand with coral patches to 33m(108ft). This wall is rich with soft corals, colourful crinoids, good-size barrel sponges, white finger sponges, hydroids, sea stars, alabaster sea cucumbers, medium-size gorgonian sea fans, segmented worms, Feather Duster Worms, Christmas-tree Worms and many different species of nudibranchs and flat worms. On my visit the wall was covered in small, bright yellow Cucumana sea cucumbers.

The bottom of the walls has several crevices harbouring moray eels, and there are many whip corals and anemones with clownfish among the coral heads on the sand. There are lots of colourful wrasse, most species of reef fish and the occasional pelagic visitor.

An ideal dive for photographers, if you are able to hit slack water.