Black Coral Canyon

Black Coral Canyon is one of Grand Turk's most visually dramatic intermediate dive sites — a submarine canyon cutting through the dramatic wall that drops from Grand Turk's shallow bank into the Turks Island Passage, where the depth and current have created conditions supporting exceptional black coral growth that gives this site its evocative name. Grand Turk lies at the eastern edge of the Caicos Bank, and the island's western shore features one of the most spectacular wall dives in the Caribbean: a vertical drop-off that plunges from depths of 7 to 10 meters on the bank to over 2,000 meters in the Turks Island Passage, with the wall face colonized by an extraordinary diversity of coral, sponge, and marine life. Black Coral Canyon is a section of this wall where the canyon feature creates additional depth and topographic interest, and where the deeper current-swept conditions have allowed black coral to develop in the dense, branching colonies that are the site's defining feature. Black coral, despite its name, appears brown or dark greenish-brown in its natural state — the 'black' refers to the dark skeletal material. These animals grow exceptionally slowly, and the large colonies at Black Coral Canyon represent decades of growth in the current-rich canyon environment. The coral's branches host small crustaceans, feather stars, and basketstars that add delicate overlying texture to the dark main structure. The wall environment around the canyon supports the full range of Grand Turk marine life: Caribbean reef sharks cruise the wall face, eagle rays glide through the water column, and the rich reef fish community of the eastern Caribbean fills the spaces between coral formations. The intermediate rating is appropriate for divers comfortable with open-ocean wall diving.