South Caicos Scuba Diving
Located on the east edge of the Caicos Islands subterranean plateau, South Caicos is recognized for its excellent diving, with vibrant reefs and marine life, some decent wall sites, and many canyons, arches, and swim-throughs. The best of the accessible wreck sites, the Convair CV-440, is located nearby.
Dive Sites
Most of the South Caicos dive sites are a short 10–15 minute boat trip out from the main populated area of Cockburn Harbour, and follow along the east and southeast coasts of Long Cay and South Caicos. It's generally necessary to take a boat to experience the island's best diving—South Caicos doesn’t really offer great shore diving due to inaccessible (by road) coastlines and its ocean conditions.
A number of spectacular yet remote dive sites, from northern East Caicos and Philips Reef to Ambergris Cay and Bush Cay, are accessible from South Caicos during good weather conditions. Even the sheer wall diving of Grand Turk is within boat range (see Grand Turk Scuba Diving).
Nearly all of the main South Caicos dive sites are in the Admiral Cockburn Land and Sea National Park, which includes Long Cay, Six Hills Cays, and Middleton Cay.
Marine Life
You never really know what you're going to see when you go diving, but spotted eagle rays, green turtles and hawksbill turtles, brown southern stingrays, and various shark species (including nurse sharks, lemon sharks, and Caribbean reef sharks) are all possible sightings on a South Caicos dive. Common sightings include colorful parrotfish, snappers, jacks, and queen conch. The shallows around Long Cay are a good area for seeing red cushion sea stars.
How to Go Diving
Currently, the only dive operation on South Caicos is Adventures by Salterra, which operates through the Salterra Resort & Spa. The center offers scuba diving trips for new and advanced divers, as well as PADI Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) training.
Scuba diving trips can also be occasionally arranged through the Providenciales dive shops. No liveaboard dive boats visit South Caicos at this time.
