Cuba’s insular shelf, some 26,190 square miles or 67,831 square kilometers in size, has excellent scuba-diving sites throughout the archipelago. They are some of the most entrancing in all the Caribbean.
Warm, clean water, great biodiversity, good conservation of it’s ecosystems, coral gardens, caves, meadows of gorgonians and sponges, underwater escarpments, narrow channels, tunnels, fish of many sizes and colors, valuable remains of shipwrecked vessels and many natural beaches, cays and islets make it a place to challenge divers imagination.
In addition, this large area has a great variety of coralline formations in amazing shapes and colors, where many species of marine flora and fauna coexist in a delicate biological balance. This is what makes Cuba such a wonderful scuba-diving destination the one that thousands of tourists and professionals prefer.
Diving Areas
Main island of Cuba and its 4 000 cays and inlets, have an exceptional diversity of marine flora and fauna.
These islets, which are practically surrounded by coralline formations, are of special interest to scuba-diving buffs because they have excellent diving conditions there are no strong marine currents and the area, and the warm, calm unpolluted water is so clear that you can see through it for 100 feet 30 meters.
Since the broad insular shelf is relatively near the surface and Cuba is at the edge of the tropics, the water temperature is between 75.2 and 83.3 F. 24 and 28.5 C all year round.
Its waters are always ideal for scuba diving in any of its varieties-snorkeling, reef exploration and day or night dives of down to 130 feet 40 meters in coralline gardens filled with caves, vertical walls, tunnels, underwater escarpments, narrow channels, the remains of shipwrecked vessels and many other attractions.
Contrasting colors and capricious marine shapes are a constant delight on the archipelago’s insular shelf, with its abundant coralline formations, the habitat of around 500 species of fish, 200 sponges of several kinds cup-shaped, tube and branched, a wide variety of mollusks and crustaceans, gorgonians, algae and Common Sea Fans.
