Cades Reef

Cades Reef is Antigua's longest barrier reef, stretching nearly 3 kilometres along the island's southwest coast and offering a mosaic of shallow gardens, overhangs, and moderate-depth walls that rarely exceed 18 metres. Nurse sharks aggregate in sandy channels between the coral spurs, and the reef's protected status under Antigua's marine park designation has allowed elkhorn and staghorn corals to recover visibly over the past decade. Sergeant majors, queen parrotfish, and dense schools of blue tang sweep across the spur-and-groove terrain in near-constant motion.