Hawksbill Turtle

Photo: Kevin Bryant · CC BY-NC-SA

Hawksbills use the sponge and soft-coral encrusted walls of the sinkhole as a year-round foraging ground, picking apart encrusting sponges with their narrow beaks. The reserve's protection from fishing nets has allowed a small resident population to persist inside the lagoon, and encounters on nearly every dive are realistic for patient observers who stay mid-water rather than hovering over the coral.