Gladden Wall

The outer edge of the Belize Barrier Reef drops into a sheer vertical wall at Gladden, plunging beyond 300 metres into the deep Caribbean. Enormous sea fans and black coral trees colonise the wall face below 18 metres, and the blue water column alongside teems with silky sharks, oceanic triggerfish, and — during the spawning full moons — the whale sharks that made Gladden famous. Even without the seasonal spectacle this is one of the most dramatic wall dives in the western Caribbean.