Butler Bay Wrecks
Dive site in the US Virgin Islands. Here's what has been recorded at this site month by month, how the region’s reefs have weathered ocean heat, and how to prepare.
Butler Bay Wrecks: dive site in the US Virgin Islands.
Entry
Shore and boat entries vary by site. We list only rules we can cite from official sources; entry points, depths and currents will be added once we can verify them.
- Buck Island Reef National Monument: scuba diving is allowed only at the two designated scuba moorings in the north lagoon, not on the underwater trail. Do not stand on or handle corals. NPS · Buck Island Reef NM
- Buck Island: private boats may anchor only in the anchorage area off West Beach. NPS · Buck Island Reef NM
Near this sitegeotagged about 3.8 km from the site coordinates Caribbean bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum) · Brett/Tele · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Butler Bay Wrecks rises to meet you.
What lives here, by month
Pick a month. These are the species most often recorded within about a kilometre in that month, from open survey records.
Most-recorded species, all months
- Mustard Hill Coral (25)
- Great Star Coral (20)
- Bumpy star coral (18)
- Massive Starlet Coral (16)
- Lettuce Coral (15)
- Boulder star coral (15)
- Blushing Star Coral (14)
- Common Lionfish (13)
- Ten-ray Star Coral (11)
- Finger Coral (9)
- Lamarck's sheet coral (7)
- Maze Coral (6)
- Symmetrical brain coral (6)
- Lowrelief Lettuce Coral (5)
- Boulder star coral (5)
- Lesser Starlet Coral (4)
- Grooved brain coral (3)
- Pagurus marshi (2)
- Smooth Star Coral (2)
- Thin Finger Coral (2)
GBIF.org (2026-10-15), occurrence records within ~1 km, licensed CC0 or CC BY 4.0 only. Birds and land animals are excluded. Counts reflect survey effort, not abundance. 738 qualifying records. See them on GBIF. Common names: Wikidata (CC0) / GBIF. Species photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species.
Forty-one summers of heat
Each stripe is one year since 1985, colored by its peak heat stress across NOAA's “Virgin Islands” region. These are NOAA Coral Reef Watch satellite figures for the whole region, not for this one site.
Heat stress, measured from orbit.
NOAA CRW virtual station “Virgin Islands”. NOAA's alert thresholds are 4 °C-weeks (Alert Level 1) and 8 °C-weeks (Alert Level 2). Station page · Method. Credit: NOAA Coral Reef Watch.
Conditions
Average sea temperature through the year. Check the live readings before you go.
Average sea surface temperature by month: NOAA CRW “Virgin Islands” station climatology (monthly means).
Buoy readings are measurements; forecasts are models. Use them for planning only, and assess conditions on site. Depth and visibility data aren't listed until we can cite a source.
Plan & prepare
- Read the official marine forecast the night before.Offshore, wind and sea state decide the day.
- Check the cited local rules above and pay any park fee before you dive.[Placeholder: verified operator list to come]
- Study this month's species above.You'll recognise more when you know the names.
- Hands off, fins up, buoyancy dialled. Log what you see.Your sightings can become tomorrow's open data.
Photographs from Butler Bay Wrecks
Openly licensed photos, each checked for location against its title, description, category or geotag. Labels show how close each one is to the site.
Credits
- Coordinates
- Wikidata Q31886591 (CC0) · position of Butler Bay; the wrecks lie in the bay. Wikidata (CC0), mostly from US Geological Survey place names, plus one OpenStreetMap (ODbL) reef. Several use the named bay, cay or island, so treat them as approximate.
- Species records
- GBIF.org, CC0 & CC BY 4.0 records. By license: CC_BY_4_0: 546, CC0_1_0: 192
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (353 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coral Demographic Data · doi:10.7289/v5vd6wts (140 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NOAA, Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program · doi:10.15468/aqbftj (76 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- CAS Herpetology (HERP) · doi:10.15468/bvoyqy (55 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coral Benthic Assessment Data · doi:10.7289/v5vd6wts (47 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- USGS Marine Fishes of St. Croix and U.S. Virgin Islands · doi:10.15468/fbpxvo (36 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database · doi:10.15468/ijccz9 (12 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Delaware Museum of Nature and Science – Mollusks · doi:10.15468/lfwzak (4 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=17.74,17.76&decimalLongitude=-64.90138900000001,-64.881389&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&taxonKey=44&taxonKey=206&taxonKey=229&taxonKey=136&taxonKey=225&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&limit=0
- Heat stress & SST
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch, 5 km Regional Virtual Station “Virgin Islands”
- Hero photo
- Near this sitegeotagged about 2.3 km from the site coordinates Blackback land crab (Hartnollius lateralis) · Jack Byrley · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Arrival photo
- Near this sitegeotagged about 3.8 km from the site coordinates Caribbean bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum) · Brett/Tele · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 7 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources