Cane Bay Wall
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.
Cane Bay Wall: 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
At this sitegeotagged 779 m from the site coordinates Slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus) · Brett/Tele · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Cane Bay Wall 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 (261)
- Blue Chromis (252)
- Boulder star coral (250)
- Bicolor Damselfish (232)
- Great Star Coral (225)
- Royal Gramma (225)
- Redband Parrotfish (208)
- Bluehead Wrasse (204)
- Yellowhead Wrasse (203)
- Princess parrotfish (198)
- Creole Wrasse (195)
- Massive Starlet Coral (176)
- Graysby (176)
- French Grunt (170)
- Brown Chromis (169)
- Lettuce Coral (167)
- Sharpnose Puffer (164)
- Lamarck's sheet coral (150)
- Bumpy star coral (146)
- Stoplight Parrotfish (143)
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. 15,738 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 Cane Bay Wall
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 Q31888896 (CC0) · position of Cane Bay; the wall lies offshore. 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: CC0_1_0: 8,251, CC_BY_4_0: 7,487
- Dataset
- U.S. Virgin Islands Territorial Coral Reef Monitoring Program Database (USVI-TCRMP) · doi:10.15468/dec2m2 (8,215 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (7,294 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment - Benthic · doi:10.15468/vmcydh (98 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coral Demographic Data · doi:10.7289/v5vd6wts (72 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coral Benthic Assessment Data · doi:10.7289/v5vd6wts (17 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- University of Texas, Biodiversity Center, Ichthyology Collection (TNHCi) · doi:10.15468/h8gxdr (14 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (11 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database · doi:10.15468/ijccz9 (7 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=17.763333,17.783333000000002&decimalLongitude=-64.82083300000001,-64.800833&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
- At this sitegeotagged 594 m from the site coordinates Redband parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) · Brett/Tele · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Arrival photo
- At this sitegeotagged 779 m from the site coordinates Slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus) · 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