Catacombs
Dive site at a Turks & Caicos Reef Fund dive mooring. 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.
Catacombs: dive site at a Turks & Caicos Reef Fund dive mooring.
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.
- Do not stand on or touch coral, and do not feed, harass or remove marine life. It is illegal to remove corals, sand, shells and wildlife. TCI DECR · Essential Information for Visitors
- Do not anchor on coral reefs or seagrass; use permanent moorings where available. Anchoring within 300 ft of a mooring is not permitted. TCI DECR · Essential Information for Visitors
Near this sitegeotagged about 1.3 km from the site coordinates Princess parrotfish (Scarus taeniopterus) · Cos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · iNaturalist
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Catacombs 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
- Boulder star coral (45)
- Great Star Coral (41)
- Boulder star coral (32)
- Massive Starlet Coral (18)
- Mustard Hill Coral (12)
- Grooved brain coral (10)
- Bumpy star coral (8)
- Pillar coral (5)
- Symmetrical brain coral (5)
- Ten-ray Star Coral (2)
- Maze Coral (2)
- Rose Coral (1)
- Spiny Flower Coral (1)
- Staghorn coral (1)
- Finger Coral (1)
- Blushing Star Coral (1)
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. 198 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 “Turks and Caicos” 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 “Turks and Caicos”. 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 “Turks and Caicos” 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 Catacombs
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
- Turks & Caicos Reef Fund dive mooring list (20 Oct 2016), “Catacombs”, Grace Bay, Providenciales · source · TCRF, public list. Turks & Caicos Reef Fund “Dive Mooring List” (20 October 2016), which gives each mooring’s GPS position and approximate depth. The Reef Fund installs these moorings under a memorandum of understanding with the TCI Department of Environment and Coastal Resources. We found no published Grand Turk list, so Grand Turk is not covered yet.
- Species records
- GBIF.org, CC0 & CC BY 4.0 records. By license: CC_BY_4_0: 198
- Dataset
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment - Benthic · doi:10.15468/vmcydh (198 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=21.814999999999998,21.835&decimalLongitude=-72.18786700000001,-72.167867&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 “Turks and Caicos”
- Hero photo
- Near this sitegeotagged about 1.3 km from the site coordinates French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum) · Cos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Arrival photo
- Near this sitegeotagged about 1.3 km from the site coordinates Princess parrotfish (Scarus taeniopterus) · Cos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 7 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources