Chankanaab Reef
Dive site off Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. 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.
Chankanaab Reef: dive site off Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
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.
- The Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park charges an entry fee of $225 MXN per person per day (as listed by CONANP), with listed exemptions and discounts. CONANP · Arrecifes de Cozumel
- CONANP visitor rules include keeping 1.5 m from the reefs, not feeding wildlife, and hiring only CONANP-authorized boats and guides. CONANP · Protected Areas
- Ask your operator for the park wristband (brazalete). CONANP says it is your proof of having paid the conservation fee. CONANP · Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel
Near this sitegeotagged about 3.0 km from the site coordinates Azure Vase Sponge (Callyspongia plicifera) · Christine Loew · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
[video slot · coming soon]
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Chankanaab Reef 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
- Lettuce Coral (211)
- Finger Coral (148)
- Thin leaf lettuce coral (84)
- Mustard Hill Coral (66)
- Massive Starlet Coral (55)
- Great Star Coral (51)
- Bluehead Wrasse (26)
- Maze Coral (25)
- Blue Tang (25)
- Yellowhead Wrasse (20)
- White Grunt (18)
- Redband Parrotfish (18)
- French Grunt (17)
- Stoplight Parrotfish (16)
- Foureye butterflyfish (15)
- Smooth Flower Coral (14)
- Bluestriped Grunt (13)
- Queen Angelfish (13)
- Black triggerfish (12)
- Doctorfish tang (12)
GBIF.org (2026-10-14), 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. 1,222 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 “Quintana Roo, Mexico” 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 “Quintana Roo, Mexico”. 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 “Quintana Roo, Mexico” 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 Chankanaab Reef
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
- OpenStreetMap node/663869344 · source · ODbL. OpenStreetMap (ODbL) dive-site nodes. Most of these Cozumel nodes carry an OSM tag saying the position is unverified, so treat them as approximate.
- Species records
- GBIF.org, CC0 & CC BY 4.0 records. By license: CC_BY_4_0: 1,211, CC0_1_0: 11
- Dataset
- Monitoreo complementarios de algas, invertebrados y peces en el Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel · doi:10.15468/qy5rm8 (1,023 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (175 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- International Barcode of Life project (iBOL) · doi:10.15468/inygc6 (6 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Royal Ontario Museum - Mammalogy · doi:10.5886/gdcfc8 (6 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Códigos de barras de la vida en peces y zooplancton de México · doi:10.15468/xmbkgo (4 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (4 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Propuesta para la realización de 37 fichas biológicas de las especies de herpetofauna incluidas en la NOM-059 presentes en la Península de Yucatán · doi:10.15468/vlotxt (3 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Fortalecimiento de las colecciones de ECOSUR. Primera fase (Peces Chetumal) · doi:10.15468/f04r0g (1 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=20.367449999999998,20.38745&decimalLongitude=-87.04712,-87.02712&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 “Quintana Roo, Mexico”
- Hero photo
- At this sitegeotagged 333 m from the site coordinates Creole Wrasse (Bodianus parrae) · Justin Philbois · CC0 · iNaturalist
- Arrival photo
- Near this sitegeotagged about 3.0 km from the site coordinates Azure Vase Sponge (Callyspongia plicifera) · Christine Loew · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 4 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources