Tarpon Tunnels
Dive site at a Cayman Islands Department of Environment public mooring off Grand Cayman. 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.
Tarpon Tunnels: dive site at a Cayman Islands Department of Environment public mooring off Grand Cayman.
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 DoE has installed public moorings to protect reefs from anchor damage. Use a mooring instead of anchoring whenever possible; it is an offence to damage coral anywhere in Cayman waters. Cayman Islands DoE · Public Moorings
- The maximum stay on a public mooring is 3 hours. Do not use moorings in winds of 25 knots or more. Cayman Islands DoE · Public Moorings
- Marine Park zones carry their own rules (for example, no taking of marine life in Marine Reserve zones and no SCUBA diving in No Diving zones without permission). Check the zone with the DoE app or brochures. Cayman Islands DoE · Marine Parks
- Wildlife Interaction Zones are the only places in the Cayman Islands where you may legally feed or interact with marine life. Cayman Islands DoE · Marine Manners
At this sitegeotagged 707 m from the site coordinates Dog Snapper (Lutjanus jocu) · Dan Schofield · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
[video slot · coming soon]
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Tarpon Tunnels 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.
| Species | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mutton snapper | ||||||||||||
| Phallusia fragilis | ||||||||||||
| Nurse shark | ||||||||||||
| Queen Angelfish | ||||||||||||
| Black triggerfish | ||||||||||||
| Cero | ||||||||||||
| Blue runner | ||||||||||||
| Green moray | ||||||||||||
| Stoplight Parrotfish | ||||||||||||
| Common Lionfish | ||||||||||||
| Dog snapper | ||||||||||||
| French angelfish |
Most-recorded species, all months
- Mutton snapper (8)
- Phallusia fragilis (6)
- Nurse shark (5)
- Cero (4)
- Blue runner (4)
- Stoplight Parrotfish (4)
- Green moray (4)
- Black triggerfish (4)
- Queen Angelfish (4)
- Common Lionfish (3)
- Margate (3)
- Dog snapper (3)
- French angelfish (3)
- Blue parrotfish (3)
- Permit (3)
- Great Star Coral (2)
- Porkfish (2)
- Tiger grouper (2)
- Striped Parrotfish (2)
- Trunkfish (2)
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. 113 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 “Cayman 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 “Cayman 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 “Cayman 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 Tarpon Tunnels
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
- Cayman Islands DoE public moorings 2023 (NORTH), mooring "Tarpon Tunnels" · source · government publication. Cayman Islands Department of Environment, Public Moorings (updated January 2023). Each site uses the coordinates of the named public mooring.
- Species records
- GBIF.org, CC0 & CC BY 4.0 records. By license: CC_BY_4_0: 108, CC0_1_0: 5
- Dataset
- iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (101 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (8 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NMNH Extant Specimen Records (USNM, US) · doi:10.15468/hnhrg3 (4 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=19.376932999999998,19.396933&decimalLongitude=-81.34815,-81.32815&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 “Cayman Islands”
- Hero photo
- At this sitegeotagged 488 m from the site coordinates Branching Anemone (Lebrunia neglecta) · Dan Schofield · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Arrival photo
- At this sitegeotagged 707 m from the site coordinates Dog Snapper (Lutjanus jocu) · Dan Schofield · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 5 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources