Snorkeling Colson Caye – Wonderful Sponges

Belize

Snorkeling Colson Caye from a chartered catamaran

Snorkeling Colson Caye was very good; maybe not as good as Rendezvous Caye, but well worth a stop. The Colson Cayes are a few cayes south of Rendezvous, past Alligator Caye, inside the barrier reef.

The snorkeling that we did was not actually at Colson Cayes, but east of the southernmost Colson Caye, at a patch reef area, inside, but close to the barrier reef.

This was one of our many stops sailing down the coast of Belize. And on this day we hugged the inside of the barrier reef, wandering through patch reefs.

Beautiful Fairy Basselet hanging beside a reef near Colson Cayes Belize

What We Saw While Snorkeling Colson Caye

As you can see in the picture below, it was another very healthy reef with a wonderful variety of corals, hard and soft, sea rods and fans, and vibrant red sponges. The depths were perfect for snorkeling, with a maximum depth of about 12 feet.

Dense reef full of corals and colorful sponges at Colson Caye
School of grunts on Colson Caye

We did not see a great number of fish, but a decent amount while snorkeling Colson Caye. They were a little shy at this location, probably because of fishing in the area.

Once again we had the hovering barracuda hanging out. But really this spot was best for seeing healthy corals and sponges. Enjoy the rest of the pictures below.

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Barracuda over a sandy bottom at Colson Caye
Green sponges at Colson Caye
Vase sponges at Colson Caye

Belize fishing boat

On the way to snorkeling Colson Caye we came across a number of local fishing boats like the one in this picture. There were about nine guys on this little fishing boat. They get dropped off with their little canoes, and freedive by themselves for most of the day, catching conch and other prized fish, and then get picked up later in the day. They all sleep on the boat and stay out for weeks at a time. They have a huge block of ice in the hold to keep their catch fresh. It was pretty amazing to see. We actually had to bum some dish soap off of these guys.

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