Shark Ray Alley - (6-1/2 feet draft maximum recommended draft)

One stop that will have your guests donning swimsuits in short order is Shark-Ray Alley, approximately five miles southeast of San Pedro. Use your tender to get close as the waters are very shallow. The stop is part of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve and visitors are allowed to swim alongside nurse sharks and southern sting rays. Make sure to grab your courage along with your swimsuit. A break in the reef, Hol Chan means “little channel” in Mayan. As the reserve is protected from hunting, fish life proliferates here and the coral experienced by both for snorkelers and divers is stunning.

Located approximately 5 miles south of San Pedro, or about a 20 minute boat ride.
Swim with the sharks and rays – this area gives you the perfect opportunity to get up front and personal with stingrays and nurse sharks.
As per Skin Diver Magazine “This dive site has been selected as one of the seven best “animal dives” in the Caribbean.
Our maximum recommended draft for this area is 10 feet, this is using the cut in the reef near Caye Caulker and anchor in the north point of Caye Caulker. Our maximum recommended draft is 8 feet for yachts coming in through the long caye cut south of caye chapel.
Shark Ray Alley has excellent visibility.
As soon as your boat arrives in the area (eight foot deep) you will see sharks and rays approach the boat.
You will then see the surface often boiling with rolling sharks and sting ray wings as they vie for the scraps.
These creatures have a great tolerance for divers and seem to enjoy the human interaction.
Snorkelers can also enjoy this encounter with nature.
While the animals show no fear of humans and will often swim directly towards the divers/snorkelers, mouths often turned up hoping for a hand held tid bit to be placed near their mouths, it is best to keep a distance and not touch the animals.
The rays, which have a ‘wing-span’ of two to four feet, swim directly towards you, inviting you to reach out and stroke their wings (although it’s best not to touch them).
Others have learned to swim in circles around you as if performing for food or like a cat rubbing against our legs.
The gentle Nurse Sharks average four to six feet in length, and the dive masters often feed them small fish.
You can almost always see all species of fish including jacks, groupers, snappers, parrot fish, angel fish, barracuda, eels, spider crabs, lobster, and nurse sharks.
It is important that you maintain your perspective.
The docile Nurse Sharks average four to six feet in length can be a bit more agressive than the sting rays.
These are wild creatures first and as such, can be unpredictable in their behavior.
The best course of action is to leave the touching and feeding to the dive masters, while you enjoy the show from a safe distance determined by your swimming skill and comfort level.
Divers are occasionally cautioned regarding the currents.
This is a truly unforgettable adventure.
Visitors rules include:

1) No anchoring.
2) No touching of coral.
3) No fishing.

Yachts which have cruised around Caye Caulker using the cut near Long Caye that is south of Caye Caulker are

Helios²	Loretta Anne	Sweet Pea
March, 2011	last time February, 2009	April, 2005
Giles Smith	Phil did this trip many times	Sally Wilkins
2.7 m	Philip Shirley	7 feet
555 – 166	6′ 6″	253 – 59

Even though Giles was the captain on Helios² it was really the Chief Mate, Christina Jackson who took the yacht on both occasions whilst Giles was dropping off guests at the airport.

boy_ray boy_holding_up_ray

Reference (Sharks Ray Alley)

Shark Ray Alley – (6-1/2 feet draft maximum recommended draft)

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