Andros Town, Andros, Bahamas

Captain Bill's Blue Hole

Captain Bill's Blue Hole is one of Andros's well-known offshore blue holes, sitting on a reef plateau and dropping past recreational depth limits into a vertical karst shaft. The rim sits in roughly 15 meters of water and the upper chamber is decorated with hard corals, sponges, and gorgonians along the lip, with shafts of light illuminating the dropping shaft. The site supports populations of small reef fish — schools of grunts, sergeant majors, and angelfish — along with the occasional resting nurse shark in the upper recesses and Caribbean reef sharks patrolling the surrounding reef. Andros is home to the highest concentration of blue holes anywhere in the world, both inland (freshwater) and offshore (saltwater), and Captain Bill's is one of the more accessible offshore examples for recreational divers. Visibility is typically very good and currents are usually mild. Advanced training is required for deeper exploration of the shaft.