Placencia, Stann Creek, Belize

Gladden Spit

Gladden Spit is a sharp promontory on the outer Belize Barrier Reef inside the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve, world-renowned for hosting one of the most reliable whale shark aggregations in the Caribbean. Each year between March and June, around the full moon, large numbers of cubera snappers, dog snappers and mutton snappers gather at the spit to spawn. The plankton-rich spawn clouds attract whale sharks that come in to feed at the surface and through the water column. Outside of spawning season the site remains an excellent wall dive, with the reef top at 14 metres and a vertical drop past 40 metres. The wall is decorated with deep-water sea fans, barrel sponges, vase sponges, wire corals and black coral colonies. Caribbean reef sharks, big horse-eye jacks, eagle rays and large groupers patrol the wall. Currents at the spit can be unpredictable, so dives are run as drifts. Advanced divers only during whale shark season.