Milestones in order. This is history, not a weekly activity grid.
- Fish and sail
- Cozumel and Cayman clubs
- Bonaire Marine Park
- Hol Chan
- Cozumel grounding era
- Cruise-snorkel mass
- Kittiwake sunk
- Lionfish and bleaching
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
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Quick answers
Which local rescue or training agency should I check first?
Use the local lens: coastguard/federation norms and the shop briefing for that bay — not a blog visibility claim.
What is Hol Chan?
A Belize marine reserve (1987) at a cut (chan) in the reef off Ambergris Caye, often paired with Shark Ray Alley. A textbook managed snorkel park.
Palancar?
A Cozumel reef complex of walls and gardens, drifted on the Yucatan current. Marine-park rules and a 1996 grounding history sit under the fame.
Bloody Bay Wall?
A Little Cayman wall that starts in shallow water and drops into deep blue, a Caribbean wall-teaching site.
Why is Bonaire different?
A 1979 marine park, a shore-tag system, and a no-anchor culture that made the island an etiquette laboratory.
Kittiwake?
A US Navy submarine-rescue ship sunk in 2011 off Grand Cayman as an artificial reef, shallower and more planned than a war grave.
Caribbean reefs were fished, pearled and sailed long before sport diving. The destination era is 1960s-70s club boats, a 1979 Bonaire park, 1980s Belize reserves, and a later fashion for sinking clean ships as reefs.
The history is a tag and a wall.
Timeline
- Fish and sail
A working sea.
- Cozumel and Cayman clubs
The first storefront maps.
- Bonaire Marine Park
A shore-tag template.
- Hol Chan
Belize writes a cut into law.
- Cozumel grounding era
Park politics after ship damage.
- Cruise-snorkel mass
Pontoons and stingray sandbars.
- Kittiwake sunk
A planned artificial reef.
- Lionfish and bleaching
New brief sentences.
Eras
- Work — Sail and fish — A sea, not a logo.
- 1960-1987 — Club islands — Cayman, Cozumel, Bonaire.
- 1987-2011 — Park paper — Hol Chan, tags, wrecks.
- 2011-now — Heat and ethics — Lionfish, rays, bleaching.
Milestones
- Bonaire 1979 — Shore diving as a park.
- Hol Chan 1987 — A cut as a reserve.
- Kittiwake 2011 — A clean sinking as policy.
- Lionfish hunts — A new, argued ritual.
The Caribbean as a destination is a 1979 tag wearing a cruise lanyard. The wall is older than both.