This is one of the shallowest dives in the marine park in Cozumel. It's often visited by snorkeling tour boats. Many of the dive charter boats here group their diving customers by experience and take them to spots that suit their level. Since this was my first visit to Cozumel, I was put on a boat with very inexperienced divers (the dive master, who was the most cheerfully-patient dive master I've ever come across, had to explain how a BCD worked and had to calm down a diver who was afraid to put their face in the water). From what other divers here told me, you have to dive with a company several times and build up a relationship with them before they are comfortable taking you to the better, more famous Cozumel dive sites. This site was mostly 17-20' deep. I've heard internet people say that Cozumel isn't worth visiting anymore since the reefs are dead. They must be referring to this site (the other, deeper sites I visited seemed great to me). Here, the coral was all white and bleached and the reefs were covered with some kind of grey-brown algae. Back in "the day", this must have been a pretty good site judging by the dramatic topography of coral mini-pinnacles all up in the bright shallows.
The dive master led us away from the Columbia Shallows reef across a wide sandy area with sea grass. We saw a eagle ray in the distance, but it was too far away for a picture. I did see a couple of stingrays on the sand. We reached some more reefs that were part of the regular Columbia dive site. This area was a bit deeper (50-60') and seemed more colourful. There was still lots of white coral bleaching, but there were more sponges, which are mostly what provides the colour on Caribbean reefs. The far side of these reefs seemed to drop down much deeper, but we stayed on the shallower side.
