Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (BBRRS), inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, is comprised of seven protected areas:

• Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve

• Blue Hole Natural Monument

• Half Moon Caye Natural Monument

• South Water Caye Marine Reserve

• Glover's Reef Marine Reserve

• Laughing Bird Caye National Park

• Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve

The unique array of reef types within one self-contained area distinguishes this from other reef systems. The site is one of the most pristine reef ecosystems in the Western Hemisphere.

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System provides essential habitat for many threatened marine species; species of conservation concern include the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), green turtle (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus).

Major bird colonies include the red-footed booby (Sula sula) on Half-Moon Caye, the brown booby (Sula leucogaster) on Man O'War Caye, and the common noddy (Anous stolidus) on Glover's Reef.

Approximately 247 taxa of marine flora have been described within the BBRRS. Over 500 fish, 65 scleractinian coral, 45 hydroid, and 350 mollusk species have also been identified, in addition to a great diversity of sponges, marine worms, and crustaceans.

Belize Barrier Reef

The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300 km (190 mi) long section of the 900 km (560 mi) Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is continuous from Cancún on the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula through the Riviera Maya tourism district and up to Honduras, making it the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

The coastal area of Belize is an outstanding natural system consisting of the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons, and estuaries. The system's seven sites are a significant habitat for threatened species.

The Belize Barrier Reef is one interconnected system comprised of seven marine protected areas along the length of the barrier reef, the shelf lagoon, and offshore atolls.

It is the most significant barrier reef in the Northern hemisphere. It represents all the main reef and coastal habitats, including rare littoral forests on sand cayes that are home to endangered flora and fauna.

The reef complex comprises approximately 450 sand and mangrove cayes. The seven protected areas that constitute the BBRRS include 12% of the entire Reef Complex. The unique array of reef types within one self-contained area distinguishes the BBRRS from other reef systems.

The Belize Barrier Reef is unique worldwide for its many reef types in a relatively small area. As the longest barrier reef in the Northern and Western Hemispheres and distinctive on account of its size, array of reef types, and the luxuriance of corals thriving in a pristine condition, it provides a classic example of the evolutionary history of reefs and reef systems.

The rise and fall of sea level over the millennia, coupled with natural karst topography and clear waters, results in a diverse submarine seascape of patch reefs, fringing reefs, pinnacle reefs, barrier reefs, as well as off-shelf atolls, rare deep-water coral reefs and other unique geological features such as the Blue Hole and Rocky Point where the barrier reef touches the shore.

The UNESCO property contains three atolls outside the Belize Barrier Reef complex: Turneffe Island, Lighthouse Reef, and Glover's Reef. The Barrier Reef and atolls exhibit some of the best reef growth in the Caribbean.

Home to a diverse array of top predators on the land, sea, and in the air, the Bacalar Chico jaguars, the Blue Hole's great hammerheads, and the ospreys of Glovers Reef are a testament to the reef system's importance and its ecological integrity.

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System is one interconnected system comprised of seven marine protected areas along the length of the barrier reef, the shelf lagoon, and offshore atolls.

Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve

Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve are located in the northern part of Ambergris Caye. It exhibits a high diversity of habitats, encompassing swamps, grasslands, and various tropical forest assemblages, including a medium semi-deciduous forest and a rare littoral, or beach, forest.

Marine habitats include extensive mangrove and sea grass beds, patch and barrier reefs, and the largest lagoon on the island of Ambergris Caye, Laguna de Cantina.

Within the park, all six species of cats native to Belize have been recorded, including the jaguar and puma. The forests are also home to a population of the endangered White-lipped Peccary.

The mangroves and sea grass beds are home to manatees and crocodiles. Near Rocky Point lies the most significant nesting beach for loggerhead and green sea turtles in Belize and one of the largest for hawksbill turtles.

Blue Hole Natural Monument (Great Blue Hole)

The Great Blue Hole is a giant submarine sinkhole off the coast of Belize that lies near the center of the Lighthouse Reef and is part of the more extensive Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System.

The hole is circular, over 300 m (984 ft) across and 108 m (354 ft) deep. It was formed during several episodes of quaternary glaciation when sea levels were much lower.

Analysis of stalactites found in the Great Blue Hole shows that formation occurred 153,000; 66,000; 60,000; and 15,000 years ago. Then, as the ocean began to rise again, the cave was flooded.

It is a popular spot among recreational scuba divers who are lured by the opportunity to dive in sometimes crystal-clear water and meet several species of fish, including Midnight Parrotfish, Caribbean reef shark, and other juvenile fish species.

Half Moon Caye Natural Monument

Half Moon Caye Natural Monument was the first nature reserve established in Belize under the National Park Systems Act in 1981 and the first marine protected area in Central America.

The cay is located about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Belize City at the southeast corner of the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, the outer coral atoll of Belize's three atolls.

The Half Moon Caye Wall is a well-known dive spot called the "6,000 feet of vertical abyss". Divers can see diverse marine life within this structure, including corals, garden eels, sponge formations, eagle rays, sea turtles, and groupers.

The coastal forest, composed primarily of the orange-flowered siricote tree, provides an endangered and fragile habitat that supports one of the only viable breeding grounds for the red-footed booby colony in the western Caribbean.

The booby colony supports the forest's stability by providing guano as fertilizer. It is also a habitat for the endemic Island leaf-toed gecko (also known as the Belize Atoll gecko) and Allison's anole lizard.

The southeastern part of the island serves annually as a sea turtle nesting ground from May to November for the loggerhead, hawksbill, and green turtles: all endangered species.

South Water Caye Marine Reserve

South Water Caye Marine Reserve is the largest marine reserve in the Stann Creek district of Belize. It is located approximately 15 miles southeast of Dangriga town. It was established in 1996 and covered 47,702 hectares (117,870 acres) of mangrove and coastal ecosystems.

It includes the crown reserve of Man of War Caye, a nesting site for the brown booby and magnificent frigatebird. The reserve comprises a mosaic of coastal and marine habitats, including rare littoral forests, mangroves, seagrass beds, and diverse coral reef types.

Glover's Reef Marine Reserve

Glover's Reef Marine Reserve is a partially submerged atoll located off the southern coast of Belize, approximately 45 kilometers from the mainland. It forms part of the outermost boundary of the Belize Barrier Reef and is one of its three atolls.

The oval-shaped atoll is 32 km (20 mi) long and 12 km (7.5 mi) wide. The interior lagoon is dotted with around 850 reef patches and pinnacles rising to the surface.

Major cays include Amounme Point Cay, Northeast Cay, Long Cay, Middle Cay, and Southwest Cay. Glover's harbors one of the most extraordinary diversity of reef types in the western Caribbean.

A sizeable spawning site for the endangered Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) is located at the northeastern end of the atoll. It has been identified as one of only two viable sites remaining for the species, of nine originally known locations.

In 2002, it was declared a special marine reserve, permanently closed to fishing.

Laughing Bird Caye National Park

Laughing Bird Caye National Park is an island located 11 miles off the coast of Placencia Village in the Stann Creek District of Belize on the western side of the Victoria Channel.

It is a long island that sits on an unusually long narrow ridge of the reef called faro. Faro is an angular atoll on a continental shelf, also called a shelf atoll.

Like other atolls, faro has a steep drop-off and a central lagoon enclosed in the reef. However, this Laughing Bird Faro is separated from the mainland and the barrier reef by deep channels around the faro.

Due to the uniqueness of the Caye, the faro, and the abundant and diverse marine habitats and life found there, the Caye was declared a protected area in 1981.

Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve

Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve is an uninhabited atoll in the Gulf of Honduras. The marine reserve covers an area of approximately 125 sq km (48 sq mi). It includes fourteen sand and mangrove cayes along the southernmost tip of the Belize Barrier Reef, nearly 40 miles due east of Punta Gorda.

The outer portion of the reserve is characterized by shallow water reefs, which occur as a fringe around the cayes. The water depth over these fringing reefs is often less than 4.5 m (15 ft), and some are exposed at low tides.

The drop-off east of the islands is gently sloping, in contrast to the near vertical walls further north and surrounding the outer coral atolls. As a result, the outer reefs support a wide variety of fish.

Often, large schools of jacks or spadefish feed off the outer slope. Nearer the bottom, angelfish, parrotfish, and snappers begin to dominate. The waters are often spectacularly clear as water from the Caribbean washes over and through the reef cuts.

The lagoon area is characterized by silt, sand, and shallow seagrass beds. Some of the most pristine reefs of lettuce coral carpet the ridges which jut into the lagoon from the barrier reef. As the depth increases, the lettuce coral gives way to more coral diversity and sponge and algae species.