Utopia Village — Belize Coral Reef Underwater

This underwater camera streams live from the Turneffe Atoll on the Belize Barrier Reef — the largest reef system in the Northern and Western Hemispheres and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mounted below the surface off Utopia Village, the feed shows the everyday traffic of a healthy Caribbean reef: schools of blue tang and sergeant majors, parrotfish grazing the coral, the occasional barracuda hanging in the current, and rays gliding across the sand. Visibility in this part of the Caribbean is famously good, often 80 to 100 feet, and the water stays a bath-warm 78–84°F year-round. Marine activity is highest in daylight, with the busiest fish movement in the morning and again in the late afternoon as the reef shifts toward its night cycle. Lighting and clarity are best on calm, sunny days. Turneffe is one of three atolls off Belize and a renowned destination for diving, fly-fishing the flats for bonefish and permit, and snorkeling. The wider barrier reef stretches some 190 miles and includes the famous Great Blue Hole, a 400-foot-deep marine sinkhole made famous by Jacques Cousteau. The reef shelters manatees, sea turtles, and seasonal whale sharks near Gladden Spit.