Do you qualify to dive at the world's famous Blue Hole of Belize?

Probably, yes. Diver qualifications needed to dive at Belize Blue Hole must be those of advanced PADI open water diver in good physical shape and good condition of mental health. Anyway, at least two years of previous active scuba diving is recommended. Also you must know your maximum depth range as defined by PADI for certified recreational scuba divers.

The total time of the Great Belize Blue Hole dive normally doesn't exceed 25-30 minutes, with maximum 8-10 minutes to spend at the lowest point of their dive, which may approximate 130-140 feet. The temperature, as measured at the depth of 130 feet (40 m) has been noticed to remain around 76 degrees F (24 C) all year round. As you descend, the water blue gradually intensifies to finally reach dark-blue shade, and hence the name of the dive site - Blue Hole. This all said, it is surprising, but the Blue Hole still can be dived without necessarily carrying a diving torch, because the water in the depth is clear and still - the dive site is characterized by complete absence of any sort of underwater flows and currents.

In fact, descending down to the depth of 90 feet is all but ease and pleasure, which scuba diver gets from contemplating various marine creatures behaving and swimming undisturbed in their natural environment: reef sharks, paying no attention to scuba diver; schools of gorgonians, sea fans, tunicates, manta rays, and, of course, the Blue Hole's thick yet so much pristine coral. The Blue Hole area is a sanctuary area protected by the Belize Audubon Society and is considered a Belize National Monument that was also recognized a World Heritage site in 1997. Blue Hole is a part of Lighthouse Reef, and it forms a part of the Lighthouse Reef marine life's bigger habitat. Variety of the Belize Blue Hole's marine life is not as abundant as one would expect, but can be observed and explored down to the depth of 120 feet, while lower than that you practically don't see any sea creatures, which is absolutely surprising to a scuba diver accustomed to the fact that normally they are surrounded by plenty of colorful marine life. The point is there's no free circulation of water inside the Blue Hole, and that's the reason why there's so little marine life below the Great Blue Hole's shallow depths.

Well, when you reach the depth of approximately 90 feet, that's the point where the scenery abruptly changes, many divers would resort to comparing it to something like as if you were about to descend down to abyss, sort of a frightening yet exciting sensation. At the depth of 100 feet you enter kind of a vertical tunnel leading down further towards actually the underwater cavern.

The famous giant stalactites inside the cavern of Blue Hole. Click on the image to enlarge.

The stalactites and stalagmites found at 150 foot depth range from an impressive 30 - 40 feet (9 - 12 meters) in length and 5 - 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) in diameter.

If scuba diver continues descending further inside the cavern down to the bigger depths as deep as 140 feet, there their breathing becomes much harder than it were at half that depth, for you have to inhale and then exhale dense air supplied for you to breath with from your scuba diving tanks, which means more effort is required from behalf of scuba diver, as someone observed. Note that 140 feet depth exceeds the range of depths recommended for PADI certified recreational divers.

At big depths like this some people get exposed to the hazards associated with nitrogen narcosis, and it's one of the real dangers since they risk to loose mental control over the way they start to behave. Some scuba divers have been reported to react inadequately like taking off their diver masks, removing their regulators from their mouths, starting to get driven by an uncontrollable desire to continue their descent even deeper, getting cut against the stalactites they would start touching and hugging etc.

What is, in fact, called "blue hole" in scuba diver's language? Blue hole, alternately referred to as vertical cave, is a submarine cave or sinkhole. It is a roughly circular, steep-walled depression that is typically anoxic below a certain depth. The most famous world's blue holes that are popular with scuba divers are: Blue Hole in Dahab, Egypt, on the coast of the Red Sea * Blue Hole at Gozo, Malta * Dean's Blue Hole, Bahamas * the Blue Cave off the coast of Korcula, one of Croatia's biggest islands * blue hole off the north coast of Jamaica * Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone * blue hole outside of Port Antonio, Jamaica * the Grotto, Saipan, Micronesia * Blue Eye, Albania * Blue Hole in Ceby off the Philippines and Palau * Castalia Blue Hole in Ohio, USA * Snake River, Idaho, blue hole *