North Channel

The North Channel cuts between two of the Los Testigos islands, funneling current through a narrow gap where reef walls on both sides are packed with sea fans, tube sponges, and barrel sponges reaching 1.5 meters in height, while the channel floor is an extraordinary carpet of soft corals in purple and yellow. The current through the channel attracts schooling barracuda — hundreds at a time forming the characteristic cylindrical tornado of the great barracuda — along with green moray eels hunting the rubble margins and eagle rays gliding past in pairs. Slack water periods allow exploratory drifting along the walls while stronger flow concentrates all the action at the channel mouth in a genuinely dramatic spectacle.