Snorkeling in Turks and Caicos: where the reef actually is

The Turks and Caicos have roughly 340 miles of barrier reef — about 240 miles around the Caicos islands and the Caicos Bank, and about 100 miles around the Turks.¹ It is a serious reef system, rated by the islands’ own tourism authority as probably the second finest in the tropical Atlantic after the Mesoamerican reef off Belize and the Yucatán.¹ Almost none of it is reachable from a beach.

That is the fact the brochures bury, and it is the one that shapes your week. The barrier reef runs along the outer edge of the Caicos Bank, a submerged plateau of nearly 1,700 square miles averaging under twenty feet deep, and the coral worth flying for is where that plateau ends and the seabed falls into the Columbus Passage.² From a lounger on Grace Bay, that edge is a boat ride, not a swim.

What you can walk into, from a public beach with free parking, is two patch reefs on the north shore of Providenciales. One of them is clearly better than the other, and almost every guide names them in the same breath. They should not be.

How the islands lie, and which one you want

Forty-plus islands and cays, two banks, and only a handful of places a snorkeler can get in the water. The geography sorts quickly.

Island	Getting there	What the snorkeling is
Providenciales (Provo)	International airport; where nearly everyone stays	Two marked shore reefs off Grace Bay, one hard-to-reach west-coast site, and the departure point for every boat trip
Grand Turk	Domestic flight or cruise call, across the Columbus Passage	A wall that comes close to shore, and the Gibbs Cay stingray trip
South Caicos	Domestic flight	Undeveloped, exposed to the trade winds, and the site of the territory’s most-studied reef decline
Salt Cay	Domestic flight or ferry from Grand Turk	Very quiet; humpback whales pass January to April
West Caicos, French Cay	Uninhabited, boat only, from Provo	The best water in the country, and a half-day or full-day commitment

The practical version: if you are staying on Provo, your snorkeling is two beach reefs plus one boat day. If you are on a cruise call at Grand Turk, it is Gibbs Cay or the wall. Everything else needs a domestic flight.

Smith’s Reef — the best shore snorkeling in the country

This is the one to prioritize, and it is routinely listed second behind its more famous neighbor. visitTCI’s own snorkeling overview is blunt: the Bight Reef is easy to access, but Smith’s Reef offers much more to see.³ On condition it is more specific still — the corals and sponges here “tend to be in healthier condition than what’s found at many of the other easily accessed snorkeling sites on Providenciales.”⁴

It sits just west of Turtle Cove Marina, and it has three public beach accesses that are genuinely different sites rather than three doors onto the same reef.⁴

• West access. The best of the three. Two reef systems close to shore hold plenty of fish but drab coral; the good stuff is across a channel about 100 feet wide and 18 feet deep. That channel is the decision point of the site — cross it and the reef is markedly better, and crossing it is a real swim over deeper water.
• Central access. Two shoal reefs with lush seagrass between them. Coral is less vibrant than at the west access, but this is where the southern stingrays, turtles and big parrotfish tend to be.
• East access. Small coral heads close in, shallow, short swim. This is the children’s option.

Expect angelfish, butterflyfish, trumpetfish, yellowtail snapper, green and hawksbill turtles, southern stingrays, spotted eagle rays and squid.⁴

Two hazards here are worth taking seriously. A current runs parallel to the beach around the rocky point; if it takes you, swim toward shore rather than against it.⁴ And do not snorkel in or near the Turtle Cove Marina canal or the rock jetty — visitTCI’s wording on the boat traffic there is that getting hit “will kill you.”⁴ There is no lifeguard.

The honest weakness of Smith’s Reef is that the reefs “can be a little difficult to find” from the surface.⁴ There are no markers and no trail. Swim out, look for the darker patches, and expect to spend ten minutes searching on your first attempt.

The Bight Reef, or Coral Gardens — the famous one

This is the most popular snorkeling site in the country, and it earns that on access rather than on coral. It is a single main ridge running about 350 feet out from the beach, reaching 15 to 20 feet deep at its outer end, directly off the Bight Beach in the middle of the Grace Bay hotel strip.⁵

On its condition, visitTCI is candid: “the Bight Reef has declined a bit from what it was 20 years ago,” which it attributes to damaging behavior by snorkelers and to sediment from dredging and powerboats.⁵ The same source says the coral “isn’t quite as vibrant as what’s seen at the nearby Smith’s Reef.”⁵ There is also a specific, documented pollution problem here — eutrophication is increasing directly west of the Bight Reef, possibly caused by enriched sewage and landscaping runoff from development.⁶

None of that makes it a bad hour. Hard and soft corals are still present, with the best of them on the deeper eastern side, and green turtles, stingrays, eagle rays, nurse sharks, parrotfish, grouper and barracuda are all regular.⁵ It is simply not the site its reputation suggests, and it should not be the only reef you swim in a week here.

The most important correction about this site: there is no underwater trail. Older guides describe a marked route with interpretive markers. What is in the water is a circle of buoys and rope enclosing a conservation zone you must stay out of — visitTCI’s instruction is “Do not swim inside the circle of buoys.”⁵ The Turks and Caicos Reef Fund fully removed and replaced that swim circle during 2025, sponsored by Andaz Turks and Caicos.⁷ Red marker buoys are visible from the beach, and reef etiquette signs are posted in the dune.⁵

Getting in. Two lanes run down to the beach off Lower Bight Road, between Grace Bay and Turtle Cove: the Coral Gardens Beach Access off Penn’s Road, and the Stubb’s Road Beach Access to the east, usually less crowded. Free parking is available along both.⁵ The park signs are easy to miss, so look for the Coral Gardens and Windsong resort signs instead. There is no lifeguard.

Malcolm’s Road Beach — and the warning that belongs with it

The west coast site, three miles down an unpaved road off the Millennium Highway. It is the only shore entry in the Turks and Caicos that gets you near the wall: decent reef begins around 500 to 700 feet off the beach, and the drop-off lies about 1,600 feet out, falling from roughly 50 feet to more than 7,000.⁸ On a good day the visibility is the best you will see from a beach anywhere in the country, and there is a real chance of sharks and spotted eagle rays.

It also carries a standing crime warning, and that belongs alongside the snorkeling rather than after it. visitTCI’s guidance is explicit: “This area has an elevated risk of crime. Do not leave valuables unattended, and be vigilant,” and “There have been cases of armed robberies against people visiting the beaches in this area.”⁸ Emergency services are limited and response times can be slow.⁸ That is armed robbery against people, not theft from parked cars, and it is the reason this site does not get a straightforward recommendation.

If you go: a 4x4 is recommended but not required, and a compact rental can manage it slowly, with the worst section the final descent from the inland ridge.⁸ There is a pavilion and paved parking at the beach access.⁸ Go in a group, go in the morning, and take nothing you mind losing. This is not a beginner’s site, and the swim out is long enough that a snorkel vest is a reasonable call even for strong swimmers.

The boat day — French Cay, West Caicos and Half Moon Bay

One full or half day on a boat is what turns a Turks and Caicos trip from decent snorkeling into good snorkeling. Three destinations are worth the money.

West Caicos Marine National Park protects 1,153 acres off the western side of the uninhabited island of West Caicos, and it holds some of the best sites in the country.⁹ Low limestone cliffs and small shallow coves make the snorkeling; the wall, dropping from about 45 feet into thousands, makes the diving.⁹

French Cay is a 22-acre sanctuary 18 miles south of Providenciales, on the south wall of the Caicos Banks barrier reef.¹⁰ Because those wall areas take more direct sunlight than comparable sites elsewhere, the corals are noticeably more vibrant.¹⁰ It is also the shark site: gray reef sharks are the common species, with nurse, hammerhead, bull, lemon and tiger sharks appearing at times, and during the June and July mating season large numbers of nurse sharks congregate in the shallows on the leeward side.¹⁰

Landing on French Cay without prior written approval is a serious offense, carrying a fine of up to $50,000 or twelve months’ imprisonment. The sanctuary designation covers the land only. The water is not closed and there is no seasonal closure — you may snorkel and dive there freely, you simply may not step onto the island.

The full-day Edge of the Banks trip reaches both French Cay and West Caicos from Provo. For a shorter outing, a small-group sail and snorkel tour departs from Grace Bay, and a private half-day charter is worth paying for if you want to choose your own sites.

Little Water Cay and Half Moon Bay are the easy version, 499 yards off Providenciales and reachable by kayak, paddleboard or guided eco-tour from Leeward and Blue Haven.¹¹ The cay is a National Trust site with a dock, boardwalk and welcome hut, and it is where you see the endemic rock iguanas. The shallow lagoon on the southern side of Half Moon Bay is calm, easy water. This is the one place a snorkeler pays admission.

Grand Turk — Gibbs Cay and the wall

Grand Turk is a different trip, and for most visitors it is a cruise call rather than a stay. The wall runs close to the western shore, which is why the island has a diving reputation out of proportion to its size.

Gibbs Cay is the signature snorkel excursion: a seven-acre island about a mile off the east coast, with a resident population of southern stingrays long since acclimated to people.¹² Most tours run about thirty minutes of snorkeling south of the island and depart from the Grand Turk Cruise Center or Cockburn Town.¹² The Supreme Snorkeling tour is the common shape of it, adding a shallow reef and a stretch of the wall.

Two rules here are frequently broken and worth knowing before a guide has to tell you. Feeding marine life in the Turks and Caicos is illegal and carries large fines and jail time, and it is prohibited to touch wildlife, including lifting a stingray out of the water for a photograph.¹² These animals are habituated, not tame. Look, do not handle.

When to go — and why the calendar is upside down

Here is the finding most trip plans get backwards. The months with the calmest, clearest water are not the months everybody books.

Months	Sea state	On land	The snorkeling verdict
Jan – Apr	Windiest of the year, swells “a bit higher”13	Dry season, high season, rates 30–50% higher13	The chop is real and the shore reefs get stirred up. Excellent for kiteboarding, mediocre for masks
May – Jun	Calm13	Shoulder rates, quieter beaches	The best window of the year. Calm water, before the heat peak, ahead of the worst storm risk
Jul – Aug	Calm13	Hurricane season open since June, hottest air	Good water, rising risk. Mid-August begins the peak hurricane window13
Sep	Calmest13	Peak hurricane risk13, peak water temperature	Beautiful when it is beautiful, and the month most likely to be canceled
Oct – Dec	Settling	Rainy season runs August to December13	Low season through early November, then high season resumes

Water runs 79 °F to 85 °F (26 °C to 29 °C) across the year and air 75 °F to 95 °F (24 °C to 35 °C), so temperature is never the constraint.¹³ Nobody needs a wetsuit here; a rash guard against the sun is the more useful layer, and our guide to what to wear snorkeling covers the rest.

February, March and April remain the right answer for a general holiday — visitTCI names them as the best combination of weather, prices and availability.¹³ They are not the right answer for the water. If snorkeling is the reason for the trip, take May or June.

What this reef has been through

The Turks and Caicos reef is not what it was ten years ago, and the record is specific enough to be worth stating plainly rather than glossing.

Stony coral tissue loss disease arrived in 2019, first observed on the reefs of South Caicos and West Caicos, and spread to North West Point, Grace Bay, Pine Cay and on toward Middle and North Caicos.¹⁴ It affects around thirty species of hard coral — chiefly the slow-growing boulder and brain corals that build reef structure — and causes up to 80% mortality in some of them.¹⁴ A study of the South Caicos fore reef published in Coral Reefs recorded coral cover falling from a 2012–2018 mean of 2.97% to 1.14% in 2020, a 62% loss, with three species vanishing from the survey plots entirely.¹⁵ That figure is South Caicos only and sits on an already low baseline; it is not a territory-wide number and has not been measured at the Provo beach reefs.

Then the heat. NOAA’s Turks and Caicos monitoring station recorded 21.03 Degree Heating Weeks at the peak on 25 October 2023, and the reef sat at the highest bleaching alert level for ninety consecutive days that year — the most severe heat stress in a record going back to 1985.¹⁶ 2024 reached 16.98 and 2025 reached 10.12; as of late July 2026 the season had barely begun accumulating stress.¹⁶ The Turks and Caicos Reef Fund’s own account is that the 2023–2024 global bleaching event “took a severe toll on the reefs around the Turks and Caicos Islands,” killing more than 75% of the coral in its staghorn nurseries, while adding that the survivors “are continuing to do well in 2026.”¹⁷

What this means for a snorkeler, practically. You will still see a great deal — the fish, turtles and rays are abundant and the reef structure is intact. What has thinned is the living hard coral, particularly the big boulder corals. Go anyway, go in the calm months, and stay off the coral, because the Bight Reef’s decline is attributed in part to snorkelers touching and standing on it.⁵ Restoration work is active: over 5,000 staghorn fragments are growing in nurseries at North West Point.¹⁴

Fees, parks and the rules that are enforced

There is no marine park user fee in the Turks and Caicos. No tag, no wristband, no per-person admission to swim in a national park. This is a genuine and useful difference from Bonaire, where everyone entering the water must buy a nature fee before they get in. Under the National Parks (Fees) Notice, charges fall only on vessels operating within a national park or nature reserve and on other commercial activities carried on for gain — a person swimming off a public beach pays nothing.

The one admission a snorkeler is likely to pay is at Little Water Cay, and it goes to the Turks and Caicos National Trust, an NGO, rather than to government. The Trust charges $20 for the short tour, $25 for the extended tour and $10 for Half Moon Bay access, free to members, with the visitor center open 10:00 to 15:30 Monday to Saturday. Operators frequently fold this into the trip price.

Most of the snorkeling on Providenciales sits inside Princess Alexandra Land and Sea National Park, declared in 1992, which covers Grace Bay, the Bight Beach and Bight Reef, Leeward Beach, Smith’s Reef and a long stretch of the northern barrier reef.¹⁸ Gibbs Cay sits in the Grand Turk Cays Land and Sea National Park.¹²

The rules that actually get enforced across all of them:¹⁸

• No fishing, and no taking conch or lobster, anywhere within a national park.
• No removing shells, coral, plants, animals, sand or historical artifacts.
• No touching or feeding marine life. Feeding carries large fines and jail time.
• Reef-safe sunscreen only — zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.
• No open beach fires, no littering, no loud music, dogs leashed.

Where to stay for the water

Location matters more here than at most Caribbean destinations, because the two shore reefs sit at fixed points on a seven-mile beach and a taxi each way eats the morning.

Windsong on the Reef is the obvious choice for a snorkeler. It sits on the Bight Beach directly beside the Bight Reef, close enough that you walk out of the room and into the water. Its complimentary watersports equipment does not extend to snorkel gear, which carries a rental fee — bring your own, which you should anyway. Our travel snorkel sets guide covers what packs small.

For something well away from the strip, Amanyara sits on the north-west coast near Malcolm’s Road Beach, and runs its own guided snorkeling and boat charters.

Wherever you stay, bring your own mask. Rental gear on Provo is rarely well fitted, and where the good coral is ten minutes’ swim out, a mask that floods costs you the morning. If the islands are one option among several, our guide to snorkeling in the Caribbean sets them against the region, and the Bahamas is the nearest comparison — same water, same bank geology, different economics.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to snorkel in Turks and Caicos?+

May through September, which is not the season most people book. Visit Turks and Caicos Islands describes the calmest ocean conditions as running from May to September, and says wind speeds and ocean swells are "usually a bit higher" from January through April — the dry months that are also the islands' high season. The reason the winter months sell is weather and prices on land, not water. If the snorkeling is the point of the trip, May and June are the sweet spot, with calm water, temperatures before the September peak, and less exposure to the worst of the hurricane risk, which visitTCI puts at mid-August through September.

Do you have to pay a park fee to snorkel in Turks and Caicos?+

No. There is no per-person marine park fee in the Turks and Caicos, and no tag or permit for snorkelers. This is a real difference from Bonaire, where every person entering the water must buy a nature fee. Under the National Parks (Fees) Notice, charges apply only to vessels operating within a national park or nature reserve and to other commercial activities carried on for gain, not to a person swimming from a public beach. The one charge a snorkeler is likely to meet is the Turks and Caicos National Trust's admission at Little Water Cay, which is a private conservation charge rather than a government park fee.

Which is better, Smith's Reef or the Bight Reef?+

Smith's Reef, and it is not especially close. visitTCI puts it plainly — the Bight Reef is easy to access, but Smith's Reef offers much more to see — and describes the corals and sponges at Smith's as tending to be in healthier condition than at the other easily accessed sites on Providenciales. The Bight Reef's advantages are that it is simpler to find, it is a single ridge you cannot get lost on, and it sits right in front of the Grace Bay hotels. Take the Bight Reef if you have small children or an hour to spare, and Smith's Reef if you actually want to look at coral.

Can you snorkel the Turks and Caicos barrier reef from shore?+

Essentially no, and this is the thing to understand before you book. The barrier reef sits at the outer edge of the Caicos Bank, miles offshore, and the shore snorkeling on Providenciales is on patch reefs well inside it. The one shore site that gets you near the drop-off is Malcolm's Road Beach on the west coast, where the wall lies about 1,600 feet out, and that is a serious swim rather than a beginner's site. Everything else on the true reef and the wall is a boat day out of Providenciales or Grand Turk.

Are there sharks in the Turks and Caicos, and are they a problem?+

There are, and they are not a problem for snorkelers. Gray reef sharks are the most commonly seen species, with nurse, hammerhead, bull, lemon and tiger sharks appearing at times, mostly at the offshore sites rather than the beach reefs. The one predictable aggregation is at French Cay, where visitTCI reports large numbers of nurse sharks congregating in the shallows on the leeward side during the June and July mating season. Nurse sharks are bottom-feeders, and the boat operators run that trip as a highlight rather than a hazard.

Is the coral in Turks and Caicos still healthy?+

It has had a hard decade, and the honest answer depends on where you are looking. Stony coral tissue loss disease reached the islands in 2019, and a study of the South Caicos fore reef published in Coral Reefs recorded coral cover there falling by 62% between the 2012–2018 baseline and 2020. The Turks and Caicos Reef Fund reports that the 2023–2024 global bleaching event took a severe toll and killed more than 75% of the coral in its own staghorn nurseries, while adding that the survivors are doing well in 2026. None of that has been measured at the Bight Reef or Smith's Reef specifically. What is documented at the beach reefs is slower and more local, with visitTCI attributing the Bight Reef's decline over twenty years to snorkeler damage, dredging sediment and powerboats.

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Sources

Every fee, rule, access detail, dimension and condition figure below was checked on 31 July 2026.

Footnotes

1. “The Turks and Caicos Barrier Reef.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 24 July 2026, visittci.com. Reef length of approximately 340 miles (547 km) in total, 240 miles around the Caicos and 100 miles around the Turks; the “second finest reef system in the tropical Atlantic” ranking. ↩ ↩²

2. “Turks & Caicos Coral Reef Facts.” Turks and Caicos Reef Fund, tcreef.org. Caicos Bank area of nearly 1,700 square miles at under 20 feet average depth; Columbus Passage 7,000 feet deep and 20 miles wide; approximately 60 coral species and over 250 fish species. ↩

3. “Snorkeling in Providenciales.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 22 April 2026, visittci.com. The direct comparison between the Bight Reef and Smith’s Reef. ↩

4. “Smith’s Reef, Providenciales.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 30 July 2026, visittci.com. The three public accesses and how they differ; the 100-foot wide, 18-foot deep channel at the west access; coral condition relative to other accessible Provo sites; the current around the point; marina and jetty boat traffic; species list. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. “The Bight Reef (Coral Gardens), Providenciales.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 27 May 2026, visittci.com. Reef extent of about 350 feet and 15–20 foot outer depth; the decline over twenty years and its attributed causes; the comparison to Smith’s Reef; the buoyed conservation zone and the instruction not to swim inside it; Penn’s Road and Stubb’s Road accesses and free parking; posted rules. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

6. “Environmental Conservation.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, visittci.com. Increasing eutrophication directly west of the Bight Reef, attributed to sewage and landscaping runoff from development. ↩

7. “Summer 2025.” Turks and Caicos Reef Fund newsletter, tcreef.org. Full removal and replacement of the Bight Reef snorkel circle, sponsored by Andaz Turks and Caicos. ↩

8. “Malcolm’s Road Beach, Providenciales.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 30 July 2026, visittci.com. The crime and armed-robbery warning and the note on limited emergency services; road condition and the 4x4 recommendation; pavilion and paved parking; reefs at 500–700 feet and the wall at 1,600 feet dropping from about 50 feet to over 7,000. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

9. “West Caicos Marine National Park.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 24 July 2026, visittci.com. Park size of 1,153 acres (467 hectares); the cliffs, coves and wall from about 45 feet; prohibited activities. ↩ ↩²

10. “French Cay.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 4 May 2026, visittci.com. Sanctuary status and the requirement for permission to land; 22 acres; 18 miles south of Providenciales; position on the south wall and the resulting light and coral vibrancy; shark species and the June–July nurse shark aggregation on the leeward side. ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. “Little Water Cay (Iguana Island).” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 30 July 2026, visittci.com. Distance of 499 yards from Providenciales; National Trust management, dock, boardwalk and welcome hut; access by tour boat, kayak and charter; the Half Moon Bay lagoon. ↩

12. “Gibbs Cay, Grand Turk.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 1 May 2026, visittci.com. Distance of about one mile from Grand Turk; the seven-acre island and the Grand Turk Cays Land and Sea National Park; southern stingrays; the prohibitions on feeding marine life and on touching or lifting stingrays, and the associated penalties; the typical thirty-minute snorkel and the departure points. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. “Best Times to Visit the Turks and Caicos.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 24 July 2026, visittci.com. May–September as the calmest ocean conditions and January–April as the windier months with higher swells; February–April as the best overall combination of weather, prices and availability; hurricane season June–November with peak risk mid-August through September; high season December–April with rates 30–50% higher; dry season January–April and rainy season August–December; air 75–95 °F and water 79–85 °F. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

14. “Projects.” Turks and Caicos Reef Fund, tcreef.org. Stony coral tissue loss disease arriving in the Turks and Caicos in 2019, first observed at South Caicos and West Caicos and spreading to North West Point, Grace Bay, Pine Cay, Middle and North Caicos; around thirty affected hard coral species, mostly slow-growing reef-builders, with up to 80% mortality in some; over 5,000 staghorn fragments in nurseries at North West Point and the coral genetics biobank. ↩ ↩² ↩³

15. Heres, M. M., Farmer, B. H., Elmer, F., & Hertler, H. “Ecological consequences of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease in the Turks and Caicos Islands.” Coral Reefs, published 15 February 2021, link.springer.com. South Caicos fore reef coral cover falling from a 2012–2018 mean of 2.97% ± 1.12% to 1.14% ± 0.65% in 2020, described in the abstract as a 62% loss; species richness at its lowest recorded point; Dichocoenia spp., Eusmilia fastigiata and Meandrina meandrites absent from all surveys for the first time. ↩

16. “Coral Reef Watch 5 km Virtual Station: Turks and Caicos.” NOAA, time series to 29 July 2026, coralreefwatch.noaa.gov. Peak Degree Heating Weeks of 21.03 on 25 October 2023, with ninety consecutive days at the highest alert level carried in that record; 16.98 in 2024 and 10.12 in 2025; 0.31 as of 29 July 2026. This is a satellite average across a polygon covering the archipelago rather than a measurement at any single reef. ↩ ↩²

17. “Coral Bleaching.” Turks and Caicos Reef Fund, tcreef.org. The 2023–2024 global bleaching event taking “a severe toll” on Turks and Caicos reefs, over 75% mortality in the organization’s Acropora nurseries, and the survivors continuing to do well in 2026. ↩

18. “Princess Alexandra National Park.” Visit Turks and Caicos Islands, last reviewed 30 July 2026, visittci.com. Park declared in 1992; coverage of Grace Bay Beach, Leeward Beach, Bight Beach, Smith’s Reef, the northern barrier reef and the nature reserve cays; the list of prohibited activities and the note that violations can result in large fines and jail time. ↩ ↩²