HBMS
Bermuda Workshop
North Rock
North Rock is the largest coral reef in Bermuda. This shallow
coral reef covers a huge area around the North Rock
Navigational Beacon.
This area was actually a land mass and could be visible above
the surface even until early 1900’s. But as the sea levels have
risen with time, the reef has gone below the waters.
It is now about an 11 mile boat trip across the North Lagoon
to the beacon. This journey will take about 45 minutes each
way aboard our ship. It is on the Northern edge of the
Bermuda platform and the water drops off very quickly to
1,000’s of feet deep on the North side.
The rock is fitted with a navigational beacon that acts as a guide to large ships as they approach Bermuda. The
area around North Rock has been a gravesite for many ships. The
ships have met their ill fate on the shallow blind Mills breaker reefs,
which are to the south-east of North rock. Some ship captains have
mistaken the North Rock beacon to be the one from St. David’s
lighthouse and wrongly assumed that the ship was in deep safe
water. Those mistakes mostly turned out to be fatal.
No one really knows exactly how many wrecks lie there. Due to the
shallow depths in this region
around the North Rock coral reef,
the pounding North Atlantic has virtually demolished many of these wrecks.
The evidence of the ships can still be seen with many artifacts embedded in
the shallow breaker reefs. Depths here are within 25 feet unless you are
moving far away from the dive site to the North, where the water quickly
gets much deeper.
The fishes here are quite friendly and often follow the divers and
snorkelers. The shallow areas here dramatic reef coverage. Huge sea fans
and a vast variety of corals make it a perfect feeding ground for many
animals. The sandy flats are home to the local population of Conch and a
group of Trumpet Tritons. Due to the strictly enforced “No Fishing Zone”,
the entire North Rock area has abundant fish stock.