Fishing & Bioluminescence

Fishing is a year round sport in the Cayman Islands with the choice of reef, deep sea and shore fishing. With a plentiful supply of fish, experienced fishers and novices alike will return to shore happy with their catch!

Reef Fishing

Grand Cayman is surrounded by a reef which is home to an abundance of tropical fish. Reef fishing is a great activity for the whole family as even the youngest fishers are almost guaranteed success. Expect to reel in yellowtail, snapper, blue runner, bar jack and barracuda. When in season, you can also fish for conch and lobster.

Deep Sea Fishing

The joy of deep sea fishing in Cayman is that the drop-off is only a quarter of a mile from shore where depths reach 800m. Not far after that, the Cayman Trench extends down to 20,000ft where the sea is teeming with gamefish. Expect to catch wahoo, tuna, mahi mahi, barracuda and blue marlin weighing over 20lbs. The heaviest fish ever caught in Cayman waters was a 250lb blue marlin! Wahoo season runs from NovemberMarch, and tuna from March-June. Marlin and mahi mahi are plentiful throughout the year. Fishing trips tend to leave around 7am and some tour operators will serve lunch on board.

Shore Fishing

Anyone is allowed to fish from the shore but the practice of catch and release is encouraged and mandated in some places, including South Sound.

Fishing Trips & Charters

Contact Frank’s Water Sports (SEE PAGE 44) for group fishing charters. Cayman Eco Adventures (SEE PAGE 40), Cayman Luxury Charters (SEE PAGE 41), Crazy Crab (SEE

PAGE 42), Get Bent Charters (SEE PAGE 45), and Reel-Fin-Addict (SEE PAGE 47) all offer private reef fishing. Cayman is lucky to be one of a handful of places worldwide where you can experience the bioluminescence phenomenon. Bioluminescence is the emission of light by living organisms that live in the water. There is such a high concentration of these organisms in the Bay that when the water is disturbed it glows brightly. Cayman Kayaks

(SEE PAGE 126) and Crazy Crab (SEE PAGE 42) offer evening tours so you can witness this wonderful light show!

protecting cayman’s coral

Most suncream contains oxybenzone, an ingredient that is proving toxic to coral reefs around the world. Recent studies have shown that the suncream we lather on – all 6,00014,000 tonnes of it – remains in the ocean long after we are gone. It is estimated that 25% of the suncream we apply is dispersed into the ocean in the first 20 minutes of us entering.

This is causing numerous problems to an already fragile ecosystem and it has recently been declared the third biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide. Oxybenzone has been found to be mutating the DNA of coral, having a similar effect on DNA as gasoline would. It harms the coral’s immune system and reproductivity often making it completely sterile. This infertility, paired with the fact that oxybenzone causes the outer skin of coral to turn to bone, has made scientists label heavily affected areas “zombie reefs”. These alarming new discoveries prompted researchers to try and ban oxybenzone suncream altogether, but until then there are more reef-friendly options: 1) look for suncream that contains nonnanonized titanium oxide or zinc oxide 2) avoid suncream with oxybenzone and 3) avoid spray suncream. Also consider wearing a sun top/rash guard. They can be bought at Waterman (SEE PAGE 84) and Funky Monkey (SEE PAGE 76). Reeffriendly suncream can be bought at Kirk Market (SEE PAGE 13), Le Visage in Camana

Bay (SEE PAGES 86-95) and Waterman (SEE PAGE 84).