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The Rock aka Ocean Hole (Rock Sound)
Eleuthera Island, Bahamas
Max Depth: 101-110ft/31-34m
Entry Type: Boat
Bottom Composition: Sand
Aquatic Life: Plenty To See
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Rating: 3.00 by 2 divers
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The Rock aka Ocean Hole (Rock Sound) is a boat accessible salt water dive site, located in Eleuthera Island, Bahamas. This dive site has an average rating of 3.00 out of 5 from 2 scuba divers. The maximum depth is 101-110ft/31-34m.
There is a cool fresh water cave that goes down in the corals. Cool marine life.
Info on other sites;
http://eleuthera.com/divespots.htmlFrom
http://www.projecteleuthera.org/underwater-sites-1Ocean Hole (Rock Sound)
This massive ocean hole is one of Eleuthera’s most famous landmarks. The hole is home to a school of grouper and gray snapper which were stocked many years ago by local fishermen. My understanding is that the main part of Ocean Hole averages about 90 feet deep. However, at the southwest corner (a compass bearing of 211 degrees from the main deck beneath the staircase) lies the legendary "bottomless" part of the Ocean Hole which has been verified by tracking dye to be a very deep tunnel to the ocean (as with most ocean holes on Eleuthera, sufficiently deep that no fish ocean fish pass under to the ocean hole).
A few years ago (as recently as 2004), the Ocean Hole was relatively clear, and features on the bottom (reportedly including an old car) could be seen from the surface thanks to the water-cleaning parrotfish that lived within. However, when the area was improved by adding the park, pruned branches were allowed to fall into the hole, the sap from which altered the chemistry of the water enough to kill off the parrotfish. Until the parrotfish are restocked, the top part of Ocean Hole remains green and opaque, making for very dark, low-visibility diving (and poor quality photographs - sorry about that!)
On February 28, 2010, I did an exploratory scuba dive on the southwest part of the hole. The site is really like three dives in one.
Above 40 feet: green water with occasional fish along ledges. Visibility 10 - 15 feet.40 feet: halocline, dropping down into much warmer water (at least 10 degrees)50-60 feet: Brownish/red hydrogen sulfide layer; sediment strata creates interesting 2-dimensional miragesBelow 60 feet: Dark brown/pitch black, water starts to cool off again.
90 feet: wall drops away, this is either the tunnel entrance or the hole getting wider. Visibility 25 feet below the H2S layer.
I’d used so much of my air exploring the rock contours of the area that I was unable to explore down below 90 feet. However, I had 15 - 25 feet of visibility, and can verify that the bottom lies somewhere below 110 feet.