Aruba Marine Park

The Aruba Marine Park protects the island's richest underwater habitats along the sheltered leeward coast, the calm, clear southwest side where the trade winds press the water flat and visibility stays high. Established to safeguard reefs, seagrass meadows, and shipwrecks under growing visitor pressure, the park spans a network of zones from the reefs off Oranjestad down toward the southern tip at Baby Beach.

Because Aruba sits outside the hurricane belt, the leeward water is warm, calm, and divable in every season. The park's signature site is the Antilla shipwreck, a 120-metre German freighter scuttled in 1940 and now one of the Caribbean's largest and most popular wreck dives, draped in coral and alive with fish. Snorkelers do well at the gentle reef-fringed shallows of Boca Catalina, Malmok Beach, and the seagrass beds of Mangel Halto.

Reefs, wrecks and marine life

The protected zones shelter parrotfish, angelfish, moray eels, sea turtles, and rays, with sponges and soft corals coating the reefs and wrecks. Calm conditions make it ideal for an Antilla shipwreck dive or a relaxed session of snorkeling at Boca Catalina. The healthy mangrove nurseries of Spanish Lagoon feed the marine life that thrives here offshore.

• Never touch or stand on the coral, and use reef-safe sunscreen to protect the park.
• Conditions are calmest and clearest in the morning before the afternoon breeze builds.
• Dive the Antilla wreck with a certified local operator; depths and currents vary.

Reached from beaches and dive boats all along the leeward coast, the marine park is the underwater heart of Aruba's snorkeling, diving, and catamaran scene, divable and rewarding in every season.