Silver Caves is a series of caverns, grottoes, swimthroughs and caves literally filled with silversides and other baitfish.

Name Dive Site:	Silver Caves
Depth:	39-137ft (12-42m)
Inserted/Added by:	lighthouse_reef
Rated:	Rated not yet
Specifications:

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Just north of Cathedral, the reef forms a promontory and is shallow and deeply segmented. Coral development sets this site apart from all others. Huge coral formations create a framework riddled with cavities that make excellent hiding places for animals trying to escape predators.

Exciting discoveries can be made here and photographers can have some interesting challenges. Many of the nocturnal or light-sensitive animals can be found here during the daytime. A flashlight will reveal brittle starfish and sea urchins, waiting for sunset in their cave refuge. It will also turn what normally appears as a black hole into a brilliantly colored grotto. Red and orange encrusting sponges and moss animals carpet the sides and ceilings. Some searching among the richly colored surfaces may lead you to discover basket starfish and some rare sponges in shallow water. Basket starfish look very different during the day. With their arms wrapped around their round bodies, they form thin, white disks. Cave ceilings are an especially favorite resting place for these animals.

Few people have seen and recognized sclerosponges. In fact, they were considered extinct and were only rediscovered in the last 20 years when diving made studying deep reefs possible. These sponges are important reef builders below 150 ft and are now known to occupy caves in shallow water. Although rare, you can see them at this dive site. Peer into the grottos and look among the red sponges for small mounds of yellow to pale green that have the typical star pattern of the sclerosponges.

Like Silver Point, this site takes its name from a wealth of small silverside minnows. Countless numbers, perhaps even millions, of these small fish swim in such tight formations that they obscure the reef. Quite often the shoals will be attacked by hungry jacks and other predators all very good for divers with underwater video equipment. As a diver swims through this avalanche of fish, they open in unison and the diver enters a tunnel of living fish which parts ahead of him and closes the door behind him. Like all shoals they move in perfect harmony, as though obeying a single command inaudible to the human ear.

It is above this stretch of reef that some of the larger live-aboard dive boats anchor. The depth here is never more than 20 to 25 feet (68 m) above the ledge.

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