Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park

This national park protects the reef system along Cozumel's southwestern shore, from Paradise Reef down past Palancar and Colombia to Punta Sur, together with lagoons and mangrove at the island's tip. Declared in 1996 after decades of informal protection, it governs the drift diving that made the island famous: the Yucatán Current sweeps north along a chain of coral buttresses, sand channels, and swim-throughs, carrying divers past sponges, splendid toadfish — a Cozumel endemic — turtles, and eagle rays. Nearly all of Cozumel's marquee sites sit inside the park, and its rules shape how every dive here is run, from mandatory guides to the bracelet fee each diver wears.

The rules that bind divers

Divers enter with licensed operators and pay a daily park bracelet fee; guides are required, groups drift with the current, and boats follow rather than anchor — anchoring on reef is banned throughout. Fishing and collecting are prohibited in the dive zones, gloves and knives are barred for recreational divers, touching coral or wildlife is an offense, and reef-safe practice is expected. The park closes individual reefs periodically for recovery — sections of the southern reefs were rested for months after 2019 coral-disease and hurricane damage — and current closures should be checked locally.

Fees & permits: Daily marine-park bracelet fee per diver/snorkeler, collected by operators; a separate fee applies to the Punta Sur zone.