Blue Holes And Spectacular Coral Reefs, Andros, Bahamas

The island is filled with natural beauty. The east coast of Andros Island lies along the Tongue of the Ocean, a deep oceanic trench. In part because of this location, the east coast of the island is bordered by the best developed fringing reef system in all of The Bahamas (and one of the best in the entire Wider Caribbean region), with a vertical drop on many parts of the fore reef plunging to depths of over 1.8 km (5,900 ft). So extensive is this reef system that it is sometimes referred to as a "barrier reef", but it is not a true barrier reef in the strict definition because it contains only a shallow lagoon that is relatively close to shore. As a compormise, some have taken to calling this a "fringing barrier reef"
There are more than 104 km2 (40 sq mi) of subtropical forests and the swamps are inhabited by more than 50 species of orchids. Andros is actually made up of three different major islands (North Andros, Mangrove Cay and South Andros) and hundreds of cays adjoined by these mangrove estuaries and tidal swamp lands. Two hundred different types of birds are native to the island.