Look below the surface of the Caribbean and you’ll enter a magical world of marine life, where brilliantly-coloured fish shelter in forests of coral, turtles roam and dolphins frolic.

The tiny marine creatures that have built up their colonies to form coral reefs have also created numerous atolls. Shoals of inhabitants range from parrot fish and puffer fish to boxfish in their bony plates, spiny porcupine fish and various species of flying fish.

The warm waters are also home to barracuda, blue, nurse, shovelnose and smooth hammerhead sharks, swordfish and marlin. Dolphin and porpoise occasionally venture inshore and the reclusive manatee can sometimes be seen prowling the mangroves.

Prawns, crayfish and other crustaceans grow large and there are numerous banks of oysters and mussels. Within the reefs there are few dangers – although you should be careful not to step on the spines of a sea urchin or provoke an occasional Moray eel.

Green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. When Christopher Columbus first discovered the Cayman Islands, he named them Las Tortugas – The Turtles – because there there were so many of the creatures that it seemed as if the islands were covered with rocks. Today, Cayman Turtle Farm is home to more than 16,000 sea turtles that weigh as much as 600 pounds (272 kilos). The creatures are a protected species and the Farm has released 29,000 to replenish the wild population.

Stingray City is another world-renowned attraction on the Cayman Islands. Here you can swim among these strange creatures and feed them squid by hand. At Shark Ray Alley in Belize, which possesses the second-longest barrier reef in the world, divers can witness dozens of southern stingrays and nurse shark swirl and dance, orchestrated by a divemaster's bag of snacks. And across the Caribbean, you'll have many chances to see the largest mammal in existence. For some, whale watching can be a life-changing experience.