Yet even those ships whose sinking was a catastrophe of lives lost, rarely evoke a sense of tragedy. For many it's the pure fun of floating and flying weightlessly around a man-made object. But more often it is the feeling of being warmly welcomed by the new owners. Moray eels, groupers, octopus and thousands of schooling fish move and claim the wrecks as their own. What man has abandoned, nature redeems.
Shipwrecks tend to overflow with marine life.
Year after year the same fish, or at least the same species of fish, can be found in exactly the same place. On many popular wrecks the fish are fed by divers and become aggressively friendly. These names tend to be passed down through the generations like a succession of kings. It is reassuring to know that your old friends, the shipwreck fish, will be there to greet you when you return. While most of the popular shipwrecks in the Caribbean are quite safe, wreck diving does present certain hazards.