Quick facts
- Park
- Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel
- federal protected area, declared 19 July 1996
- Daily fee
- 225 pesos (~$13)
- per person, per day, collected by your dive shop
- Snorkellers pay too
- Same 225 pesos
- the fee is for using the park, not for diving
- Discounts
- 50% Mexicans and residents
- 75% students; free under 12, seniors, disabled
- Your receipt
- A CONANP wristband
- ask for one for every day you dive
- Divers per guide
- 8 by day, 6 at night
- a flat 6 in the restricted-use south
- Guide
- Required, CONANP-authorised
- operators carry a dated Operador Autorizado badge
- Stay off the reef
- 5 ft1.5 m
- applies to the animals too
- Sunscreen
- Not permitted
- nor creams or cosmetics; cover up instead
- Gloves
- Not permitted
- nor knives, rods or Hawaiian slings
- Reefs resting
- 2 to 5 at any time
- two-month rotation, six windows a year
- Outside the park
- Villa Blanca Wall, San Juan, Barracuda, Cantarell
- no park fee on a day you dive only those
Nearly every reef you dive in Cozumel sits inside Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel, a federal marine protected area. The table above is the whole of what a visiting diver has to comply with.
None of it is optional, and most divers never notice it, because a good shop settles all of it before you reach the boat. This page is for the times something looks wrong: an unexplained charge, a group of twelve behind one divemaster, a wristband nobody offered you.
What is the Cozumel Marine Park?
A federal protected area declared 19 July 1996, covering 11,987 hectares (about 120 km², or 29,621 acres) of reef, seagrass, dune and lagoon, run by CONANP with rangers on the water daily. Its boundary follows the west and south coasts, where nearly every site on the dive-site map sits, which is why diving in Cozumel happens on one side of the island.
Four dive sites fall outside it. The founding decree fixes the park’s northern corner at the north tip of Paraíso Reef, so everything above that line is beyond the boundary: Villa Blanca Wall, San Juan, Barracuda and Cantarell. No park fee is due on a day you dive only those, and the rules below do not govern them. A legal point, not a moral one: the reef there is the same reef.
Do you have to pay to dive in Cozumel?
Yes. 225 pesos per person per day, about 13 US dollars, for every day you use the park. It is charged for being in the water there, not for diving, so a snorkelling partner pays the same. It is a federal derechos charge set nationally, not a price your shop invented, and your operator is required to collect it.
| Who you are | What you pay per day |
|---|---|
| Visiting diver, standard rate | 225 MXN (about 13 USD) |
| Mexican national, or foreign resident of Mexico | 50% off |
| Student or teaching staff, with valid ID | 75% off |
| Under 12, senior, pensioner or retiree, person with a disability | No charge |
There is no gate and no ticket window, so the fee arrives either bundled into the dive price or itemised beside it. Both are normal, and a bundled quote and an unbundled one are not comparable, so ask which before you book if the shop does not mention it.
Ask for your bracelet, every day. The park’s own signage tells divers to request a CONANP wristband for each day they dive. It is the only proof the fee you paid reached the park. Almost nobody asks.
How many divers can one guide take?
Eight by day on the main reef circuit, six in the far south. There is no single island-wide number, which is why almost nobody publishes this rule correctly: the park’s management programme sets the cap per environmental unit.
| Where | Day dive | Night dive |
|---|---|---|
| The west-coast reef circuit: all four Palancar sections, Paso del Cedral, La Francesa, Santa Rosa, Yucab, Tormentos, Cardona, Chankanaab, Paradise, Playa Corona, Dzul-Ha, Las Palmas | 8 divers per guide | 6 divers per guide |
| The restricted-use south: Colombia, Punta Sur, Maracaibo, El Islote, Chunchaka’ab | 6 divers per guide | 6 divers per guide |
So eight behind one divemaster at Palancar Gardens is legal and at the ceiling; the same eight at Punta Sur is two over. It is a ceiling, not a target, so ask a shop its usual number rather than its legal maximum.
Do you need a guide to dive in Cozumel?
In practice, yes. Rule 3 of the reglamento says to hire boats and guides authorised by CONANP, authorised operators carry a dated Operador Autorizado badge you can ask to see, and CONANP restated the position publicly in March 2026. No shop on the island offers the unguided kind.
Your guide can also end your dive, and the park backs that rather than leaving it to the shop: its guidance says a guide, instructor or captain will cancel a dive or a snorkel if your behaviour or experience puts you or the reef at risk.
Not certified? The guided-diving norm is exactly why a Discover Scuba day works so well here. It is also why diving Cozumel without certification is a real option, not a loophole.
What are the in-water rules?
CONANP publishes a nine-point Reglamento para el Visitante on its own page for the park, and that is the list to go by. Translated, in the park’s order:
- Stay 5 ft (1.5 m) off the reef.
- Do not feed the wildlife.
- Hire boats and guides authorised by CONANP.
- Anchoring is prohibited.
- Do not touch the reef.
- Do not use sunscreen.
- Do not disturb marine wildlife.
- Do not fish.
- Do not use gloves, knives or rods.
See something on the reef that should not be happening? The park takes reports directly: phone +52 (987) 872-4689 or +52 (987) 872-4275, WhatsApp +52 (987) 878-5558, or acozumel@conanp.gob.mx. Anonymous reports are accepted.
Which reefs are closed, and when?
Two to five, at any moment. CONANP’s estrategia de arrecifes saludables has run since late 2019, taking a group of reefs out of service for two months at a time and working around the island across the year.
| Rest window | Reefs closed |
|---|---|
| December to January | Chankanaab, Chankanaab Bolones |
| February to March | Cedral Wall, Paso del Cedral, La Francesa |
| April to May | Punta Dalila, Palancar Gardens, Palancar Horseshoe |
| June to July | Paraíso (Paradise), Paraíso Bajo |
| August to September | Palancar Caves, Palancar Bricks, Colombia Shallows, Colombia Intermedio, Colombia Deep |
| October to November | San Francisco, San Francisco Bajo, Santa Rosa Wall, Santa Rosa |
Government policy, not an operator convention: CONANP enforces it with the navy, the federal environmental prosecutor and the port captaincy, so diving a closed reef is a federal administrative violation. It is administered rather than codified, though, confirmed window by window through the park’s tourism sub-council, so the groupings have held since 2020 but can change without any law changing.
What are the diver safety limits?
The park regulates the reef; your gas loading is your own problem. Cozumel’s pattern of two-tank mornings repeated across a week is the one that gets people hurt.
| Limit | Number | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Dives per day | 3 | more only on nitrox |
| Ascent rate | 30 ft/min (9 m/min) | plus an extended safety stop, every dive |
| Before flying | 18 h | 12 h is the floor for one no-deco dive; 18 h+ for the repetitive multi-day diving done here |
| Symptoms show within | 12 h | joint pain, tingling, unusual fatigue, dizziness, vertigo, or just feeling wrong |
Hydrate, stay inside your computer’s limits, and skip the hot shower, the beer and the coffee straight after surfacing. If you suspect an incident, contact a hyperbaric chamber, not a general clinic. Cozumel has chambers on the island staffed by hyperbaric-certified physicians, and boats monitor VHF, so a call can start before you reach shore. Your shop and boat crew hold the current numbers.
Conditions by month covers water temperature, visibility and current, and the complete guide to diving Cozumel puts the whole trip together.
Planning a Cozumel dive trip? I live here and dive this island. Tell me your dates, your experience level, and what you want to see, and I will point you in the right direction, with a straight answer from someone on the island.
Last verified: August 2026. This is a living document; I update it when the park’s rules, its rates, or its closure calendar change. Every figure here carries its own CONANP source and check date beneath the table it appears in. Where a fact rests on practice rather than a published rule, this page says so rather than rounding it up to law.
