A monument to human engineering and persistence, German Channel is a large man-made cut through to the outer reef. The sea is funneled through this cut, creating nutrient-rich waters and sweeping currents that attract the big filter feeders and their attendant entourage of cleaners and parasites. German Channel can only be dived on an incoming or slack tide. Dives tend to focus on the cleaning stations that dot the channel, although divers may initially drift over white sand and sparse reefs where the occasional stingray or sleeping white tip reef shark may be encountered. On coming across a cleaning station, it is worth spending some time waiting for a manta to turn up, as there are resident populations in the region of the channel throughout the year. In the shallower fringes at the edge of the channel, generally investigated toward the end of the dive, visitors may meet with leopard sharks sleeping in protected gullies. There is also the possibility of an encounter with the occasional turtle feeding on the channel wall.