Consider that the environment immediately surrounding the Santa Margarita is largely unchanged from its condition 400 years ago, when the ship sank. It is the reef front of a fringing reef on the north shore of Rota, with depths ranging from about 12 feet to 40 feet. (The ship sank on a slant.) The immediate vicinity of the site is infiltrated by intermittent fresh water springs, which episodically reduce the salinity, and therefore adversely affect (i.e. limit) coral growth on a spotty and random basis.

Then there are the Trade Winds. For 7 to 9 months a year, the immediate environment of the Santa Margarita is the subject of rather violent wave action, driven by Trade Winds that generally come from the northeast at 15 to 20 MPH.

The resulting high turbidity (and low visibility due to fine carbonate sand in suspension) and wave surge make it unsafe to conduct diving operations. About May, the Trade Winds begin to subside and shift to the south, thus allowing a window of opportunity for diving about late May to early October on the north (leeward) shore. It would appear that coral at the site have adapted to an environment that is turbid most of the year.

Within the larger environment, consider the remains of the Santa Margarita as a small footprint, representing less than one thousandth of the total reef-front on the north shore of Rota, and probably less than one millionth of the reef front in the Mariana Islands.

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