The Great Blue Hole is located in the Lighthouse Reef system off the coast of Belize. It is an almost perfectly round sinkhole formed by the collapse of the roof of an underwater cave. It is approximately 1000 ft across and 400 ft deep, surrounded almost completely by a coral reef wall. There are two small channels leading into the Hole. As a result, the water in the Blue Hole is relatively isolated and relatively stagnant. This isolation makes it plausible to assume that the organisms living in the Hole may have evolved differently from organisms outside of it, and as a result may provide us with clues to the evolutionary history of related organisms, and may also have unique medical benefits. Our research will attempt to determine first, whether or not the life in the Blue Hole is unique, what relationships exist between Blue Hole organisms and other similar organisms, and finally, what medical benefits these organisms might provide. We will also study the overall diversity of the reef and examine the coral base to gain an understanding of the health and state of the Blue Hole in general.