Notes on Roatan

[Wahu]

For all of you Nor'easterners, Roatan is a pretty good deal. Thanks to a new Continental route, Roatan is now about as easy to get to as anywhere else in the Caribbean. The costs are reasonable too. Here are my main comments:
1) the sand flies are only bad if you think you can prevail without cactus juice (don't let this scare you)
2) Anthony's Key Resort: solid on dive operations (brand new tanks, big boats) and food, accommodations are kind of bare
3) the wrecks are too new and should be avoided
4) these are some of the best sites: Melissa's Reef, Key Hole, Mary's Place, Pillar Coral, and Pablo's Place
5) make sure you ask to dive a few near shore shallows to get the smaller stuff
6) stars of the reef: indigo hamlets, blackcap basslets, tiger groupers, toadfish (you probably won't see them, but the night diving is a chorus of croaking)
7) for the intrepid, there is the option of some deep, deep submersible diving (stanleysubmarines.com)
8) bleaching is evident, but not yet catastrophic
9) as in many other places, algal growth is a looming threat here leading me to speculate that the Diadema is still struggling (the many lobsters, durgons, and wrasses can't be helping the comeback either); shouldn't the reef managers be trying to bolster urchin populations somehow by perhaps captive breeding and release programs or by re-patriating a few lobsters into less overgrown areas (don't know how possible this is, but I'd like to find out more); not many sea stars out there helping out either (what happened to all of the sea stars?)
10) Roatan is also one of the few places where Arawak Indian genes may still be alive and kickin' (check the history)
Well to wrap this up, there are still some good things to be seen and done in Roatan.

 

[Doc]

Nice report with some keen insights, but do plan a return and tale a different perspective next time. It looks different from the South.

You have only seen the tip of Bay Islands Diving, the South side is much more than Mary's Place! Older and much shallower wrecks (#3 and #5 above)

Keen observations in #9 regarding the reef. Too bad that "the reef managers" don't really exist as a group, in Roatan much less anywhere... yet we ourselves, all of us, are the managers in a great sense.

#10? Sounds like you stopped in Punta Gorda.

Another miserable trip to the Bay Islands!

 

[night729]

2. Another great resort is Luna beach, its geared toward diving and they have a very professional dive staff there

3. I did see a wreck called the Aguila ont he west end north side that is pretty good in my opinion

4. i would also reccomend the Aguila, Hole in the wall, herbies, and the bite

as for the protecting the reef thing, at least where i stayed (luna beach) there is a $5 fee for a marine park tag, anyone know what they do with the money, how the help the reef?

 

[Doc]

as for the protecting the reef thing, at least where i stayed (luna beach) there is a $5 fee for a marine park tag, anyone know what they do with the money, how the help the reef?

The Marine Park tag is available for purchase by every Roatan visiting diver, not just required of those who dive the North Shore. First priority for the money would be to place permanent moorings in the Marine Park to protect it and end the battering of anchors. If you dive at CCV you'll see many divers have bought it as a vote of confidence in Roatan's future.

 

[SteveFass]

The Marine Park is a nonprofit organization made of mostly (if not all) volunteers with an office in the West End. There's a Scubaboarder who's very active in it. Besides monitoring moorings, one of their projects is working with local fishermen to help them find other forms of income. It sounds like a wonderful group with a growing ability to protect the reef. Hopefully they will one day get enforcement abilities.