Just visited after having been gone for 3 years and noted a significant decline. Most coral bleached or dead, few colorful fish or schools of fish. Sea fans dying and clogged with dirt. Grasses and marine plants growing in areas that once had lots of coral. It's as if 90% of the reef has been wiped out in just about every place we went diving. What happened?
Reef quality declined significantly
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My question as well...So sorry, ffuser1, that you had such an experience. The Roatan reefs have largely been spared anything close to the bleaching experienced by, say, the Great Barrier Reef, and the colors of both the coral and schools of a seemingly endless variety of undersea life continue to be wondrous. And it's not like you have to be "in the know" as if there are only very select sites here where outstanding diving can be found. Search for any number of recent photos and videos posted by the diving community here and you'll be able to see for yourself...May I ask where you went and how the sites were selected? There was a period of unusually heavy and extended rains in October which would have accounted for some serious visibility issues then, but beyond that there's been nothing that might explain such a disappointing series of dives...
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After 33 years of 2 to 4 week stays per year, I've seen what ffuse1 is talking about.
Coral bleaching, fields of white? It grows back by my next trip. Hoardes of Sharpnose Puffers, they came and went. Fields of Crown of Thornes, they devoured coral which regrew after the starfish departed. The ocean has its clock, cycle and timetable.
Dozens of similar decimations of the reef...that have reversed ...in time.
What is it that a studied eye with long term observations will tell you? Man and his causing siltation will eventually destroy the reef, but you haven't seen it quite yet. Try Jamaica...heard of it?
When man dies off, the reefs will regenerate, maybe different, but the fish will be back.
Don't worry.
Coral bleaching, fields of white? It grows back by my next trip. Hoardes of Sharpnose Puffers, they came and went. Fields of Crown of Thornes, they devoured coral which regrew after the starfish departed. The ocean has its clock, cycle and timetable.
Dozens of similar decimations of the reef...that have reversed ...in time.
What is it that a studied eye with long term observations will tell you? Man and his causing siltation will eventually destroy the reef, but you haven't seen it quite yet. Try Jamaica...heard of it?
When man dies off, the reefs will regenerate, maybe different, but the fish will be back.
Don't worry.
i agree with Doc, although i haven't been down here over such a long time span as him. i lived full time on Utila from 2007 - 2012, after visiting in 2005 and 2006 and have spent a few months a year here since 2012.
each time i arrive i notice something different, a glut of one fish, or the disappearance of any other, damaged coral then regenerating coral. its amazing the changes each and every year.
that said, the water this summer was the warmest i've ever experienced and i was just reading about the widespread coral bleaching thats been going on for the last 5-6 months off of the caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. all signs point that it is was working its way northward towards Honduras.
each time i arrive i notice something different, a glut of one fish, or the disappearance of any other, damaged coral then regenerating coral. its amazing the changes each and every year.
that said, the water this summer was the warmest i've ever experienced and i was just reading about the widespread coral bleaching thats been going on for the last 5-6 months off of the caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. all signs point that it is was working its way northward towards Honduras.
CajunDiva
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Water temps were 86 degrees at the end of September when we were there. Skins were overkill. Last week it was 81 and overcast. I was begging to borrow a 3 mil wetsuit - almost froze!
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