peteintotheblue
Guest
My wife and I just came back from a great 2 weeks on Roatan. We dove with Native Sons who were great, beautiful comfy boat, helpful staff and some fun evenings at Sun Downers bar, right opposite. We have done quiet a bit of diving, over the years, and we appreciated the fact that this was recognised and we were guided when we wanted to be and allowed to do our own thing on some of the easy to navigate sites.
I spent some very enjoyable time with Alvin, the owner, who has some wonderful tales of growing up on Roatan but something that really stood out is his commitment to the environment. He was one of the founding members of the Roatan Marine Park that was set up by a group of dive shop owners a few years ago because no-one was looking after the reef. Their main income is selling $10 bracelets to all the divers that come to the island and with that money they do patrols, stop poachers, educate local kids and community leaders and maintain all the dive moorings and channel markers.
What really surprised me is that this organisation is having problems getting support from some of the dive shops. This was my main reason for writing to this forum. I just wanted to say to all divers going to Roatan to please support the Roatan Marine Park and make sure you buy a bracelet. And if they dont sell them at the dive shop you are diving with maybe you should go to the marine park office and buy one there. As divers we should all be committed to helping with the preservation of the worlds reefs and should always support any effort local communities are making to save what is still out there.
I spent some very enjoyable time with Alvin, the owner, who has some wonderful tales of growing up on Roatan but something that really stood out is his commitment to the environment. He was one of the founding members of the Roatan Marine Park that was set up by a group of dive shop owners a few years ago because no-one was looking after the reef. Their main income is selling $10 bracelets to all the divers that come to the island and with that money they do patrols, stop poachers, educate local kids and community leaders and maintain all the dive moorings and channel markers.
What really surprised me is that this organisation is having problems getting support from some of the dive shops. This was my main reason for writing to this forum. I just wanted to say to all divers going to Roatan to please support the Roatan Marine Park and make sure you buy a bracelet. And if they dont sell them at the dive shop you are diving with maybe you should go to the marine park office and buy one there. As divers we should all be committed to helping with the preservation of the worlds reefs and should always support any effort local communities are making to save what is still out there.
