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Don't let my screen name fool you, I like a lot of other dive locations as well.
Roatan is not a place you go to see Pufferfish and Baracuda. It is a place to find miriad of little critters. It is for divers with perfect buoyancy, infinite patience, excellent observational skills. The real fans of Roatan carry a magnifying glass.
Here's a comment from someone who was there at the same time as you.
"Just for the record, here's a list of the fish and creatures we identified during our two week stay. We used Paul Humann's guides to identify what we saw. All of these were seen in the "front yard" and immediately to the east and west of the CoCoView entrance along the wall inwards towards shore:
Spaghetti Shrimp, Common Octopus (at night), Reef Squid, Batwing Coral Crab, Hermit Crab, Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Banded Butterfly, Four Eyed Butterfly, Spotfin Butterfly, Queen Angelfish, French Angelfish, Grey Angelfish, French Angelfish juvenile, Bar jack, African Pompano, Ballyhoo, Great Barracuda, Chub, French Grunt, Blue Stripe Grunt, Porkfish, Mahogany Snapper, School Master, Yellowfin Snapper, Threespot Damselfish (adult and juvenile), Cocoa Damselfish, Yellowtail Damselfish, Sergeant Major (adult and guarding eggs), Blue Chromis, Barred Hamlet, Indigo Hamlet, Nassau Grouper, Grayby, Fairy Basslet, Blue Parrotfish, Spotlight Parrotfish (adult, juvenile), Greenblotch Parrotfish, Spanish Hogfish, Puddingwife (juvenile), Yellowhead Wrasse, Bluehead, Squirrelfish (all kinds), Redlip Blenny (many others), Peacock Flounder, Bandtail Sea Robin, Flying Gurnard, Trumpetfish (many colors), Porcupine Fish, Smooth Trunkfish, Ocean Triggerfish, Black Durgeon, Scrawled Filefish (many colors), Orangespotted Filefish, Spotted Goatfish, Yellow Goatfish, Spotted Drum (juvenile), Green Moray, Nurse Shark (lying under a ledge), Spotted Eagle Ray (tail intact), Rock Beauty.
The coral was too varied and numerous to list and I'm positive we missed naming many other varieties of fish and creatures. Missing from the list is a Seahorse. They are typically deeper than we can see but we see about everything else.
"
... and this guy is a snorkeler.
Here are some photos...http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html be sure to click on "see previous week" when you're done ogling these!
There is a wonderment of critters in the "Front Yard" as we call it. The night dives, sometimes 2x a night- never missed. If you want to see crabs and lobsters, larger fish... well- there are better places. I've seen my fill of the obvious, I've seen most of the micro... now I'm on to observable behaviors of the micro. Boy- I woulda' sold my soul for a micro camera... during about 1% of my bottom time!
However, diving on the South side (not East) with FIBR is rewarding only for the pokey-slow hunters. Look around these resorts (especially at CCV) and see the exotic macro set-ups that it attracts. Stan Waterman "lived" there.
Patience offers it's rewards.
Roatan is not a place you go to see Pufferfish and Baracuda. It is a place to find miriad of little critters. It is for divers with perfect buoyancy, infinite patience, excellent observational skills. The real fans of Roatan carry a magnifying glass.
Here's a comment from someone who was there at the same time as you.
"Just for the record, here's a list of the fish and creatures we identified during our two week stay. We used Paul Humann's guides to identify what we saw. All of these were seen in the "front yard" and immediately to the east and west of the CoCoView entrance along the wall inwards towards shore:
Spaghetti Shrimp, Common Octopus (at night), Reef Squid, Batwing Coral Crab, Hermit Crab, Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Banded Butterfly, Four Eyed Butterfly, Spotfin Butterfly, Queen Angelfish, French Angelfish, Grey Angelfish, French Angelfish juvenile, Bar jack, African Pompano, Ballyhoo, Great Barracuda, Chub, French Grunt, Blue Stripe Grunt, Porkfish, Mahogany Snapper, School Master, Yellowfin Snapper, Threespot Damselfish (adult and juvenile), Cocoa Damselfish, Yellowtail Damselfish, Sergeant Major (adult and guarding eggs), Blue Chromis, Barred Hamlet, Indigo Hamlet, Nassau Grouper, Grayby, Fairy Basslet, Blue Parrotfish, Spotlight Parrotfish (adult, juvenile), Greenblotch Parrotfish, Spanish Hogfish, Puddingwife (juvenile), Yellowhead Wrasse, Bluehead, Squirrelfish (all kinds), Redlip Blenny (many others), Peacock Flounder, Bandtail Sea Robin, Flying Gurnard, Trumpetfish (many colors), Porcupine Fish, Smooth Trunkfish, Ocean Triggerfish, Black Durgeon, Scrawled Filefish (many colors), Orangespotted Filefish, Spotted Goatfish, Yellow Goatfish, Spotted Drum (juvenile), Green Moray, Nurse Shark (lying under a ledge), Spotted Eagle Ray (tail intact), Rock Beauty.
The coral was too varied and numerous to list and I'm positive we missed naming many other varieties of fish and creatures. Missing from the list is a Seahorse. They are typically deeper than we can see but we see about everything else.
"
... and this guy is a snorkeler.
Here are some photos...http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html be sure to click on "see previous week" when you're done ogling these!
There is a wonderment of critters in the "Front Yard" as we call it. The night dives, sometimes 2x a night- never missed. If you want to see crabs and lobsters, larger fish... well- there are better places. I've seen my fill of the obvious, I've seen most of the micro... now I'm on to observable behaviors of the micro. Boy- I woulda' sold my soul for a micro camera... during about 1% of my bottom time!
However, diving on the South side (not East) with FIBR is rewarding only for the pokey-slow hunters. Look around these resorts (especially at CCV) and see the exotic macro set-ups that it attracts. Stan Waterman "lived" there.
Patience offers it's rewards.
