Condition of the reef:
For context on my comments about this, my first trip to Roatan was in 1995, when we spent a week snorkeling in West End and West Bay. So, for those lamenting the condition of the reef around Roatan in 2024 and now going into 2025, please believe me when I say that I understand your pain. We've been visiting, snorkeling and now diving this island regularly for nearly 30 years. I was not a scuba diver in 1995, not certified as such until 2021 when SCTLD had already made its way here followed by the extensive bleaching of the past few years due (at least in part, according to my limited knowledge of these matters) to sea water that is warmer than these corals are accustomed to, so I can't comment on the condition of the reef at depth in those years. But absolutely, no question, the reef around Roatan is not what it once was, and it will be considerable time before it can be that way again.
However, to my layman's eyes, the bleaching seemed less prevalent this year than last year. Now in part there may be a bias because we spent more time this year on the south side, and (again, with my limited knowledge) from my reading it seems that bleaching affects the soft coral (which is more prevalent on the south side) less than it does the hard coral (which is more prevalent on the north side), so it could be that my brain is saying "there is less bleaching because I didn't see as much white stuff on the coral" - there, that should tell you how well-educated I am on this topic. On the other hand, I was somewhat expecting this and made a deliberate effort to focus on the bleaching when we were diving north/west side sites, and it still seemed like it was less. However, we weren't diving all the same sites that we did last year, and depths were likely different, or maybe in areas where there was more extensive bleaching I was more focused on pretty fish at the moment and just didn't see it - there could be any number of very scientific explanations for my completely unscientific, rather vague observation that "it seemed like there was less bleaching this year". But that was my overall impression.
Having said that, to my untrained but not inexperienced eyes, there is still a lot of beauty to be seen on the Bay Islands' reef system. We have lived in this part of the world for nearly 20 years, and learned long ago that you can focus on the beauty here or you can focus on the ugly here, and only one of those two things is sustainable in the long term if you want to stay. As an example, I can walk out onto the terrace of our apartment and up to the parapet and look out and see a row of trees that right now are full of gorgeous orange flowers. Or I can look straight down and see an unbelievable hodgepodge of broken down televisions, refrigerators, fans and other odds and ends that are stored by a shop next door (literally "pegado" in Spanish - we share a wall between the yards) that seems to recycle these things - but they are collecting far, far more than they seem to be recycling. I bet you can guess what I choose to focus on when I walk out that way... So I apply the same principle when snorkeling and diving on Roatan. I focus on the beauty of what is there (and there is a lot) and not on what it used to be.
Please don't get me wrong. For those who have cut trips short to Roatan because of their perception of the reef, or who feel so sad at seeing it that they feel they can't come back - I get it, I truly do. I'm sure I sound like a total Roatan fanboy to some, but it's the closest thing to local diving that I have, and from what I read here on SB a lot of us are rather passionate about our "local" dive environments, right? I figured I should just join the club...
For those who have taken the time to read this trip report to the end, thank you. It's my first attempt at this, so please let me know if it's really too long/wordy/not enough useful information etc and I will try to improve in future.
Happy bubbles!
