Utila dive sites not to miss?

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Robertcrockett

Contributor
Messages
291
Reaction score
46
Location
Eleanor WV
# of dives
500 - 999
Ok all youse with utila experience,

Since i hope to do a lot of diving while im in utila, i know that I will (hopefully) hit a lot of different sites but my question is:

What dive sites do u recommend that i simply DO NOT miss out on if i have the opportunity...because of critters, formations etc...Honesty im sure they are all great but im sure those of u who have tread those waters have ur favorites.
 
Several that stand out:

Black Hills - we did this twice. It's a seamount that rises to within about 40' of the surface in some areas and falls off dramatically into deep waater. You can easily do the whole thing in one dive. The first dive we did there was great, the second even better. Lots of fish everywhere and as I recall we saw a couple of turtles on the first dive - then on the second dive we saw Oceanic Triggers in a school, about 100 Barracuda and 3-4 grouper that must've been 4-5 long - they were huge!! Just hanging out so I was able to get within about 3-4 of them before they slowly moved off down the reef. Not scared just disinterested in us.

The Pinnacles was another great dive, deeper but a lot of stuff all around and all the way up the Pinnacle. It's off the north drop off so gets a lot of deepwater Pelagics feeding up the wall. It's all the way around the north side of the island so a fairly long boat ride - but worth it. Our DM told us he felt the better diving was on the North Side as it's less dove and the water drops off deeper closer to shore.

One of the more interesting dives we did was just off the harbor (maybe Eagle Ray Alley). Kind of bad vis until about 60-70' and a nothing sand bottom but then we started spotting stuff. We found 2 seahorses, a batfish, another fish that walked on it's fins and an electric ray. (didn't get too close to that one) Coming back up, the coral in 30' of water was just stunning, formations on top of formations. What started out as avg. turned out to be one of the more memorable dives.

We stayed at Deep Blue Utila which is on the other side of the lagoon from town. Every day boats would moor out front - they were diving Pretty Bush and the Labrynth. We did it at night, it was an interesting dive due to all the channels through the reef. But do it with someone who really knows it, otherwise it's just a pretty swim over the top of the coral. We did so many twists and turns that I had no idea where our boat was until we were back under it.
 
I agree with Diversteve on the above listed sites. I am also a big fan of Duppy Waters.

Whatever you do, go slow, work on your buoyancy and focus on small patches of reef. Lots of great critters. If you are a photographer, bring your macro lens for sure.

Have fun.
 
Utila's not-to-be-missed dive sites!! For me there are many! A good selection of North side and south side dives. Also you should check out Cayos Cochinos diving there are some great dives we do out there.

On the North Side of the island:
Pinnacles, Duppy Waters, The Maze are my personal faves in Turtle Harbor Marine Reserve.
Don Quixset & Raggedy Cay
Blackish Point (drift dive along the now underwater ice age shore line)

South Side:
Black Hills is always a good dive - an relatively isolated sea mount so the fish that live there tend to stay there.

Ted's Point with it's mini wreck & and pretty reef - good for creatures

Airport caves - a great drift with 3 caves to explore on the way down. 1 that has a real nice swim through

Haliburton Wreck

Black Coral Wall

Little Bight for sea horses

Check out our website at for a more complete list and description :Altons Dive Center. Scuba Diving, Whale Sharks. Resort to Backpackers Open Water and for cayos chochinos dives.

hth!
 

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