Some years ago I spent two weeks diving on the Honduran island of Roatan with some friends, checking out the corals and walls and just relaxing. The diving was pretty tame, with not much going on underwater. The place was nice for Caribbean corals, with lots of healthy displays of elkhorn and staghorn corals and some big barrel sponges. But the reef fish were totally cleaned out — it was damn near impossible to find an adult grouper, and I don’t think we saw a single shark during the entire two weeks. Unfortunately, grouper was the #1 item on the menu at the place we stayed as well as at all the restaurants we visited, so the paucity of fish life had an obvious explanation. The big attraction at one of the island resorts was a dolphin “encounter”, where people pay to swim in a shallow pen with some captive dolphins. Can you spell w-r-o-n-g in Honduran? It was screwed up in so many ways. It’s too bad, Roatan would be a pleasant place for a dive trip if the fish were still there and the dolphins weren’t caged.
Elkhorn coral.
Image ID: 05563
Species: Elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata
Location: Roatan, Honduras
Elkhorn coral.
Image ID: 18502
Species: Elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata
Location: Roatan, Honduras
Pillar coral.
Image ID: 18503
Species: Pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus
Location: Roatan, Honduras
Pillar coral.
Image ID: 18504
Species: Pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus
Location: Roatan, Honduras
