Fantasy Island -Roatan - Big Problems!

[Doc]

Did that dive off the gazebo at FI day and night and thought it was ok, but not great by any means.

You went left West... into that murky basin? Who directed your attentions there? A DM might know of it. You saw no critters? (Now again, I'm not talking about going E along the aircraft cable to the DC3, the Wreck, then to the open ocean walls) You went into that basin?

Just from your name would give a person and indication that MAYBE you have a favorable bias towards Roatan. I mean, that's just me.

Well, I would hate to think you were being led about blindly by the ill informed and inflammatory post by kallardnyc.

I have a broad based knowledge of Roatan.

If you take the time to read my profile you would see that I travel to any number of places. In the Caribbean, I have my favorites list. In no particular order....

Top 5 Islands/Destinations: Bonaire, Tobago (Speyside), Roatan/Utila/Guanaja/Cayos, Outer Bahamas (Nekton Fleet), Belize (Nekton liveaboard)

Favorite Liveaboard: (see above references)

Favorite Caribbean Resort: CoCoView (the 24/7 shore dive, the custom boats, the no-steps lay-out, the type of divers it attracts) It's for adults who want to (just) dive. The best resort based Caribbean shore dive.

Most over rated dive on Roatan: Mary's Place

Best regularly dived (moored) dive site: Calvin's Crack

The best shore diving in the Caribbean: Bonaire

Best Wrecks in the Caribbean: Los Roques

Wildest currents in training preparation for the Pacific trips: Tobago

Best Places you can't get get to/dive at (easily or at all): Los Roques, Corn, Cisne (Swan), NE Grenada

Best place for wealthy familes to have good, catered diving: Cayman

Highly opinionated and well researched. Not a doubt. Sworn to Roatan? Hardly. Look at my posting history. I babble-on positively about dive locations all over the world: The Maldives, Red Sea, Philippines, Galapagos, and more.

This thread began (as have several others) with the bemoaning of the lack of fish on Roatan. I absolutely agree- if Roatan doesn't take corrective action and fast, it will turn into another Cayman (in terms of reef health) and after that, Jamaica, Nassau and such.

Roatan needs to stop the effluvia from run-off siltation. Development is rampant on the island. You can decry the pod people divers from the cruise ships, but with all of their excursions to AKR they didn't damage all of the reefs- nor is it the outhouses... it was the road building and grass seeding (along with chemical lawn treatments). 99% of the big money houses being built in Roatan (and that's pretty much so all of them) are being created by non-divers and certainly people with no concern or understanding for reef health.

Yes, Roatan is in decline. It is obvious because it was all but untouched 10 years ago. the development has been frantic and there is no sign of slowing. This is not a unique situation in our world. I am amused by some prior posters stamping their feet and threatening to boycot. If you really wanted to do some good, you would do exactly that- stay home! Your constant visiting causes the degradation. I am not saying that you should stay away, just understand the contradiction in that well meaning statement, "If they don't stop wrecking the reefs, I'll stay home!" Jibberish.

In the mean time, I'll stick to what I said, and other divers backed me up. Roatan rewards those with superior observational skills and buoyancy. I can also show you one great DM for every 20 locals with DM credentials that are sheep herders. I'm from Chicago and I can find more cool stuff than any of that 20. But that one good one... I can't find 1/10th the cool micro stuff that he can.

It's all in the skills. Find a good DM who knows where all the cool stuff lives. The one you brought with you back from the States can't find his own foot. It's nothing bad, it's just years and years of exploring that these local DM's have... if you find the right one. If a DM resorts to feeding fish (except in very rare circumstances), that's a bad sign.

Take a macro lens for your camera, take a magnifying glass. That's how you can spot the better divers... it isn't by their wetsuits or regulators... hardly. It's by their magnifying glasses. If you don't know, you don't know.

The name RoatanMan... hey- it just sounded cool. And what the heck- I know Roatan better than any other place that I've been diving. Sorry it mislead you. Here's who I really am: http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=1670227&postcount=11

 

[LAJim]

Roatan Man is a highly informed and reliable poster on ScubaBoard. He should be treated with a lot of respect.

Jim

 

[E_mcSCOW]

The "brown" reefs are actually quite healthy. The "brown" is from the zooxanthellae algae in the coral. The clues to a reef that is trouble are:

1. large patches of bleached corals
2. lots of fuzzy surface algae smothering the coral
3. low diversity of corals
4. lots of dead coral debris and no new colony formation

When you look at Roatan's South Shore reef, you don't find much of the above. I haven't seen a lot of bleaching, the grazers are keeping the algae in check, there is a high diversity including lots of black coral at shallow depths, and although you can see some of the aftermath of Mitch, there are abundant new colonies. In addition, there appears to be more staghorn and elkhorn coral in Roatan than is normal in the rest of the Caribbean where it is endangered.

 

[pilot fish]

Roatan man, good well balanced adn informative post. You seem to know what you are talking about. I bow to your superior knowledge about Roatan.

 

[DocIndyDiver]

If you want to see dying reefs go to the Virgin Islands the bleaching is horriffic. I was there 11/2005 and our DM said its spreadding like wildfire.

 

[cdiver2]

I have dived CCV and just got back from Curacao....they are worlds apart, Curacao beats it in every respect. Viz, life, coral.
Stay in Roatan then we can keep this area pristine.
By the way accommodation and food was a lot better also.

 

[kallardnyc]

BTW, it was meant as a joke and should have had a winking smiley!

 

[H2Andy]

ah, roatan...

say, maybe the picture below explains why "there are no fish?"

also, note the dying coral (irony)

(taken June, 2005)

the second is a picture of a pipefish (?). it's about an inch long.
i am not set up for micro. all i have is a Cannon SD 110 out of the box,
with only an internal flash. it's not a good picture, but that's the sort of
thing that thrills on every dive.

third pic is a french grunt with fairy basslets. one of thousands of little
coves all over the place that could justify a single dive just to hang out.

fourth pic is a HUGE crab and a banded shrimp. sorry for the focus, but
like i said, i just take snapshots. i'm not really a photograper.

last pic is, of course, the obligatory eel. i saw so many, i stopped counting

 

[E_mcSCOW]

I think your subject in photo number two is an arrow blenny - nice find!

 

[H2Andy]

I think your subject in photo number two is an arrow blenny - nice find!

hmm... well... could be... i don't know the little fish at all... but i think i remember
the DM said it was a pipefish when i showed him the pic?

here's some Photoshop "artistry" in honor of RoatanMan

(everybody else, it's a joke... don't take it too seriously )