Is Cozumel still Fishy?

[Jackie]

I first got certified in Cozumel over 20 years ago. While my recollections may not be too accurate, I seem to recall that Wilma did a bit of damage, in particular. Still I have a lot of great times 2010-2020. I was just in Roatan at Cocoview and was stunned at not just the poor conditions of the reefs but also at the lack of fish. On our night dive I saw a turtle, a flounder and an octopus. There is some pretty good macro, even I found a sea horse.
But it felt a little disappointing all round.
I am hearing the same about Caymans and Bonaire,
im going in December and hope it’s as good as I remember, I know that this persistent heat and high sea temperatures are not helping. Is the meso-American reef in decline?

 

[living4experiences]

I had the same experience in Roatan last year, so it's off my list. Bonaire has the coral disease. It's spreading throughout the Caribbean.

I'm in Cozumel now and there's a lot of bleached coral from the warm waters as well as red and green algae covering a lot of sites. There's a noticeable lack of adult fish. Lots of juveniles but the variety of species has diminished. Over five dives in the last 2 days, I've seen two turtles, two parrot fish, three stingrays, and one eel. The night dive was much better for marine life activity than the day dives.

 

[NDL_Diver]

Agree that Roatan reef is pretty bad (we thought the Coco side was much better than the AKR side) and is off our list. The AKR side was dead. We were in Bonaire in August and it was great. Still quite a bit of sealife and still plenty of coral though the SCTLD was very evident.

Cozumel is overfished and poached (Lobster and Conch). We still enjoy Cozumel. Just adjust your expectations. The warm water temperatures had impacts accross the Caribbean.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Did you see my review of CocoView from a couple of months ago? I was disappointed with the lack of fish, too.

Trip Report - CoCo View Resort - August 2023

My wife and I and another couple with whom we frequently dive-travel made our first visit to CoCo View Resort the first week in August 2023. As there are many reviews of CCV posted here, rather than try to describe the whole trip, I will focus on the things about CCV that were notable to me...

scubaboard.com

As for Cozumel, I was first there in 2004--the same year as my first visit to Roatan--and I didn't think it was as fishy as Roatan back then. Nowadays I perceive a dearth of fish in both Cozumel and Roatan. I like Cozumel for the underwater topography, though. Bonaire has been my go-to for most of the past decade, and although it's now been a couple of years, the marine life seemed comparatively abundant to me.

 

[ReefHound]

As a rule of thumb, if it's been 10 or more years since you dived a place it's not going to be as you remember it.

 

[Saboteur]

I’m heading to Coz this winter for the first time. I hope it is better than GC. Just spent two weeks there. We saw only one sleeping nurse shark, three turtles, one distant eagle ray, one distant reef shark, no squid. Quite a few stingrays but mostly at Ray’s bedroom site. The best dives out of 13 days was Cobalt coast shore dive. We saw huge schools of black durgeon and blue chromis (I think they were). Way better than a green lake but a bit disappointing. Can’t wait to try Coz.

 

[ROUS]

I've dived both Coz and GC recently--June and August. From a week of diving the most popular locations in both place, I found the fish population to be far superior in Grand Cayman. Coz had beautiful coral and clear water, but fish were few and far between. I won't return to Cozumel anytime soon because of this and it saddens me greatly. I'd love to hear better reports from others. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Jackie]

It’s all pretty sad. I am on a Scuba Women FB page and it’s not good news anywhere in the Carribean.. I have been to Cozumel dozens of times, more in the past then recently. I wasn’t able to dive my last two visits. I always would see a bunch just snorkeling at the bottom of the stairs at the Barracuda.
We were lucky enough to be at Raja Ampat in February which was literally stunning. I did easy baby dives on the reefs and it’s mind blowing. At my age, it’s not a trip I can do again. It’s grueling in terms of flights. Maybe worth saving up for Wakatobi while that’s still good.
I just love being in the water. but my NE cold water dives are just too tiring.
thank you for your honest opinions.

 

[morecowbells]

I don't know if it was the 88 degree water last week resulting in sluggish marine life, but I felt that the marine life was far less than what I encountered in the past couple of years. We still had some good dives and saw quite a few turtles, a couple of nurse sharks, but only one grouper, one green moray and a couple of snapper. Good diving but not mind blowing. The coral bleaching was glaringly obvious.

I always consider Cozumel to be the gold standard for Caribbean diving; if the marine life is getting compromised there, it must be bleak in other places, especially those without any marine park rules.

 

[Catito]

I first got certified in Cozumel over 20 years ago. While my recollections may not be too accurate, I seem to recall that Wilma did a bit of damage, in particular. Still I have a lot of great times 2010-2020. I was just in Roatan at Cocoview and was stunned at not just the poor conditions of the reefs but also at the lack of fish. On our night dive I saw a turtle, a flounder and an octopus. There is some pretty good macro, even I found a sea horse.
But it felt a little disappointing all round.
I am hearing the same about Caymans and Bonaire,
im going in December and hope it’s as good as I remember, I know that this persistent heat and high sea temperatures are not helping. Is the meso-American reef in decline?

We dove the East end of Grand Cayman with Ocean Frontiers in August 2023. Very, very fishy and pretty. Five different species of Hamlets. Avoid Eden Rock (shore dive in town)= dead