We just got back on Saturday. As 'stangscuba' said, there are at least hundreds of replies to this question in other threads. In short, the diving was great. The visibility was 60 to 100 ft + every day. The water temp varied from 80 to 84 degrees. The sea life is abundant. There is a tremendous amount of small stuff (juveniles of all sorts, blennies, pipefish, gobies, etc), and a good amount of bigger fish. We saw some big groupers (maybe not as many as pre-Wilma, but who's counting?), two of the biggest nurse sharks that I've ever seen (at Maracaibo - one @9 ft, and its companion @7 ft; my estimations confirmed by a very excited DM), several big turtles, a white tip reef shark, huge angel fish, lots of filefish and trigger fish, several very big honeycomb cowfish, many trunkfish, a big stoplight parrot fish, rays, several octopus, lots of lobsters that were at least 5 to 6 pounders, 5 king crabs (including one monster out on the sand during a night dive), hermit crabs, spotted eels, scorpion fish, barracuda, flounder (including one baby peacock about 2 inches long). I could go on and on, but I hope you get the point. The only things I didn't see all week are a Splendid Toad Fish, and a Seahorse, but that's all the reason I need to go back again in February!
The hurricane did do damage to the "hardscape." Most of the soft corals and fans, especially at the shallow reefs, were decimated. What added an interesting dimension to my diving was the way in which Mother Nature recovers from this type of destruction. There are lots of new fans and other soft life beginning to grow back. The damaged coral will take more years than I have left to fully recoup, but I could see evidence of new growth all over. Most of the brain corals looked fine to me, and I saw one beautiful specimen that was about 3 feet across. It appears that there are smaller colonies of Christmas tree worms, but they will expand over time. There is bleaching of the coral, but a lot of it is caused by other environmental conditions, and not the hurricane. There is a lot of sand on the coral in the shallow spots, but less than when we were there in February. We saw large piles of broken branch corals, but some of the small stuff has already taken up residence in these new-found "environments." I don't know for sure, but it looks like there's a blight/fungus of some sort on much of the coral that is doing more damage than the sand. There is still a nice amount of color, and healthier coral at the deeper reefs. Personally, I could spend a week poking around in 45 foot water at Paradise Reef, and not get bored; even though there is a lot of sand on the coral. I just waved my hand or fin here-and-there to help Ma' Nature clean it off. Oh yeah, there are some great new swim-throughs, and we also dove the C-53 wreck, where a very large spotted eel has taken up residence near the propeller shaft.
So, if you want picture perfect reefs patrolled by schools of giant reef sharks and Manta Rays, go buy a painting (
www.guyharvey.com). For some fantastic diving, in a laid-back place that has great restaurants and friendly people, get on a plane to Cozumel!
