CoCo View trip report

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Thanks for the report. We've thought about Roatan many times but heard the sea life was not great. It seems you are confirming that.
 
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Just came back last night from a week at CoCo View Resort..It rained every day - we got to see 20 minutes of sun one day...

The coral was in great shape and we saw lots of small fish. Only one nurse shark. Lots of free-swimming morays, lots of lobsters, lots of turtles, lots of seahorses. Some nudibranchs. No big fish to speak of - one or two mid-sized groupers.

.... We've thought about Roatan many times but heard the sea life was not great. It seems you are confirming that.

Yes, that would be the read I got out of the post, too.
 
Yeah, if seeing seahorses puts you in a bad mood, better to skip Roatan.
 
We've thought about Roatan many times but heard the sea life was not great. It seems you are confirming that.

I was there from Jan 10th until Feb 10th and I wouldn't agree with that statement at all:

A small list of the creatures I saw:
  • Sea Turtles (aprox 15) ranging from baby size to large
  • Sea Horses (normally 3-4 on the sites know for sea horses) probably around 50 in a month
  • Stingray 6 or 7
  • Green Moray's (More than I could count) normally every dive
  • Black Spotted Moray's (20 or so)
  • Toadfish
  • Scorpionfish
  • Big Ass Black Grouper 4 foot plus ( a couple )
  • 4 foot Barracuda (resident of the Coco View Front yard, usually can be found a few times a week hanging around the dock)
  • Caribean Reef Squid (front yard & on the reef) 2-3 times a week
  • Octopus (normally every night dive) 1 or twice a week during day dives
  • King Crabs (usually 1 or more on every dive, signigicantly more at night)
  • Nudibranches
  • All kinds of Macro stuff that I don't know the names of
  • Decorator Crabs
  • Neck Crabs

The list goes on and on, if you don't see a lot of Sea life diving at CocoView you need to slow down, get a magnifying glass at the dive shop, get the flashlight out & starting peeking in holes & crevasses and down into barrel sponges, etc


Jason
 
I was not knocking the sea life. I saw all that GoodKarmaKid saw. Read my trip report, the only thing we didn't see is lots of big stuff. Only one nurse shark. Lots of small stuff and the coral was in great shape! We went to the West End one day, did 3 dives. The coral wasn't so good there, but lots of turtles.
 
In our past experience, Nov and Dec you get a bunch of rain. We are returning to FI in April and hope to see the usual suspects as in past visits unlike Bonaire in Nov when we saw only about 1/3 of the reef life as in the past. Luck, lion fish, "Global warming", etc. don't know but not happy about it. If we notice a big drop in critters in Roatan this time, we will will assume the Carib. is going downhill fast and stick with the south pacific.
 
I have been in December, May (5 times) and June. The December visit I stayed at Fantasy Island because Cocoview was sold out. That is the only time I experienced less than ideal conditions. The dive boats at Cocoview are the best designed dive boats I have seen with their mid boat entry. If the wind is blowing you can come up through the ladder dropped down the hatch in the middle of the boat minimizing rocking. Otherwise you have to be careful approaching the ladders when they are jumping with the waves. Saw a guy get hammered pretty badly in the Bahamas when a boat ladder nailed him in the ribs. Bad timing but could have been a lot worse. That said I have rarely seen really "bad" waves around Roatan.
While not noted for lots of big fish or pelagics, (Interpret this sentence to mean, "if that is what you want don't go there") I would second the advice to slow down get a magnifying glass and revel in some of the best macro you will find in the Caribbean. All a matter of what you are looking for.
 

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