Too many Cruising boats in Roatan since 2 years. I found the inside reef very damaged and with too many divers and snorkelers. Go dive outside on the wall
This is a very limited perspective. The inside of the reef in that zone was never
* "all that", anyway.
*(
"never", as in the last 25 years, more and more-so every year )
The West Zone diving outside the coral heads has been vastly preferred for the recent history of diving on Roatan.
It is well worth the visit!
The impact of cruise ship visits is much more insidious, the damage is caused on-shore first due to providing services. In that perspective, I certainly agree- on-shore development caused by cruise ship visits has caused degradation to surrounding reef structures.
I do understand that the OP is going to dive the West End/West Bay area, but the island of Roatan is a pretty large place for such a small island. Reef degradation is rampant in the Caribbean, and you can see it occurring, albeit sometimes incrementally, anywhere on Roatan~ and certainly all over the Mar Caribe.
You are looking at a specific area of Roatan that is comparable to what has already happened to George Town in Cayman, Lucaya on Grand Bahama, or St George on Grenada. Where you find "success" (development of land based tourist infrastructure), the immediate surrounding reef structure will pay the price.
This is largely due to the by-product, run-off and sedimentation. Divers are all but irrelevant, at least when they are diving.
The North Side's Central area (from Turquoise Bay, the Black Pear Golf Course) and Western End (to Sandy Bay zone) is under very heavy pressure from construction land disturbances. Although
the offshore deep water exchange along the North side
is very good and has kept the outer reef walls fairly clean, however they were never all that delicate anyway due to the prevailing storm exposures. The real damage has been done to the environment from shore to 1/4 mile out, the shallows and scattered coral heads. In that divers are driven to the outer reef by boat, most never see this very interesting zone to start with. It used to be full of Stingrays and Nurse Sharks, but....
The Southern side, at least from French Harbour and East is largely undeveloped, or certainly has very little land disturbance in comparison. The biggest problem on the South side is the almost continuous wind and wave action that keep even the so far very minor sedimentation upon the reef structure which is located 100 to 300 feet off-shore... a big difference from the North/West side situation.
New GIO'S restaurant now in Flower's Bay is a must do.
I never found even the old Gio's to be much of an attraction. It was the same menu that you could find at any nicer restaurant in Ohio. You can't really "go local" on the Bay Islands unless you're down with rice and beans, but there are decidedly some more island flavors for you than Gio's steak and lobster, imported from the US.
