Roatan reef bleaching/ health?

[SCUBAJOE54]

Hello, all,

Newbie here. This is my first post! I spent a week diving in Roatan 22 years ago and it was wonderful. Crystal clear water, unbelievable colors in the corals, and so many beautiful fish. I've been dreaming of returning ever since then. I'm planning a trip back to Roatan (finally!) with my three daughters - ages 19, 17, and 13 to get them certified in March. I have read that the reef is now severely bleached and many of the hard corals are suffering from disease. This saddens me greatly. Has anyone been diving there recently? What can I expect? Does this mean most of the colors are gone from the corals? What about the number of colorful fish? Are some of the reefs in better shape than others? We will be staying in West Bay and will be limited to dives of 40 feet because of the 13yo.

Thank you everyone in advance for your responses.

 

[ROUS]

I just dove on a couple of sites near Mahogany Bay and the bleaching was pretty bad. I'll give it a couple of recovery years before returning.

 

[Doc]

Yep, giving Roatan a couple of recovery years will allow conditions to rebound to what they were 22 years ago in 2002.

Give or take.

The rest of the Caribbean still looks like it did in 2002.

 

[SCUBAJOE54]

I thought most of the Caribbean suffered pretty bad bleaching this past summer. You are saying Roatan was worse than the rest of the Caribbean?

 

[MidOH]

Looked fine to me.

 

[SCUBAJOE54]

MidOH - Are you saying that you recently dove in Roatan and the reefs looked OK? Were there still a lot of colorful fish and rays and turtles? I'm not expecting them to be perfect - or like they were 20 years ago, but I'm worried about spending the time and money and seeing mostly white/ brown corals and not many fish (like diving in Playa del Carmen). This may be my only chance to get all my daughters diving and I want it to be a good experience.

Thanks for any additional information you can give me!

PS. I tried to DM you, but I'm not allowed to until I make five posts.

 

[Luke99]

Just spent a week or so in Roatan (Jan 2024), 22 dives, some on north and some on south side of the island. Bleaching wasn't TERRIBLE, but if you have limited time/funds and want to get the most of the trip then maybe wait a year or 2. That being said, we could easily get another warm period that holds up recovery, so really it depends if you just want to get out and dive there.

 

[Luke99]

Just spent a week or so in Roatan (Jan 2024), 22 dives, some on north and some on south side of the island. Bleaching wasn't TERRIBLE, but if you have limited time/funds and want to get the most of the trip then maybe wait a year or 2. That being said, we could easily get another warm period that holds up recovery, so really it depends if you just want to get out and dive there.

You mentioned a good experience for your daughters, honestly even with some bleaching, Roatan is a fantastic dive learning destination and i think it would be a good experience regardless.

 

[MidOH]

MidOH - Are you saying that you recently dove in Roatan and the reefs looked OK? Were there still a lot of colorful fish and rays and turtles? I'm not expecting them to be perfect - or like they were 20 years ago, but I'm worried about spending the time and money and seeing mostly white/ brown corals and not many fish (like diving in Playa del Carmen). This may be my only chance to get all my daughters diving and I want it to be a good experience.

Thanks for any additional information you can give me!

PS. I tried to DM you, but I'm not allowed to until I make five posts.

Roatan was one of my best dives.

No current. Interesting reefs with crevices. Decent fish, friendly green moray eels, eagle rays. Crystal clear water.

Not a ton of fish. Don't recall any bait balls.

Won't be your favorite dive based on your criteria, but it's still a great place to dive. 100x better than PDC.

 

[SCUBAJOE54]

Thank you, everyone - especially Luke and MidOH -for your responses. I also found a couple of recent YouTube videos of Roatan dives. Yes, you can see the bleaching for sure and the coral colors were not as vibrant as I recall, but there was still plenty of life and color - fish, coral, sponges, etc. to make the trip worthwhile.

I'm so excited to go and to share the beauty of the underwater world with my daughters!