Caribbean Reef Sharks

Roatán, the largest of Honduras’s Bay Islands, is surrounded by fringing reefs belonging to the Mesoamerican Reef, the largest barrier-reef system in the Western Hemisphere. Dive sites range from shallow coral gardens and sandy channels to steep walls, caverns, and offshore banks inhabited by sea turtles, eagle rays, moray eels, groupers, and abundant Caribbean reef fishes. These waters form part of the Bay Islands National Marine Park, established in 2010 and covering approximately 647,000 hectares of reefs, seagrass beds, wetlands, and coastal habitats. Mooring systems, patrols, wastewater projects, and coral-restoration programs address pressures including anchoring, coastal development, disease, and declining water quality.

Fun Fact: Cordelia Banks, near Roatán, contains an unusually extensive living stand of threatened staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis.