Wide Angle Underwater

daveco2 wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

I love Roatan, but I need to get to some different dive sites. Harder to do now that my dive-buddy wife is gone. Also, I'm now 66 years old, and diving in Roatan is pretty easy, which is why I keep going back. Everything at the Reef House Resort tends to work in my favor - empty dive boat, warm conditions, usually very little current, easy (or used to be) travel to/from, and inexpensive. But I'm just getting the same shots year after year, though I do think I'm improving in certain ways from the practice.

What kind of pelagic and macro subjects do you normally get in Roatan?

I don't see much in the pelagic line, if by that you mean 'large fish'. I see the occasional Nurse Shark, but that's it. I have heard that you can see Hammerheads, but not until the water cools down in November. I don't like cold water, so I've not been there to see Hammerheads.

Except once in 2008, the first time I went. I took in the famous Shark Dive of Roatan.

If you want to see sharks there, this is the dive to go on. Not much of a dive though. You descend a rope to 70 feet, then 6 divers kneel and 6 divers stand behind them. Behind all is a coral 'wall', which helps tame the current and keeps you from having to constantly turn to see behind. The sharks (black-tipped reef sharks, all female) swim in a circular pattern around a bait bucket. At some point you may get permission to swim with them in that circle, which is what is going on in the shot above.

Other than those sharks, you can very occasionally see a whale shark in the area I normally dive. I've not see one though.

Macro: a whole other story. LOTS of macro opportunities in Roatan. Browse through my Roatan web pages here to see them: http://www.cjcphoto.net/