Hey Guys,
I recently got back from a cruise to the western Caribbean on the Carnival Valor. While a cruise ship is a great way to sample the Caribbean and decide which places you would like to revisit, there is simply not enough time at each destination to do much diving..
That said, I booked a two tank dive trip thru the cruise line via Anthony’s Key Resort in beautiful Roatan Honduras. It was pretty much a typical cattle run dive; 20 divers on the boat with little time for the dive masters to get to know any of the divers. I made the enormous mistake of NOT bringing my own diving gear and decided to take my chances with the rental gear.
The rental BC, still wet from the last person who used it an hour ago, was ratty, worn out in every possible high-wear area, bleached out, missing buckles..You get the idea. One of the main buckles was broken, then tied back on to the vest with a piece of webbing. However, the inflator did still work and I used it anyway.
Miraculously, the BC actually worked under water. In hindsight, I should have requested another piece of equipment, or better yet brought my own.
The diving in Roatan is amazing, of course, and I love how under devloped the island is. We saw some cool turtles, a green moray and lots of other great stuff. The amount of marine life is mind boggling.
However, I cannot over stress the importance of conservation of these areas that we divers love so much. The divemasters on this trip did not say anything to the divers about not touching the coral or make any mention of conservation of the reef. I am afraid that in a very short period of time, Roatan will become another beautiful exotic destination that is going to be loved to death. Some of the divers on our boat were taking underwater photos and literally lying right on the coral to get the perfect angle. This is totally unacceptable.
PLEASE PLEASE people, we HAVE TO MAKE SURE these places that we dive remain the beautiful, serene, untouched wilderness or they are simply going to turn into the Florida Keys (a coral graveyard, from overuse). Roatan needs to have some very tough reef protection regulations like Bonaire, or, I am afraid to say, it is not going to survive the next 5-10 years. |