Roatan

Perspective

We might sometimes lose perspective of how blessed we are in America.

This was my 3rd trip to this resort in Roatan.  1 trip pre-covid, 1 trip at the end of the pandemic and now, 3 years later.

What was the glaring difference? The sealife. 

Previously, you saw sea turtles on every dive.  Multiple turtles.  In the wild, sea turtle live 50 to 100 years. Some, many more years.

This trip.  1 small turtle for the whole week.

Also, previously, sharks on many of the dives.  This trip, I saw no sharks, Jacob saw 2 on 1 dive.

And the rays.  I saw 2 small eagle rays this trip. Previously, half of the dives featured rays.

The answer:  No Tourists.  No jobs.  No money. No government subsidies.  Tourism was shut down for 7 months.  Schools shut down for 17 months.  People had to eat.  They ate the turtles, they were easy to catch. This broke our hearts, for the people and the turtles.

I will also say that in most places I dive (ie. Mexico), the reefs are a national park.  Subsidized by the government and fees collected from divers to enter the national park.  In Honduras, they know the government is corrupt, and the fees collected would be scarfed up in the corruption. 

In Roatan, the dive operators ask the tourists for a voluntary donation (some do it, some don't - and the operators don't push it).  The operators collectively maintain the reefs.  Cleaning, hunting the species that can harm the ecosystem, providing means, transportation, and supplies for volunteers to do the work of cleaning the reef, and trying to grow new coral foundations.Read more