Have you been to the Reefs?

[Roatan Reef]

Roatan
Bonaire
Grand Cayman
Cozumel
Turks and Caicos
St. Thomas
St. Martin
Belize

We stay in Roatan and Bonaire usually every year for 8 or more days, but Covid put that on halt for 2 years .

Good news, Bonaire just lifted all restrictions, so planning for 23' already, got other staycation stuff planned for this year already.

Of all the places, within proximity to the states, especially in Florida, Roatan and Bonaire are the best.

Roatan has the world's 2nd largest barrier reef, and at West Bay Beach you can literally start snorkeling from the shore with very active reefs only about 30 ft. out. There are other spots to visit around that area like the Blue Channel with great reef life at depths of 20ft. Then there's Little French Key which is an island within an island there with shallow reefs.

In Roatan we also get Lion Fish Hunting Permits (they are free) You can kill them with a spear gun and have them cooked at a local beachside restaurant.

Lion Fish are an invasive species and destroy reefs. Roatan does a somewhat decent job of protecting the reefs, but not on the level of Bonaire.

Bonaire is pretty amazing. They go to great lengths to protect the Reefs, and all along the island there are yellow markers for every dive and snorkeling spot...its called the Yellow Brick Road...you just follow it and check it out as you go. Currents there are a bit stronger, as Roatan has a barrier reef, there's hardly any waves at least not till 100ft out or more.

Bonaire doesn't really have a beach, it has an Ocean Wall. But a 20 minute boat ride takes you out to Klein Bonaire the island across from the island with plenty of beach and awesome shallow reef, to mid level reef snorkeling with tons of fish, creatures, and reef.

Then there is Washington Slagbaii National Park in Bonaire which you need a yearly pass for, $40

There are tons of spots along the way to pull over and travel down to an almost land before time living reef with shallow and deep spots, massive reef structures you can swim under, swim with literally hundreds of Tangs, Angels, Parrot Fish, Trunk Fish...etc. etc.

Also in Bonaire, there are steps every 50 yards or so from the ocean wall and you can get right on and snorkel and see tons of mini reef structures, fish, Corals etc. They sink old boat moorings and they become mini reefs, which is cool.

At 1000 steps Beach, trust me...its 1000 steps down from where you park, there is a massive Staghorn Coral area that's probably about 400 yards across., you will see Sea Turtles there as well.

Bonaire is also one of the few places with a thriving elkhorn coral growth all over the island and gigantic huge Brain Corals.

For the Best variety of Marine Life...its Bonaire....the food not so much.

For the best Beach, Snorkeling and Food...Roatan.

 

[Dave-T]

Just went snorkeling last week at Stanley Key in the Bahamas. It was surprisingly awesome. Many healthy corals. Last month I snorkeled at several spots in Maui and Kauai. Lots of great fish, but the state of the coral was depressing. As others have said, nothing is like what it was years ago. My first tropical ocean snorkeling was in Bermuda in the 70s. Still one of the highlight experiences of my life.

 

[FishTruck]

It's true, dove the Bahamas as a 12 year old in the early 1980s - and the coral formations and stags were MASSIVE back then - not the same now - but I have hope.

+1 LOVE Bonaire

I also really loved hiking down to the Capt. Cook memorial on the big Island (Hawaii) and free-diving there was absolutely spectacular.

Another tip, take free diving lessons - and you may never want the heavy loud bubbler on your back again!

 

[fish farmer]

What did you see at Key Largo. I went to John Pennekamp several years back but I only snorkeled on the beach. Really wanted to go dive there at the time, but couldn’t because I wasn’t certified. I would love to dive Hawaii.

It was 15 years ago, but they dropped us off in the back sea grass channel, probably 20 feet deep and you could swim toward the back reef which was standing depth.

There were big barracuda right in the channel...I heard someone saw a bull shark. The back reef had grunts, goatfish, I think some tangs and I saw a decent sized grouper, maybe 10 lbs hanging out in some big gorgonian, really blended in. there were various other softies like sea fans and some brain corals on the sand bed.

We also did the glass bottomed boat a day or two before and that took us out further and that was much more lively with fish and things that swayed.

 

[i cant think]

The Florida keys have good fish populations and good soft corals such as gorgonians. But the hard corals are largely no more. I snorkeled in the keys in the seventies. There were unblemished brain coral colonies the size of Volkswagens and they were abundant. Now those corals are largely dead.

I understand that the keys had acres of staghorn corals. I do not recall seeing healthy staghorn in the keys now. I know of a few places that have some healthy staghorn but it is not abundant. I also know a few places that have healthy elkhorn coral.

Coral reefs face a number to stressors: way too much nutrient runoff usually in the form of sewage or the nutrients from treated sewage, overfishing, and climate change. When a reef gets above 84 degrees it can have a coral bleaching event. I was at a place which 3 years ago had a fair amount of healthy stoney coral and it had a major bleaching event. It no longer has healthy stoney coral.

It was also discovered that recently mass bleaching events occurred much more unfortunately… It’s a shame people don’t know what we’re doing to our oceans as much and only really hear about the new discoveries.

 

[NatsRams]

The Florida keys have good fish populations and good soft corals such as gorgonians. But the hard corals are largely no more. I snorkeled in the keys in the seventies. There were unblemished brain coral colonies the size of Volkswagens and they were abundant. Now those corals are largely dead.

I understand that the keys had acres of staghorn corals. I do not recall seeing healthy staghorn in the keys now. I know of a few places that have some healthy staghorn but it is not abundant. I also know a few places that have healthy elkhorn coral.

Coral reefs face a number to stressors: way too much nutrient runoff usually in the form of sewage or the nutrients from treated sewage, overfishing, and climate change. When a reef gets above 84 degrees it can have a coral bleaching event. I was at a place which 3 years ago had a fair amount of healthy stoney coral and it had a major bleaching event. It no longer has healthy stoney coral.

There is staghorn and elk horn in the waters around St John USVI. I haven’t been to many reefs, but the best I’ve seen were off the west coast of the big island of Hawaii. I’d love to get to Polynesia and see those reefs.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Roatan
Bonaire
Grand Cayman
Cozumel
Turks and Caicos
St. Thomas
St. Martin
Belize

We stay in Roatan and Bonaire usually every year for 8 or more days, but Covid put that on halt for 2 years .

Good news, Bonaire just lifted all restrictions, so planning for 23' already, got other staycation stuff planned for this year already.

Of all the places, within proximity to the states, especially in Florida, Roatan and Bonaire are the best.

Roatan has the world's 2nd largest barrier reef, and at West Bay Beach you can literally start snorkeling from the shore with very active reefs only about 30 ft. out. There are other spots to visit around that area like the Blue Channel with great reef life at depths of 20ft. Then there's Little French Key which is an island within an island there with shallow reefs.

In Roatan we also get Lion Fish Hunting Permits (they are free) You can kill them with a spear gun and have them cooked at a local beachside restaurant.

Lion Fish are an invasive species and destroy reefs. Roatan does a somewhat decent job of protecting the reefs, but not on the level of Bonaire.

Bonaire is pretty amazing. They go to great lengths to protect the Reefs, and all along the island there are yellow markers for every dive and snorkeling spot...its called the Yellow Brick Road...you just follow it and check it out as you go. Currents there are a bit stronger, as Roatan has a barrier reef, there's hardly any waves at least not till 100ft out or more.

Bonaire doesn't really have a beach, it has an Ocean Wall. But a 20 minute boat ride takes you out to Klein Bonaire the island across from the island with plenty of beach and awesome shallow reef, to mid level reef snorkeling with tons of fish, creatures, and reef.

Then there is Washington Slagbaii National Park in Bonaire which you need a yearly pass for, $40

There are tons of spots along the way to pull over and travel down to an almost land before time living reef with shallow and deep spots, massive reef structures you can swim under, swim with literally hundreds of Tangs, Angels, Parrot Fish, Trunk Fish...etc. etc.

Also in Bonaire, there are steps every 50 yards or so from the ocean wall and you can get right on and snorkel and see tons of mini reef structures, fish, Corals etc. They sink old boat moorings and they become mini reefs, which is cool.

At 1000 steps Beach, trust me...its 1000 steps down from where you park, there is a massive Staghorn Coral area that's probably about 400 yards across., you will see Sea Turtles there as well.

Bonaire is also one of the few places with a thriving elkhorn coral growth all over the island and gigantic huge Brain Corals.

For the Best variety of Marine Life...its Bonaire....the food not so much.

For the best Beach, Snorkeling and Food...Roatan.

Interesting! We were planning on going to Roatán, but because of the risks of getting stuck in a foreign country because of covid, we chose to go to the keys. I hope I could go there one day.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

There is staghorn and elk horn in the waters around St John USVI. I haven’t been to many reefs, but the best I’ve seen were off the west coast of the big island of Hawaii. I’d love to get to Polynesia and see those reefs.

I would love to go too. I wish I could go to the indo pacific area, but from the states, it’s a very expensive trip.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I have been a diver for 20 years before being a reefer…

 

[Calebd91]

Such great timing for this thread, me and the misses are wanting to plan a trip to snorkel some reefs. We initially was thinking the keys but neither have been there and now I’ve got to looking at Roatan. I feel it would be a much better location, time to do some research!

I’ve only snorkeled a small reef off paradise island in the Bahamas several years ago and it was a short trip and didn’t see much

 

[vpierce3]

It’s been quite a few years but I snorkeled in
Maui back in the 90s. It was very pretty.
And I Scuba dove for a week in the Red Sea off the Sinai peninsula. Those reefs were magnificent. Tons of fish of all sizes and types.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I snorkel various reefs in St Kitts 2-3x weekly while here for school.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I snorkel various reefs in St Kitts 2-3x weekly while here for school.

Very lucky, I’m jealous lol. I wish I could spend more time with a few of them so I could see how they change overtime.

 

[CookieRdReef]

Snorkling in Hawaii is nice for fish, not a ton of coral eye candy. Seeing Achilles Tangs chase each other in circles and giant parrotfish in Hanauma Bay is the highlight of my snorkling.

 

[araziza]

Snorkelled on the reef in Hawaii, Alaska (don’t think this was technically reef, but it was still crazy cool), Israel, Dominican. Dove in Roatan and Costa Maya.

 

[Dr. Jim]

Did you see any stony corals in that video? Not really. This is exactly what I saw diving there a couple of weeks ago. The previous times I dove in the Keys were over 40 years ago. There was color and stony corals everywhere back then! What a shame.

I dove in Roatan a couple of years ago. The reef formation was amazing, ascending from the ocean floor 100' deep almost to the surface in some places, but everything was brown!

We need to do something about global warming!!

 

[areefer01]

Just got back from Cozumel. Mostly dive cold waters of Northern California, Monterey though.

 

[Pennekampdream]

Have you been to a Reef before? I recently traveled to the Florida Keys and went to Looe Key Reef. It was the first reef I had ever been to. It was also my first experience scuba diving. In this video, I documented everything we saw. We saw all kinds of fish and corals, many of which I had seen before at stores. It was a great experience and I would recommend it for any reefer.

Please share your experiences!!

Sorry for the shaky footage and the watermark. If you enjoyed this video, if you could show your appreciation, a like and subscribe would be greatly appreciated. Also, check out my other videos on my reef tank here:

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEWCIj6yc7Goxg-ez80CbuA/featured

Awesome video, brings back so many memories. I dove the keys and Miami in the 80s and 90s. I was a dive master with a local dive shop. The only diving I do now is snorkeling. Sad to see how easy it is to spot a lion fish now a day. Back when I was actively diving it was almost impossible to find one. Liked all the pictures you took. Always fun to see the nurse sharks

 

[carbasaurus]

There is nothing in the world like it. Years ago while stationed in Japan I made many trips to the central pacific: Palau, Saipan, Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Marshall Islands, Okinawa, and Bali. Every dive was different. Most illuminating when comparing islands was the value of dedicated no take zones on the reefs. Palau has an extensive amount of protected reefs and it seemed to pay huge dividends in healthy reef ecosystems.

More recently I went to French Polynesia and the reefs there are still very healthy. I have never been diving/snorkeling in the Caribbean but have read what many have posted and that is those reefs are in trouble.

 

[vtecintegra]

I've snorkeled Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. It's small reefs, but the fish were extensive. Access to the island is by military orders only, it's one of those secret squirrel places. Can't even take leave there if you're active duty.