ROATAN - June 28 - July 5, 2025

(Click here to see some pictures from this trip plus links to the SmugMug slideshow.)

The world travelers have returned . . .

We’ve just completed our fourth trip to Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras, once again staying with our friends at Anthony’s Key Resort. In fact, I’m starting to write this report on the United plane out of Roatan to Houston, where we’ll connect for our flight home to Los Angeles.

Roatan’s pretty easy to get to, although as with most trips nowadays, getting there requires an overnight redeye fight. We left on United Airlines at 1AM out of LAX, got into Houston around 6AM, flew out of Houston at 9AM, and got into Roatan around Noon. (Delta and American also have regular service to Roatan.)

I had checked the weather ahead of time and knew there were going to be strong tradewinds out of the east. Because Anthony’s is on the northwest side of Roatan, I assumed this wouldn’t affect us too much (and it didn’t). But as we landed – the airport is on the south side of the island – you could see whitecaps and decent sized swells on that side of the island. I’m not sure how the resort on that exposed south side dealt with diving conditions.

One thing I like about Anthony’s overall is that they’re really well organized. They’ve got someone with a big sign right when you come out of Immigration/Customs – and bear in mind there are a dozen other resorts with signs too – who then points you towards their baggage handlers, who will take all your bags and load them on the baggage truck, then they point you to another guy who directs you to the bus for the 30–minute ride to the resort.

Once at Anthony’s, you start in the recently–renovated reception area where you’re given room assignments, an orientation to the general resort operations, and a sandwich (since you’re likely too late for lunch). While that’s all happening, the baggage guys are schlepping your bags to the key (island) where all of our rooms were and that gives Anthony’s its name. Once your room is ready (generally by 3PM – sometimes earlier), you take the small water taxi across (the ride literally takes 60 seconds and the panga style boat runs 24/7), go to your room, and unpack.

We also used Saturday afternoon to check in with dive shop manager Kevin Brewer. He checked certifications, assigned us gear lockers (located 100 feet from our boat), confirmed with me the general schedule, handed out weights, and then we were good–to–go.

Your dive gear lives in the dive locker area. A group will be assigned adjacent lockers – it makes it easier for scheduling but can sometimes feel a bit crowded if everyone’s doing something at the same time – so we were 1A/1B/2A/2B/3A/3B/4A/4B/5A/5B. Each locker has a keyed lock or you can use your own lock. Some of our folks used their TSA combo locks which means you don’t need to carry a key.

So Saturday, the busiest arrival day, is jam–packed with everything you need to do. When 6PM dinnertime rolls around, you’re more than ready to settle in for the first full meal. (And because we were a group, we had an assigned table and wait–staff for the entire week.)

Our group consisted of 10 people this year: Katy & Tom Burns, David Mischel & Ana Bertero, Lou Weisberg, Annette Lohman, Denise Vetromile, Lori Benham, Craig Singer, and me (Ken Kurtis). Lou and Craig had been to Roatan (and Anthony’s) before but the rest were newbies for the destination.

The general package is three dives each day at 8:30AM, 10:30AM, and 2:30PM. Night dives are offered on Tuesday and Thursday at 6:20PM. Anthony’s has a large fleet of boats, all functional and comfortable, and there’s a board that lists each boat, who's on it, and where each boat is going that day. For the most part, you’re on the same boat all week. (But there’s flexibility. We were able to move a couple of our people to another boat when they wanted to skip the wreck dives.) Very important to remember: All of the boats leave on time. Get there five minutes late and you’ll miss the dive. All the dives are single–tank so the boats return to Anthony’s after each dive for a short break after dive 1, lunch after dive 2, and end–of–the–day after dive 3.

 
Nitrox is available for $178 for the week. You analyze your own gas in the tank room, put a label on the tank with your name and the boat name, and then move the tank to an area in that same room for your boat. The tanks are then loaded on to the boats by Anthony’s staff. They’ll also hook up your BC and reg. The nitrox throughout the week was fairly consistently testing at 30% and the fills (AL80s) were always around 3,000psi. There are 100cf tanks available for a slight extra charge which goes on your room tab. Reserve those ahead of time if you need more gas volume.

When you talk to people about Caribbean diving nowadays, you’ll likely hear them say “It’s not what it used to be 20 years ago.” Probably no place is. Roatan is certainly no exception. But the two big issues plaguing the Caribbean – Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) and Lionfish – don’t seem to be as big a problem in Roatan IMHO.

As best I could tell – we only dove the northwest side of the island – SCTLD specifically isn’t an issue. However, the reefs definitely look beat up in a lot of places and there are plenty of areas when the coral is brown and likely dead. One thing I noticed, and we discussed this when we were here last year, is that all of the Pillar Coral is dead. Pillar Coral usually are these slender stalks of coral that stretch up three to five feet and whose polyps are frequently out and feeding during the day. No mas. We saw plenty of Pillar Coral remnants, but no living Pillar Coral. Whether that’s caused by environmental or disease conditions I don’t know (although I suspect disease).

I am in the minority as to whether or not Lionfish should still be thought as “invasive” in the Caribbean. Yes, they weren’t found here prior to 1995 (a result of some lionfish being released into the Gulf and the Keys post–Hurricane Andrew and then spreading through the Caribbean) but that was 30 years ago. At what point do you determine that the local ecosystem has reset, balanced, and learned to live with these fish and they’re no longer “invasive?”

Many places, Roatan included, has aggressively tried to cull the fish or tried feeding them to Groupers and Sharks to get them interested in Lionfish as prey. I’m not sure how well that’s working. But I will say that we saw a grand total of maybe two lionfish during our 19 dives we made over the course of the week. Whether that’s because the population has settled into a manageable level or the culling is working, I don’t know.

But I will say that I thought the overall diving this year was better than what we experienced last year (2024). It seemed to me there were plenty of critters, a good variety of fish, and many areas of healthy coral. (Roatan also experiments with coral replanting projects but that’s still in relative infancy.) Additionally, the barrel sponges were plentiful and huge, many as tall as our divers. There’s also a healthy respect for the reef and the complexity of care it requires for the biodiversity it supports. I don’t know that you’ll ever come to Roatan, especially if you’ve been to some of the Indo–Pacific hotspots like the Maldives or Indonesia, and say “That was one of the best dives I’ve ever made.” But we had plenty of good dives, a couple of REALLY good dives, and on every dive we generally saw at least one or two interesting creatures.

Much of this was due to dive guide and DM John Carter. John has been our DM for each of our previous three trips and I specifically requested him again. He’s a terrific critter–spotter and seems to have macro eyes. He can spot some of the smallest things I’ve ever (or never) seen. And he knows where stuff generally is. (I assume many of the other guides are similarly talented.) On our first two dives, John led us to two different seahorses. We had some Toadfish along the way, Yellow–Headed Jawfish, and plenty of Groupers.

You’ll see a lot of what we saw when you go to my SmugMug photo page and look at the Roatan shots. (https://kenkurtis.smugmug.com/DIVE-TRIP-PHOTOS-ALL/2025-DIVE-TRIPS/ROATAN-2025)

John’s got a way with Groupers. A lot of this stems with the fact that he takes a plastic water bottle filled with a few sardines down with him. The fish, especially the groupers, can smell the scent and hang with us hoping to get a handout. (John always complies.) I’m sure they do this with other dive guides too because the groupers – we had a variety of Black, Tiger, Nassau, and Yellowfin – are very comfortable around divers and are frequently gliding in and out of the procession as the group made our way over the reef. It wasn’t uncommon for a few of the fish, especially the bigger ones, to stay with us for the entire 50–minute dive.

Viz was generally 60–70 feet although we had a dive or two with 50–foot viz as well as a couple in excess of 80 feet. Water temps on my gauge were running 83–84º. I wore a 1mm full jumpsuit with a 1mm hood and was quite comfy. Dives are generally around 50 minutes including the 3–minute safety stop (personally, I like to do 5–minutes) but occasionally we went for over an hour. The two night dives were each about 40 minutes.

Probably the best dive of the trip was an unexpected treat we got at a site called Sea Quest. The dive starts in one of the coral restoration areas where there are a dozen “trees” nurturing new coral growth that will eventually be replanted on the reefs. When we dove it last year, we had a school of squid in this area towards the end of the dive. I was hoping they’d be here this year as well. No such luck.

We continued heading out and down a slope into a deeper sandy area which contained a field of Garden Eels. I happened to glance up from the eels as a shadow glided over my head, which I quickly realized was a good–sized Eagle Ray. Normally when you see these, they tend to be fleeting glimpses because the Eagle Rays get skittish when divers are around. Not this time. I was able to bang off a couple of the “typical Eagle Ray in flight” shots all the while screaming through my regulator to get everyone’s attention so they wouldn’t miss the sight.

Then, to my surprise and delight, two more Eagle Rays appeared. These two were rooting through the sand looking for snails or other buried snacks. (You’ll see the how this is done on the SmugMug page.) The third one then circled back and also started rooting around the sand. While this was all happening before our very eyes, a large Remora joined the fray and circled from diver to diver, as if looking for something (or someone) to attach to. He was pretty good–sized (maybe three feet long) which means he’s used to hanging out with larger hosts, which made me wonder where that host was, not to mention who that host was.

The cool thing about all of this is that while normally Eagle Rays are fairly shy and scoot off when you make a move towards them, these three didn’t seem to mind human company and, according to my shot data, spent about 20 minutes with us from the first shot I took until the last. And the only reason we had to abandon the area (about 80 feet deep) was because we were running out of NDL time. It was a very memorable dive.

One advantage of paying attention to the dive guides is that they know where to find the “special friends” on a given site. As I mentioned before, John is really good at spotting not just small stuff but infinitesimally small stuff. A couple of times he would point at something and I’d just shoot and then figure it out when I was looking at the shots post–dive.

A couple of the special critters we saw included a number of seahorses. They’re tricky to shoot because, first they’re going to have their tail entwined around a sea fan branch or something like that which means it can be hard to get a camera – let alone a large camera with strobes like my setup – in without damaging the reef. (And I assure you, no coral was broken getting any of my shots that you will see.)

Secondly, they’re somewhat shy and they will often turn away from you once you start shooting. (They’re not too fond of the strobes and are basically turning away from the light.) And even then, because they often are able to camouflage and blend in with their surroundings, it may be hard to get a good picture because they look very much like whatever they’re clinging to. Add to that that they’re only about 3–4 inches tall, which increases the degree of difficulty in getting a good shot.

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The other issue with shooting seahorses is that EVERYONE wants to get a peek. So you’ve really got to take turns lest everyone tries to jam in at once. That’s why we at Reef Seekers long ago came up with the “3 or 30” rule which means you get 3 shots (if you’re a photographer) or 30 seconds (which covers photogs and non–photogs), and then you let someone else have a turn. If no one else is waiting, knock yourself out.

I frequently go last. I’ll play traffic cop and wave people in and  out and then take the final turn so that I can take a number of shots without feeling like I’m hogging the animal and depriving someone else of a turn. This led to a funny miscommunication on one dive.

I was patiently (??) waiting by a yellow seahorse for everyone else to get a turn. The person I was diving with was also waiting and could see the seahorse from her  position 10 feet away but certainly couldn’t get a close view. Once everyone else was done, I pointed to her and then pointed to the seahorse. What I thought I was saying was, “Do you want to come in and take a closer look?” She waved her hands horizontally which to me indicated “No.” OK whatever, I thought and started shooting away and then moved off when I was done. She followed.

When I got back on the boat, she was already up and must have mentioned this incident to others because the first question asked of me was, “Why didn’t you let her look at the seahorse? “ I said, “What are you talking about?” Turns out that she thought what I had said was, “Did you get a chance to see the seahorse?” So she waved her hands saying “No,” fully expecting me to then wave her in before I did anything. So she was a bit puzzled when I just sort of ignored what she said and started shooting. We had a good laugh about it – well, I laughed a lot – and I confirmed for her that this is a story that I’ll be telling for years to come.

Other critters we saw (many of whom you’ll see on the SmugMug slide show) included lots of Groupers (Nassau, Black, Yellowfin, and Tiger mainly), numerous Angelfish (French, Gray, Queen, and Rock Beauties), a couple of fields of Yellowheaded Jawfish and some areas with Garden Eel gardens, lots of Snappers, thousands of Sharpnose Puffers, numerous turtles, tons of Parrotfish of various species (including a couple of Midnights and a single Rainbow), bunches of Damsels and Wrasses, and a number of Eels. As I mentioned earlier, it seemed to me the fish life was better this year than last.

Because Anthony’s is an all–inclusive resort, I should say a few words about the accommodations and the food. Both are very good.

About 80% of the rooms are out on Anthony’s Key itself and ours were no exception. We had some Superior rooms which had two double beds, en suite bathroom, and a shared over–the–water deck. There were also Deluxe rooms which were slightly bigger and which had a private deck. Both class of rooms served us well. My room (I assume this applied to others too) was well–stocked with plenty of towels of all sizes. There’s also shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower as well as hand soap and lotion near the sink.

One thing to note about the rooms is that they don’t have phones, so when you have a large–ish group like ours, I had to either e–mail people, text them, or go room–to–room if I needed to pass on some info. All of the rooms have hard–wired dedicated Wi–Fi that I found that to be excellent and very fast. (And it’s free.)

The other thing to note is that electrical plugs are few and far between. They’re American–style with 110 voltage, but in my room there was a plug behind each bed and one in the bathroom and that was it. Fortunately, the bedside lamps have an outlet in the lamp base but if you’ll be charging multiple things each day, bring a multi–outlet extension cord.

With the exception of two meals, all the food is served in the renovated dining hall/restaurant which is at water level. (No more climbing 50+ stairs to get fed.) Breakfast was 7–10AM, lunch Noon–2PM, dinner 6–9PM. You always order off of a menu. The breakfast and lunch menus were always the same – but with a good variety of choices – and the dinner menu was different each evening. At dinner there are also specials available for an extra fee. Otherwise, everything’s included.

I thought the food was generally good, with a couple of outstanding dishes. But it also seemed that if you were ordering meat, it tended to be cooked a little more than I personally wanted. So I’d ask for rare in hopes it came medium rare. However, all of the chicken dishes were tender and moist. I didn’t get any dry chicken.

The two meals not served in the dining hall are the Monday lunch which is on Maya Key, an island privately–owned by Anthony’s that also includes some fake Mayan ruins and a number of rescue animals in cages. Normally Monday is also the day you’d dive Mary’s Place but it was too rough for us to get there. However, we still did lunch at Maya Key and fought the chop to get there. Lunch there was good but not spectacular. It seems like a better lunch when you’ve also been able to dive Mary’s Place (which is a really great dive).

The other not–in–the–dining–hall meal is the Wednesday evening Island Fiesta BBQ that’s held out on the key where we were staying. That food is REALLY good. Excellent BBQ ribs and chicken and good side dishes as well. They also throw in some local dancing, a crab race, and a limbo contest. Stay for the contests if you like, but come for the BBQ delights.

Overall Anthony’s does a superb job. The whole place really runs like clockwork which appeals to my sense of organization. We will definitely go back again but I don’t know if that will be in 2026 or if we’ll need to wait until 2027. But regardless of whether you go with us, another group, or on your own, you’ll have an enjoyable time.

See the pix on the SmugMug photo page:
https://kenkurtis.smugmug.com/DIVE-TRIP-PHOTOS-ALL/2025-DIVE-TRIPS/ROATAN-2025

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