 The Josie J: This cargo ship ran the regular run between the mainland of Honduras and French Harbour, until the day mechanical failure in the ship's pumps caused it to start listing heavily to port on it's homeward journey. It was towed in, until a larger ship from French Harbour arrived, tied up alongside and tried to pump the water out of her holds. But it was coming in too fast, and was soon endangering the other ship. Sadly, they had to loose off and let it go down. It now lies in 170' of water off Roatan's western tip, near Black Rock.  The Odyssey: On November 15, 2002 the 300ft cargo ship, The Odyssey, was sunk near Mud-Hole on the island of Roatan. The ship was cleaned up and prepared for divers by widening some access points and welding closed other, more dangerous routes. It lies in 110ft of water. It is 50 ft wide and at the time of sinking, was over 80ft tall. Storms and hurricanes have battered the wreck since it went down, and marine life has begun to grow on the structure, while many fishes have found this wreck as a great new home.
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ORCA!!! from Caribbean Reef Life on Vimeo.  (Map mod.
from Taylor et al. 2008; © IUCN). The last animal anyone would expect to find in the sunny Caribbean is the Killer Whale, or Orca (Orcinus Orca), but that's just we saw one lucky day back in 2003, right off the shores of West End, Roatan. Most often associated with cold waters and a diet of seals, the Orca is actually found in all oceans of the world. In fact, the Orca is believed to be the second most widely-ranging mammal on earth after humans!  A male Orca can grow to a length of 32 feet and weigh up to 10 tons! They are sociable animals and will spend most of their lives in the pod, using teamwork to herd and catch their prey. In the warmer waters of the Caribbean their usual diet consists mostly of fish and dolphin meat, although they have been know to follow pods of whales.
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Mickey Charteris
Is a Canadian-born South African living in Honduras, who no longer knows where his accent is from. He has been diving all over the world, but has chosen Roatan as his home because of it's incredible underwater biodiversity. He has spent many thousands of hours underwater, and he is still finding something new on every dive. Archives:
February 2014
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