A dive briefing · Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras

Cara a Cara

Dive site at a Roatan Marine Park mooring off Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras. Here's what has been recorded at this site month by month, how the region’s reefs have weathered ocean heat, and how to prepare.

Roatánreef

At this site Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 70 · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 71

Chapter I · Arrival

Cara a Cara: dive site at a Roatan Marine Park mooring off Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras.

16.2874° N86.5201° W · Roatan Marine Park dive-mooring map, marker “CARA CARA”

3open records · GBIF

3species recorded

At this site Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 71 · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Entry

Shore and boat entries vary by site. We list only rules we can cite from official sources; entry points, depths and currents will be added once we can verify them.

Mooring position (cited)Coordinates are the published position of the named mooring: Roatan Marine Park dive-mooring map, marker “CARA CARA”.

To verifyDepth range, entry points and current notes. We publish them only with a citation.

Local rules (cited)

Anchoring in the Bay Islands National Marine Park is prohibited. The Roatan Marine Park installs and maintains dive and snorkel moorings so boats can tie up instead. Roatan Marine Park · Marine Infrastructure

At this site Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 71 · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

**Open media** · At this site Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 70 · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The surface noise falls away.

Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.

Then Cara a Cara rises to meet you.

Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 70

What lives here, by month

Pick a month. These are the species most often recorded within about a kilometre in that month, from open survey records.

Oct

October · 0 qualifying records

Life calendar · records per month for this site's most-recorded species (blank means not in that month's top list)

Species	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Slender seahorse
Boulder star coral
Cubera snapper

Most-recorded species, all months

Cubera snapper (1)
Slender seahorse (1)
Boulder star coral (1)

GBIF.org (2026-10-15), occurrence records within ~1 km, licensed CC0 or CC BY 4.0 only. Birds and land animals are excluded. Counts reflect survey effort, not abundance. 3 qualifying records. See them on GBIF. Common names: Wikidata (CC0) / GBIF. Species photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species.

Forty-one summers of heat

Each stripe is one year since 1985, colored by its peak heat stress across NOAA's “Honduras” region. These are NOAA Coral Reef Watch satellite figures for the whole region, not for this one site.

19852026

Reef health report · Honduras

Heat stress, measured from orbit.

Degree Heating Weeks · 2026-10-138.8°C-weeks · NOAA status: Alert Level 2

NOAA CRW virtual station “Honduras”. NOAA's alert thresholds are 4 °C-weeks (Alert Level 1) and 8 °C-weeks (Alert Level 2). Station page · Method. Credit: NOAA Coral Reef Watch.

Peak per year · dashed lines at 4, 8 and 16 °C-weeks

The past twelve months

Conditions

Average sea temperature through the year. Check the live readings before you go.

Average sea surface temperature by month: NOAA CRW “Honduras” station climatology (monthly means).

CENAOS / COPECO (Honduras) · forecasts →

Buoy readings are measurements; forecasts are models. Use them for planning only, and assess conditions on site. Depth and visibility data aren't listed until we can cite a source.

VII

Plan & prepare

Read the official marine forecast the night before.Offshore, wind and sea state decide the day.
Check the cited local rules above and pay any park fee before you dive.[Placeholder: verified operator list to come]
Study this month's species above.You'll recognise more when you know the names.
Hands off, fins up, buoyancy dialled. Log what you see.Your sightings can become tomorrow's open data.

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Photographs from Cara a Cara

Openly licensed photos, each checked for location against its title, description, category or geotag. Labels show how close each one is to the site.

**Vivid Crinoids**Near this sitegeotagged about 4.0 km from the site coordinates NOAA's National Ocean Service · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

**Brisingid Seastar (Novodinia antillensis)**Near this sitegeotagged about 4.3 km from the site coordinates NOAA's National Ocean Service · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

**Green moray (Gymnothorax funebris)**Near this sitegeotagged about 2.2 km from the site coordinates TheMongrelKoi · CC0 · iNaturalist

**Coney (Cephalopholis fulva)**Near this sitegeotagged about 2.9 km from the site coordinates TheMongrelKoi · CC0 · iNaturalist

**Yellowtail damselfish (Microspathodon chrysurus)**Near this sitegeotagged about 3.0 km from the site coordinates TheMongrelKoi · CC0 · iNaturalist

**Red cushion sea star (Oreaster reticulatus)**Near this sitegeotagged about 3.2 km from the site coordinates Jeffrey A Ewick · CC0 · iNaturalist

**Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus)**Near this sitegeotagged about 3.3 km from the site coordinates TheMongrelKoi · CC0 · iNaturalist

Credits

Coordinates: Roatan Marine Park dive-mooring map, marker “CARA CARA” · source · Roatan Marine Park, public map. Roatan Marine Park dive-site mooring map (the park’s published Google My Maps layer of its moorings). Each site uses the named mooring marker.
Species records: GBIF.org, CC0 & CC BY 4.0 records. By license: CC_BY_4_0: 3
Dataset: iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (3 records) · GBIF
Query: https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=16.277441999999997,16.297442&decimalLongitude=-86.530068,-86.51006799999999&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&taxonKey=44&taxonKey=206&taxonKey=229&taxonKey=136&taxonKey=225&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&limit=0
Heat stress & SST: NOAA Coral Reef Watch, 5 km Regional Virtual Station “Honduras”
Hero photo: At this site Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 70 · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Arrival photo: At this site Pez mariposa cara blanca (Chaetodon mesoleucos), Yeda, Arabia Saudita, 2025-05-20, DD 71 · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Gallery: 7 photos, credited under each image
Species photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources