Half Moon Bay (Roatan)
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.
Half Moon Bay (Roatan): dive site at a Roatan Marine Park mooring off Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras.
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.
- 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 sitegeotagged 522 m from the site coordinates Stovepipe sponge (Aplysina archeri) · Louis Imbeau · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Half Moon Bay (Roatan) rises to meet you.
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.
| Species | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinal Soldierfish | ||||||||||||
| Threeline Basslet | ||||||||||||
| Dusky Basslet | ||||||||||||
| Royal Gramma | ||||||||||||
| Blackcap Basslet | ||||||||||||
| Freckled Cardinalfish | ||||||||||||
| Sponge Cardinalfish | ||||||||||||
| Caribbean chestnut moray | ||||||||||||
| Sharpnose Puffer | ||||||||||||
| Longjaw Squirrelfish | ||||||||||||
| Whitestar Cardinalfish | ||||||||||||
| Belted cardinalfish |
Most-recorded species, all months
- Freckled Cardinalfish (4)
- Cardinal Soldierfish (3)
- Caribbean chestnut moray (3)
- Sharpnose Puffer (3)
- Reef Scorpionfish (2)
- Bluegold Goby (2)
- Threeline Basslet (2)
- Royal Gramma (2)
- Blackcap Basslet (2)
- Spotted Soapfish (2)
- Blackcheek Blenny (2)
- Longjaw Squirrelfish (2)
- Belted cardinalfish (2)
- Banded-antennae squat shrimp (1)
- Periclimenes rathbunae (1)
- Giant Caribbean anenone (1)
- Striate finger coral (1)
- Artichoke Coral (1)
- Trumpetfish (1)
- Banded Pipefish (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. 860 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.
Heat stress, measured from orbit.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Photographs from Half Moon Bay (Roatan)
Openly licensed photos, each checked for location against its title, description, category or geotag. Labels show how close each one is to the site.
Credits
- Coordinates
- Roatan Marine Park dive-mooring map, marker “HALF MOON BAY” · 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: 781, CC0_1_0: 79
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (765 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Field Museum of Natural History (Zoology) Fish Collection · doi:10.15468/alz7wu (74 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (15 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Marine Invertebrate voucher specimens at the Florida Biodiversity Collection, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission · doi:10.15468/bfd6ci (3 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- CAS Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) · doi:10.15468/tiac99 (1 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Division of Fishes · doi:10.15468/8cxijb (1 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- CAS Ichthyology (ICH) · doi:10.15468/efh2ib (1 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=16.355241999999997,16.375242&decimalLongitude=-86.403417,-86.383417&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 Half Moon Bay Beach Fisherman · Kai Medina (Mk170101) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Arrival photo
- At this sitegeotagged 522 m from the site coordinates Stovepipe sponge (Aplysina archeri) · Louis Imbeau · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 7 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources