Roatán Marine Life
Sea Hunt sits on the Mesoamerican Reef, the second-largest barrier reef in the world. Here's an honest guide to what you can expect to see just off our beach in West End — and the rarer sightings that keep us excited after thousands of dives.
Commonly seen
The reef regulars — you'll see most of these on a typical day around West End and Sandy Bay.
Green moray eel
The big green morays draped through the coral.
Spotted moray eel
White with dense black spots, peering from crevices.
Queen angelfish
Electric blue and yellow — unmistakable on the reef.
French angelfish
Black with bright yellow scale edges, often in pairs.
Parrotfish
Several species — stoplight, queen, and rainbow — crunching coral all day.
Spanish hogfish
A wrasse with a deep-purple back and a bright yellow body.
Hogfish
A big pale wrasse with a long snout, foraging over reef and sand.
Slippery dick
A small striped wrasse, always busy darting over the coral.
Creole wrasse
Purple-blue schools streaming along the wall in midwater.
Sergeant major
Bold black-barred damsels guarding their patch of reef.
Bicolor damselfish
Dark in front, pale behind — small but feisty.
Beaugregory
A blue-grey damsel with a sunny yellow belly.
Blue tang
Electric-blue tangs grazing the reef in roving groups.
Queen triggerfish
Vivid blue lines and a bold attitude over the reef.
Ocean triggerfish
Larger and grey, often hanging higher in the blue.
Filefish
Scrawled and whitespotted filefish drifting past the sea fans.
Trumpetfish
Long and thin, hanging vertically to ambush prey.
Porcupinefish
Big-eyed and spiny, sheltering under ledges by day.
Balloonfish
A spotted puffer with short spines and orange eyes.
Sharpnose puffer
Tiny, pointy-nosed puffers buzzing the coral.
Butterflyfish
Dainty pairs flitting over the coral heads.
Grunts
Golden schools hanging in the shade of ledges.
Snapper
Schoolmaster and other snappers patrolling the reef.
Horse-eye jack
Silver schools with big eyes sweeping along the wall.
Barracuda
Hanging motionless in the blue, all teeth and curiosity.
Tarpon
Big silver tarpon — common at sites like Spooky Channel and the wrecks.
Grouper
Goliath and black grouper, common on the wrecks.
Lionfish
A beautiful invader — we remove them to help protect the reef.
Sand tilefish
Slender and pale, hovering over its rubble burrow.
Yellowhead jawfish
Hovers above its burrow, ready to dart back in.
Brown garden eel
Whole colonies swaying from the sand.
See them at Mandy's Eel Garden →Peacock flounder
A master of camouflage on the sand.
Sharksucker
Remoras hitching a ride on turtles and big fish.
Spiny lobster
Antennae poking out from under ledges and crevices.
Hairy clinging crab
A fuzzy little crab wedged into the coral.
Channel clinging crab
A big spiny crab that emerges after dark.
Arrow crab
Tiny, long-legged, and endlessly photogenic.
If you're lucky
Seen regularly, but never guaranteed — part of what makes every dive different.
Green sea turtle
Grazing the reef and surfacing for air — always a highlight.
Hawksbill turtle
Smaller, with a pointed beak, nibbling sponges on the wall.
Spotted eagle ray
Gliding along the wall in the blue, sometimes in groups.
Southern stingray
Cruising the sand flats, often half-buried.
Dolphins
Bottlenose dolphins occasionally buzz the boat.
Octopus
Mostly a night-dive find — shy and endlessly shape-shifting.
Seahorse
Tiny and well-hidden — a real find when you spot one.
Reef squid
Caribbean reef squid hovering in tidy formation.
Scorpionfish
Perfectly camouflaged — a real treat to find.
Frogfish
Lumpy, weird, and wonderful, perched on a sponge.
Rare, but possible
Genuinely special sightings. They're uncommon — we'd never promise them — but divers who log time here are the ones who see them.
Nurse shark
Resting under ledges; encounters have picked up in recent seasons.
Caribbean reef shark
The reef's resident requiem shark — an uncommon but unforgettable pass.
Great hammerhead shark
The largest of the hammerheads — uncommon here, but 2024 brought more sightings.
Whale shark
Rare and seasonal — spotted offshore at certain times of year.
Blue marlin
A rare flash of an open-water predator out in the blue.
Protecting what we dive
Our reefs stay this healthy because they're cared for. The Roatán Marine Park manages the protected area around West End and Sandy Bay, and a small marine-park fee from every diver helps fund that work. We dive reef-safe — good buoyancy, no touching the coral, reef-safe sunscreen — and we'll happily take a lionfish, the reef's one invasive pest, when we can.