Reefwander
A Caribbean reef shark swims close over the reef with small fish around it off Roatán

Roatán · Honduras · Reef · Wall

Turtle Crossing Deep

Coral channels off a shallow plateau, dropping to about 37 m

Area photo: William Eburn · CC BY 2.5

Turtle Crossing sits between West End and West Bay, and this is the deep half of it. The mooring is on plateaus between about 6 and 12 m, where the coral structures are, and coral channels lead off them to a drop that goes to around 37 m - a shallow site and a deep one hanging off the same buoy.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Turtle Crossing Deep: typical dive 6–37 m (20–121 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit6 m37 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 50 m (164 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

16.2935° N, 86.6037° WPublished position for this site.

The dive

The mooring puts you on plateaus between about 6 and 12 m, and the coral structures spread across them are the shallow half of the site. Get your bearings there before anything else, because it is the coral channels leading off the plateau that take you down to the deep part, and they are easier to find again on the way back if you have looked at them from above first.

Follow the channels out and they open onto the drop, which runs down to around 37 m. That is the deep end of recreational diving, and the shape of the site makes it easy to arrive there quickly, since the channels do the descending for you. Set a maximum depth in advance, keep the deep section early and short, then come back up the channels onto the plateau, where the shallow coral gives you somewhere useful to spend the rest of the gas and the safety stop.

Marine life and season

The sources we used don't single out particular species here.

Month-by-month season rating for Turtle Crossing Deep
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
GoodGoodPrimePrimePrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodFairFairFair

Season follows Roatán: March to August is dry with the calmest seas; October to February is the rainy season, wettest in November and December.

Know before you go

  • The coral channels lead straight off the shallow plateau to a drop of about 37 m - agree a maximum depth beforehand rather than following the structure down.

Sources

  1. Turtle Crossing Deep — Scubago

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