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Black Hills

Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras · 12–42m · advanced · exposed

Open-water seamount southeast of Utila — barracuda, jacks, and seasonal whale shark encounters on the surface intervals.

Conditions today

Retrieved · refreshed hourly

marginal

Marginal — 0.7m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.

Limiting factor: period

Wave height
0.6–0.8m
Wave period
5–5.6s
Wind chop
0–0.3m
Sea temp
30.2–30.8°C

Ranges span today's hours. Wave height here is the raw sea state — the rating scales it for how exposed the site is. Exposed — open water with nothing to block the swell, so it is scored at full height.

Next few days

  • TodayMarginal — 0.7m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.marginal
  • FridayMarginal — 0.7m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.marginal
  • SaturdayMarginal — 0.7m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.marginal

Each day is scored over its morning dive window, the same as today's rating.

Dive briefing

AI-generated

This is an exposed seamount dive requiring advanced certification, working depths from 12 to 42 metres. Conditions are marginal today — short-period chop is the limiting factor, with 0.7m effective wave height making the site choppy and workable rather than pleasant. Raw swell runs 0.6–0.8m, wind waves 0–0.3m, and period is 5–5.6 seconds. Water sits at 30.2–30.8°C. You'll need solid buoyancy control and good air discipline in these conditions.

Divers commonly log stoplight and striped parrotfish, Atlantic blue tangs, and Caribbean bluehead wrasses around the site. Schoolmaster snappers, queen angelfish, and sergeant majors often recorded here too. The location sees pelagic traffic — keep alert on surface intervals, though sightings of larger visitors are seasonal and never guaranteed.

Written by Claude (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) from the rating, forecast, and sightings on this page — it has no other source and cannot look anything up. Treat it as a summary, not as local knowledge.

Commonly seen here

Most-recorded species near this site, ranked by research-grade iNaturalist sightings from divers, snorkelers, and naturalists.

Species come from iNaturalist — research-grade sightings logged by divers, snorkelers, and naturalists nearby. The ranking reflects what people photograph most, not guaranteed abundance. Ask a local operator what's actually being seen. Species names link to iNaturalist for range maps, seasonality and more photos. Photos by iNaturalist contributors under Creative Commons licences — individual credit on hover.

Other sites nearby

Within 25km, closest first — usually the same day's boat.