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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

poor

Poor — 0.9m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.

Limiting factor: period

Wave height
0.8–1.1m
Wave period
4.7–5.7s
Wind chop
0–0.9m
Sea temp
28.5–29.1°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

  • TodayPoor — 0.9m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.poor
  • FridayMarginal — 0.6m effective waves made worse by short-period chop.marginal
  • SaturdayPoor — decent morning demoted one level because conditions deteriorate over the ride-home window.poor

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

Dive briefing

AI-generated

Conditions are poor today, with short-period chop making for a choppy surface. Waves are running 0.8–1.1 m, but the real issue is the wave period of 4.7–5.7 seconds, which creates the uncomfortable texture you'll feel on entry and exit. This is an advanced site with depths to 42 metres on an exposed seamount. Water temperature sits at 28.5–29.1°C. The site can attract seasonal pelagics, though you should not plan a dive around that possibility.

Divers commonly log reef fish including stoplight and striped parrotfish, Atlantic blue tangs, Caribbean blueheads, and schoolmaster snapper. You may see barracuda and jacks working the water. Today's conditions will make the dive physically harder and less comfortable than you might hope, so factor that into your decision.

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.