Marine Conservation

Protecting Marine Life

Divers Make the Best Marine Advocates

Our 3 Rules for Protecting Marine Life as a Diver

As we are diving in a Marine Park we follow these three basic rules:

  1. No touching the marine life with any part of your body or equipment, especially your fins
  2. No taking the marine life, or anything else underwater (take only photos, leave only bubbles)
  3. No teasing the marine life

The only exception to these rules are lionfish, an invasive species whose population is being controlled through spear fishing. The RMP offers classes for receiving your lionfish hunting license. Learn more about it here.

Marine Conservation is Our Responsibility

As dive professionals, we are guardians of the reef and stewards for the oceans. For us, that means supporting movements that look to minimize our negative impact on marine life and leading by example. We also can support various nonprofits and organizations that work on so many causes, including:

  • Cleaning up pollution from oil spills, sewage, and other human trash
  • Eliminating single-use plastics
  • Preventing the destruction of mangroves
  • Monitoring local fishing practices
  • Protecting local reefs from destruction for development

At Pro Dive Roatan we support all of these efforts and we do what we can to be good stewards. More importantly, we want to be educators who help others become aware of and advocates for preserving marine life.

The Roatan Marine Park

The Roatan Marine Park (RMP) educates locals and tourists on the best practices for supporting responsible businesses. In addition to providing and maintaining all of the dive site buoys, the RMP is involved in patrolling and preserving the reef.

RMP has numerous education programs to provide tourists, local kids, adults, and anglers with the knowledge and understanding necessary to ensure that the reef remains happy and healthy in the future. They also provide the liaison with governmental and non-governmental agencies invested in the protection of the entire Meso-American reef system.

The RMP has designated over 100 dive sites along Roatan’s northwestern shore. From “Texas” to “El Aguila”, we can reach any of these dive sites in 2-20 minutes from our dock in West End. This is our “home” reef. However, the dive sites don’t stop there! They continue all around the entire island and we can visit any one of them.

Watch the Roatan Marine Park’s video for tips on how to be an environmentally responsible visitor on Roatan.

Help Us Protect the Reef

Download the RMP Patrol App

RMP empowers the local community to protect the resources and ecosystem of the local community. You can help assist their patrols by downloading their free app and using it to report any violations of the marine protected area’s rules and regulations.

To find out more visit roatanmarinepark.com.

Inside the RMP Patrol App

Interested in Lionfish hunting?

Learn how you can help protect our reef system by getting your own lionfish spearfishing license.