Cayos Cochinos, Bay Islands, Honduras

Jena's Cove

Jena's Cove is a sheltered shallow dive on the western side of Cayo Mayor in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Reserve, used as a check-out site for Plantation Beach Resort and a popular afternoon dive because of the consistently calm conditions. The site begins in 4 to 6 meters in a sandy cove ringed by healthy fringing reef and slopes gently down to roughly 18 meters across a sand-and-reef bottom. The reef is covered with brain coral, lettuce coral, sea rods and barrel sponges, and the sandy patches host garden eels, peacock flounders, yellowhead jawfish and southern stingrays. Reef fauna is rich for the shallow depth: hawksbill turtle foraging on sponges, queen angelfish, schooling French and bluestriped grunt, juvenile spotted drum, spotted moray and creole wrasse. The sheltered bay produces negligible current and 18 to 25 meters of visibility year-round, making this a popular Open Water training site.