Morat, Bay Islands, Honduras

Morat Wall

Morat is a tiny uninhabited island between Roatán and Barbareta, with a fringing reef that sees almost no divers and is occasionally visited by Roatán Aggressor and east-end operators. The principal wall dive on the north side begins on a coral plateau at 10 meters with healthy stands of brain coral, sea rods and large barrel sponges, and runs to a stepped wall that drops from 18 past 30 meters. The wall is decorated with deep-water gorgonians, rope sponges, tube sponges and clusters of black coral, and the very low diver pressure has preserved unusually intact coral cover. Reef fauna is rich: hawksbill turtle, queen and French angelfish, schooling creole wrasse, midnight parrotfish, spotted moray and reliable spotted eagle ray fly-bys. Caribbean reef shark visits the deeper blue. Conditions are usually calm with 25 to 35 meters of visibility, though access depends on weather and the few operators that travel this far east.