Blackfish Point

Utila Town · Bay Islands · Honduras

Blackfish Point juts from Utila's rugged north shore into the open Caribbean, a current-swept promontory where the deep waters of the Honduras trench push nutrient-rich upwellings against a healthy reef slope. Named after the pilot whales that were historically common in these waters, the site has earned a reputation among experienced divers as Utila's most exciting and unpredictable dive. While the island's south side offers sheltered wall diving in calm conditions, Blackfish Point demands more of its divers and rewards them with encounters that the gentler sites rarely deliver. The boat ride from Utila Town rounds the western tip of the island and enters more exposed water on the north shore, where ocean swell and wind chop are the norm. I entered the water with a negative descent as the current was already noticeable at the surface. Dropping to the reef crest at eight metres, the current intensified, pushing me along the reef slope in a controlled drift that required active fin work to hold position at points of interest. The reef structure at Blackfish Point is a dramatic slope rather than a vertical wall, dropping from the shallow crest to beyond thirty metres in a series of steps, undercuts, and caverns. Large barrel sponges and tube sponges anchored to the reef surface, their bodies angled downstream by the current. Deep overhangs sheltered impressive Nassau groupers, some exceeding a metre in length, while green moray eels as thick as fire hoses extended from their crevices to face into the flow. The current brings the action. A squadron of spotted eagle rays appeared from the blue, at least eight animals flying in loose formation along the reef edge, their spotted dorsal surfaces and white undersides alternating as they banked and turned. Horse-eye jacks in a school of several hundred formed a baitball-like structure in the water column, their silver bodies flashing as they held formation against the flow. A Caribbean reef shark cruised past at the edge of visibility, its grey form unmistakable against the blue background. Blackfish Point's proximity to deep water is the key to its productivity.