A day of free diving in around the thermal exhaust vents at Electric Beach, Oahu. Fish and turtles love to congregate in the warm water pumping from the pipes. Strong swimmers can free dive into the exhaust stream and rocket hundreds of feet out to sea. Weeeeeeee!

Eons ago during the last Ice Age, an ancient waterfall cut a massive gorge through the very foundations of the island of Roatan. Millennia later, the ten-storey canyon at Spooky Channel rests just under the ocean surface, inviting Advanced Open Water Divers to shine their torches into this monolithic marvel.

You begin the dive in murky green shallows of the Sandy Bay lagoon. The eerie visibility for which this site earns its “spooky” status will gradually engulf you as you follow the rocky bottom deeper into the grotto. You’ll feel almost overwhelmed as the channel walls slowly rise and close in from both sides. At 12m/40ft, you’ll plunge through a large dark hole leading straight down.*

The sun is quickly reduced to a few cascading godrays as the channel ceiling closes together stories above. At the surface, a tiny crack in the reef crest balloons outward to form the main chamber, a 29m/95ft deep cathedral of green sea stars, scurrying lobsters, and grotesque rock formations. While this part of the channel is not terribly dense with fish life, sliver-shaped schools of houndfish— smaller relatives of the barrucuda— often congregate in the shadows.

As you drift out of the cathedral towards the mouth of the channel, the visibility quickly clears to the Roatan’s typical pristine conditions. Parrotfish, groupers, and angelfish pluck algae from the rubble. During the summer months the algae growth in this section thrives on the warmer stagnant water trapped in the channel, transforming the floor into a verdant carpet.

After about 20 minutes, you will reach the mouth of the channel. Most divers pass through the large vertical mouth and onto the coral reef. If you feel confident in small spaces, you can find a smaller swimthru to the right to dramatically exits through tiny blue hole onto the wall. Watch your buoyancy when exiting the channel: the wall at Spooky Channel is deep— over 60m/200ft.

The coral reef wall is populated by large schools of bright blue creole wrasse and very large yellowfin groupers. The groupers have are particularly well-adjusted to diver presence, swimming within a few feet of the group. If you are carrying a spear, you can expect to have several of these fish as hunting partners, eagerly awaiting your next lionfish slay.

Alternatively, you can finish the dive with a series of swimthrus near the back of the channel. About halfway back in the channel on the right, you will find a pair of columns at 14m/50ft. Follow the vertical slope up to 10m/30ft to find a series of easy swimthrus, the last of which shoots you out under the mooring line at a perfect safety stop depth of 5m/15ft.

Aquatic Life: black groupers, yellowfin groupers, barracudas, lobsters, king crabs, houndfish, oceanic triggerfish, various sea stars, toadfish

Don’t Miss… looking under the rocks for a toadfish. Though you will probably spend much of your dive swimming on your back and staring up at the channel, it pays to look down for these odd-shaped and very vocal bottom-dwellers.

Lionfish are an invasive species from the Indo-Pacific that have rapidly spread across the Caribbean. Without a natural predator, they are quickly devouring the native reef fish (especially juveniles) and decimating the natural order.

In the mere eighteen months since I last visited Roatan, the size and population density of lionfish has increased exponentially. Whereas previously it was a bit of a novelty to encounter a lionfish on a dive (and the largest was about two inches), nowadays it is common to see up to a dozen on a given dive (the record kill stands at fourteen inches).

In response, the Roatan Marine Park has endorsed the hunting of lionfish as an attempt to curtail overpopulation. Hawaiian slings are available for purchase at the Roatan Marine Park Office after certified Divemasters and Instructors have completed a basic lionfish safety course. With a little practice and good buoyancy control, it’s easy to stab a hefty load of lionfish in a single dive.

So far, the efforts to eliminate the invaders has yielded impressive results: over 1700 lionfish were killed in the first Lionfish Derby hosted by the Roatan Marine Park. The second Lionfish Derby is currently underway; you can find more information at: http://www.roatanmarinepark.com/news/lionfish-derby/.

The reef fish have definitely adapted to the presence of lionfish hunters. Groupers, snappers, and moray eels frequently tail divers wielding slings, waiting for their chance to scarf down a fresh kill.

Also, it’s worth nothing that…

Lionfish taste delicious!

Their meat is a wonderful cross between grouper and snapper. I had it as a ceviche and it was amazing. I have heard similar reports from it being grilled or fried.

All the venom is contained in the lionfish spines. Therefore, it is advisable to remove the spines as quickly as possible (preferably immediately upon being speared) to reduce the risk of accidentally impaling yourself.

If you do get pricked by a lionfish, well, I can’t sugarcoat it for you…… it will freakin’ hurt. I saw a tiny lionfish cripple a 240lbs man with hours of intense pain. The best treatment is to apply a hot water compress (40-50C/104-122F) through a soaked rag over the puncture wounds, which attempts to draw the toxin towards the site of the injury. Spines should be removed with tweezers only. Also, rum helps pass the time until the pain subsides.

» Read more of 2010 Roatan Marine Park Photo Contest «

The phenomenal underwater and travel photography of Lia Barrett now has a new home on the web at http://www.liabarrettphotography.com.

Lia and I go back a few years when I was a scuba diving instructor at Coconut Tree Divers on the island of Roatan, Honduras. When I first met her, she was helping film the hilariously disastrous Roatan Movie— the making which was infinitely funnier than the final result. We later collaborated on photo shoots for a few web projects around the island.

Lia probably holds the world record for most time spent inside a homemade submarine (not including Karl Stanley and Barry, of course). For theses images, she was crouched for hours in a tiny spherical dome. She had to keep her lens close to the mere five inches of convex glass separating her thousands of pounds of crushing pressure— but not too close or the cold condensation dripping from the ceiling would fry her camera. She had to wait— and wait— and wait until the right deep sea creature swam by, then try to snap off quality shots with both the submarine and the creature in motion. The results are nothing short of incredible.

Lia has since explored the seas and land of Asia and the South Pacific. She is currently in Australia.