The Sandy Bay and West End / West Bay Marine Park Monthly Newsletter
September 2006 in Roatan, Honduras

It's the beginning of a new month and once again that means that its time for the monthly summary of what the Park has been up to these past weeks. As many of you know what Roatan is like over the September months, business has been slow but productivity great here at the office. Last months the tourist numbers dwindled and the dive shops dreampt of the busy days when the boats were full and all the instructors complained of not having time-off. The past month has been a pretty dead one for all of us, extremely evident from our accounts. Tag sales were at their lowest ever, but the coming months will hopefully bring better favour for all of us.

ICRAN and WWF have accepted 2 of our grant applications, rewarding us $10,000 (ICRAN) and $8,000 (WWF) for renovations of Marine Infrastructure and a Youth Education Program, repectively. The money should hopefully be with us soon so we can get out there and get things going. Recent grants we've applied for include a grant to fund video production from PMAIB and a children'fs education grant from PADI Project Aware. Fingers crossed we get these happening. NGO status which should be happening by the end of the month will enable us to apply for many more grants, meaning the Park in the coming year will be very busy.

Workshops have kept us reasonably busy this month with Greg attending one in Le Ceiba for 4 days, a follow up of one he attended earlier this year. Lidia also participated in a shop in Tegus, and this month I am heading to Cozumel for 2 weeks to attend the ITMEMS workshop and present the Marine Park to the world.

We had a bit of a disaster with the boats this month with both 15hp dying on us, stranding me and a boat captain for a while, drifting with a dodgy radio and no phone credit. Just have to say a quick thanks to Captain Alex for rescuing me and Rudy. The electric engine also had a problem so things were not looking good for us. Thankfully Irma from BICA has lent us a boat and everything else in regards to the electric and 15hp engines are now in working order, so poachers beware.

I'll quickly fill you in on several other bits. The website has undergone a revamp and is up to date and looking good, the long awaited, highly fashionable silicon bracelets will be arriving on the island this weekend, Lidia has sadly said that she will be leaving the office at the end of the month but will help out till December as she wants to pursue diving more, so we will be looking for a new member of staff. Both Lidia and Greg made their TV debut yesterday after delivering an enthralling environmental lecture to the police, the chief thought what better way to end the seminar than get the local TV there to do some interviews. Alba foods now has the biodegradable cups, an alternative to the plastics we see floating around the lagoons every dive, for more info email us and we will forward the details. The South Side Chapter, a branching of the SBWEMP is slowly coming together and hopefully what we have achieved here can be replicated over that side. More info to come in the near future.

If anyone has any questions drop by any time, email us at roatanmarinepark@yahoo.com or give us a call at 349-4138.

Respect the Reef.
Greg, Nick and Lidia.

Relevant web sites:

For more information about the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), visit www.icran.org.

For more information about PADI Project AWARE, visit www.projectaware.org.

For more information about the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), visit www.wwf.org.

For more information about the International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium (ITMEMS), visit www.itmems.org.

If you want to know more about fish you see in the park, visit www.fishbase.org, which has an index of almost 30,000 species of fish.

If you want to know more about the reefs, go to www.reefbase.org which contains global information regarding coral reefs.