Terry Brady on scuba diving - Whale sharks & more in Utila

This month's column is a dive report. A dive report is something we divers do after returning from a trip. It's a way to let other divers know about conditions, accommodations and what we saw during a trip. This dive report is from Utila, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Utila has always been a destination for the "backpackers" and is the cheapest place in the Caribbean to get certified. It has a population of 11,000 and 15 dive shops. Ten of us from the club just returned from a week at Utila Lodge.

The lodge has eight guest rooms, two dive boats, a bar, restaurant, satellite TV and WiFi. It opened in 1993 and is situated on the main harbor on the south side. We enjoyed a package that included our hotel, three boat dives per day, including night dives, and three buffet style meals per day. Coffee is served to your room if you wish.

The town of Utila at the harbor can be pretty noisy at night with the bars opening at 10 p.m. There is no reef in the harbor but the water is warm and clear and good to swim in. Tarpon and needle fish would feed on the small bait fish hanging around the piers.

The divemaster sets up your gear and rinses it for you every day if you want. You could choose if you wanted a guided or unguided dive. The reef diving on the south side was fantastic. The reef is in very good condition with healthy staghorn, finger, and elkhorn corals on top, basket sponges, black coral and multi-colored encrusting sponges on the walls.

The water temperature was 87 degrees and visibility was from 50 to 100 feet. Most dives had no current and water was warm enough to use a "skin" or just a T-shirt. We saw the usual turtles, rays, eels, tropical fish and corals. Some unusual things seen were toad fish, pipe fish, upside-down jelly fish, tunicates and eagle rays.

And whale sharks. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. In between dives, we would look for the "boils" in the water caused by the larger fish feeding on the smaller fish that collect near the surface near a whale shark. A whale shark is called so because of its immense size. It is not really a whale, but a shark that feeds on plankton near the top of the water column using it's gills as a filter. It has small teeth but uses them only for mating. Whale sharks can reach lengths of 35 feet and weigh 555 pounds.

We would take the boat around to the north side for a dive and then again during our surface interval search for the boils. We saw whale sharks on two days. A research center called Whale Shark & Ocean Research Center was located around the corner from the lodge and gave a free presentation on the preservation of whale sharks, coral reefs and the waters surrounding Utila. The center hosts scientists from around the world and shares collected data on the habits and migration of the sharks.

We also saw large pods of dolphins and even a sailfish in between dives. You can see seahorses, blue tunicates, nurse sharks, beautiful corals and fish. My camera never got a chance to rest. Never a dull moment. Check out some of my pictures here.

Utila has great hiking, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking, spelunking and whale shark expeditions available.

Getting to Utila is by Taca, Continental or Delta and a small turbo jet through La Ceiba, Roatan or Tegucigalpa.

Next month: I'll let you know how to make a cruise vacation more adventurous by adding water!