Bay Islands Shark Sightings: More Whale sharks for the third quarter of 2025
- ilili Team
- Oct 23
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 23
Our last update on the shark sightings was during the ilili shark week in July. It was an amazing evening filled with ilili updates including all our citizen science results up to date! Now, three months later we are back with our latest results from our shark sightings project. Since July, we’ve had 43 reports from seven species. Among the most exciting sightings are the three times when whale sharks were sighted for a few consecutive days in July, September and October. Nic Bach managed to get a dentist’s view in his video below.
Video credits: Nicolas Bach
Going down the list, we have had:
Two silky sharks (Bikini bottom and a tuna boil off Big Bight)
Six Caribbean reef sharks (two from the seamounts, three on Roatan’s southside, and one that Nic Bach helped remove from fishing gear near AKR)
One female tiger shark at the seamounts (photo above from Caroline Power)
One lemon shark in West Bay from Betto.
We had three great hammerheads sighted with one hunting an eagle ray in West End by Ipanema (the ray got away!); another was caught near the Flowers Bay Beach Bar and released safely; and the other was seen at the seamounts. There were also two unidentified hammerheads sighted at Queen B and Shallow Seaquest.
Nurse sharks were the most frequently sighted with 13 in Roatan and five in Utila.
Not all news is good news. Unfortunately, two of the sightings of nurse sharks were dead animals. One carcass was found at Bear’s Den with obvious knife marks in the head and the other was just the head of a nurse shark found near 40ft Point. Both of these deaths are suspected interactions with local artisanal fishers. Shark bycatch (accidental catch) is an inevitable part of fishing. This shows us that we still have lots of work to do with education and training for the safe release of sharks.
Photo credit: Don Daly
Every sighting tells us a different story about the sharks that swim in our waters. This work would not be possible without your support and most importantly your reports! If you see a shark (or know someone who does), don’t keep it to yourself! Share your sighting with us and help build a clearer picture of the sharks that call these reefs home.
Until next time, please keep reporting those sightings! Report here
Maps
Learn more
If you would like to learn more about sharks, here is a recent open access paper from the Dutch Windward Island, Saba. The scientists used three methods to study diversity and distribution of sharks around the island. One of the methods was Citizen Science which is exactly what this blog is about. The other two methods are currently being used by Ilili here in the Bay Islands.
If you would like to support our work you can donate to ilili (a 501(c)(3) organization)
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