Schooling Horse Eye Jacks
Black Hills is known amongst Utila's divers as one of the islands most interesting sites simply because of the huge variety and numbers of fish to be found there. A sea mound that rises to about 10m (30ft) and slopes gently down to 40m (130ft) and deeper.
Black Hills is approximately 2 miles off the shore of Utila, so it is only accessible on calm days, but on those days you can see schools of Horse Eye Jacks, Atlantic Spade Fish, thousands of creole wrasse, and on the reef mound itself you will find all the usual suspects in abundance, but look closely for scorpion fish and other well camouflaged species.
Scorpion Fish, head on
Whale sharks are often sighted just off Black Hills so don't forget to take a look upwards from time to time in case one is passing over. This year at Black Hills we have seen Hammerhead Shark and Marlin cruising around the sea mound!
An extremely easy site to navigate, even if you do not know it, Black Hills is simply a sea mound. So follow the slope down to your chosen depth (you can make 40m/130ft here easily) and level up as you swim around the mound. Once you hit the top at around 10m/30ft there is plenty of reef to explore and animals to find, head to the corner that the current hits to find the most fish!
