Roatan Institute for Marine Science

The Roatan Institute for Marine Science is ideally located for marine study on the northwest coast of Roatan where over 30 miles of fringing and barrier reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves and shoreline are home to an astonishing profusion of life.

Founded in 1989, the primary objective of this facility is the preservation of Roatan's natural resources through education and research. In the past decade RIMS has established itself as a dedicated teaching institution. Our facility is visited year-round by colleges, universities and high schools from abroad to study tropical marine ecosystems and the bottlenose dolphins we house at our facility. Many programs are for academic credit, some are in conjunction with other field research stations, and others are simply introductory courses to the ecology of coral reefs in the Caribbean.

The RIMS facility is open 7am until 5pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm on Weekends.

RIMS Guidebook for Instructors

We invite you to download our free RIMS Guidebook for Instructors manual. This comprehensive 78 page PDF file features a wealth of information about our facilities, programs, and research initiatives as well as a complete guide to planning a course with us for your student group.

You will need Adobe Reader to view this file, you can download it here if you do not already have it installed.

Download link for the RIMS guide book: RIMS Instructors Guide.pdf (14 MB)

More about RIMS and Student Groups