General Conditions
Eels.This year there were lots of spotted and green moray eels, the previous year we saw many more goldentail eels and fewer greens and spotted. Chain morays and sharp-tailed eels are less common. The sharp tails can be found in late afternoon in 10-20ft in sandy areas were they begin hunting an hour or so before dusk. Bari reef to The Cliff are good for hunting spotted eels at night. Look under the mushroom coral heads at The Lake, Yellowman, Red Slave for greens, there are alot of them.Coral Spawn. Tends to occur 7-9 days after the ninth full moon of the year, late Sept. to early Oct. There is increased phosphorescence in the water and there are lots of brittle stars hanging out on the sponges during this time. Watch the orange corals go crazy as they grab for food.
Scrawled Filefish. The first week, late Sept. these were everywhere, swimming in mated pairs on nearly every reef from 5 -60ft in depth. By the end of the second week there were none. On our previous visit we didnžt see a single one either, this was also in Oct. so I guess mating time is late Sept.
Mammals. We were treated to a pod of 150-200 spotted dolphins using the boat wake to go for a ride. They were moving fast and there was no chance to get into the water with them but we spent thirty minutes or so watching them. A pod of seventy pilot whales cruised by the North end of the island and Sand Dollar sent a boat out for people to snorkel with them but we missed this.
Sharks. A whale shark cruised by Klein Bonaire in Sept. There are white-tipped reef sharks at the north and south ends of the island. I also saw one at Toris reef (I think).
Turtles. The most common ones here are green and hawksbills. Ižve seen both species at Klein, on the dives furthest away from Bonaire itself e.g Yellowman. They were usually in the shallows, hanging around the staghorn corals. On Bonaire they are pretty much north and south of town, we saw quite a few this year, (Jeaniežs Glory, White Slave, Bacheloržs at night, The Lake, Oil Slick Leap). The turtles appear to be found in 15 - 25 ft, in areas where there are a lot of staghorn corals and soft gorgonians, but thatžs just where we got lucky.
Rays. We saw southern stingrays at red slave. A single manta ray at the lake. Several eagle rays at sites between The lake and Invisibles. The sightings were all in the early morning or late afternoon. Actually searching for them in the sandy flats was futile, they just showed up once in a while.
Dive Sites
Bari Reef: The house reef for Sand Dollar. Itžs a bit beaten up but there is still alot to see and the usual Bonaire suspects are all present. At night a tarpon has taken to cruising up and down between Bari reef and The Cliff using the dive lights to hunt. No one can hear you scream as you look over your shoulder and see a gaping mouth three inches from your head - so just scream. Under the jetty there are lobsters, frogfish (sometimes), a smattering of orange corals and schools of scad. There are said to be seahorses straight out in seventy feet on a soft coral but we never found them. We saw two juvenile frogfish here as well as pipefish, several peacock flounders that hang around there and yellow head jawfish in the sandy area.
Salt Pier: It looked pretty barren directly under the conveyor belt, in the past there was alot of stuff here. There was a lot of fishing line caught on the pilings and snagged on the corals and sponges which made diving there a little dangerous. I managed to get my fin strap caught on on piece but it came off easily enough - might be a good idea to carry a knife around in that area.
On dives here we saw a barracuda being cleaned, it went a sort of red-silver and the bars on it body became very prominent. There was a small school of barracuda which hung out at the end of the pier and a couple of tarpon which drifted around hunting. I also think I saw a small shark there one time. There were lots of sargent majors guarding pinkish egg masses on the pilings (the blue males do the guarding). Quite a few Queen and French angelfish in the area. We saw an octopus or two on every night dive, lots of orange corals on the pilings at night and the sponges can be covered in brittle stars at times. There are also basket stars here in several locations. In the shallows schools of bait fish are found in the afternoons and sometimes large schools of scad hang out at the end of the pier. The shallows around the pilings are full of cleaning stations.
I think this a very good dive site although not talked about much.
Red Slave Huts: This was probably our favorite dive. The masses of large fish were impressive - schools of jacks, schoolmasters, goatfish, midnight parrotfish - and the packs of tiger groupers gave us a glimpse of the larger species that roam the area. We also saw stingrays and either a manta or an eagle ray on different dives. The reef is steep and covered in stony corals with wierdly shaped sponges all over, the current is so strong most of the time that the sponges have been beaten into submission forming flat layers and indented circles instead of their common forms. A forest of gorgonians and soft corals inhabits the shallows and on the slope there are large clumps swaying in the current. Many angelfish inhabit the area as well as the usual Bonaire inhabitants. In the shallows where slabs of rock give way to the sandy bottom the area is infested with octopi, it seemed like they were under every overhang.
While red slaves is a great dive it is also a potentially dangerous one, this is not a dive site for beginners. We did five dives here and aborted one dive upon checking out the conditions. On other days the surf was enough of a warning not to go in. The dive buoy sits in a surface counter-current, usually in the opposite direction from the current at the shore entry. Once you descend to about ten feet the regular current hits you and takes you south. Of the five dives we did here the current was strong on three of them, moderate on one and non-existent on the other. We aborted one dive after 5 minutes because the current picked up as we started taking photographs in the shallows, we were unable to kick into it and had to slip sideways back to shore (1500psi used in 7 minutes). On the other dives the current was managable, slipping into the sand channels provided relief from the current. On a bad day this dive site could easily claim the strongest of divers because the currents become overpowering. This of course is what attracts the bis schools of fish.
Torižs Reef: Located just south of the Salt Pier at the intake for the salt ponds. Therežs a huge expanse of sand to the right as you swim out to the marker, to the left is where the action is in a field of staghorn coral. This is a schooling area for juvenile grunts, angelfish, blue tangs and the fish that feed on them (trumpetfish, scorpionfish, hogfish etc.). In 10-15ft the schools are easy to approach, they just hunker down into the coral. At the drop-off there are cleaning stations and Ižm pretty sure I saw a shark here as well. Lie on the sand or youžll kick it up. I also discovered just how unenforced the marine park rules are here, a local fishing boat droped his anchor on the reef (a large piece of dead coral with a rope attached) and let it drag over the reef until there was a good hold - and they blame the divers for any damage to the reefs, right.
Karparta, Oil Slick Leap, Old Blue etc. These sites are north of town and provide a different reef topology compared to the southern sites. therežs no kick out, the wall starts right off shore. The reef is steeper here, more like Klein. We saw turtles here, in fact on our last dive a turtle let us swim along with it for fifteen minutes as he slowly cruised first south then north, stopping sometimes for air. This area also has barracuda (schools of them though we only saw one or two at a time) and a lot of eels hanging out in the coral heads. There are some old anchors on the reef at Karparta. I always thought the reef was kind of dark at these sites as compared to the southern sites but maybe that was my mood or something. Lots of sea fans in the shallow areas and there are some small caves at the edge of the island but we didnžt see anything in them.
Night Dives: the party at the town pier has been put to sleep by the authorities, it now costs $15 per diver to dive there with a dive master and it seemed that it wasnžt worth the loss of freedom. We did night dives at Bari reef (Sand Dollar), The Cliff (Habitat villas), Bacheloržs Beach and the Salt Pier. The Salt Pier had the most macro subjects because of the pilings, Bacheloržs had the most diversity (yes itžs true) and The Cliff was fun because of the wall overhang where a lot of orange corals live. Bari reef has too many people diving it and this makes it somewhat less interesting once youžve tried other sites. Besides, itžs a lot more fun doing compass navigation through a forest of fire corals trying to find the correct channel back to beach with no shore lights to guide you (The Cliff). For photography I would suggest the outer pilings of Salt Pier as a place to definitely check out, even though itžs a good kick out and the current there is sometimes strong - take a knife because therežs fishing line all over the place.
Jarryžs Jam and Yellowman: These sites are standard Klein, steep reef with mountainous corals and layers of hard coral overlapping on the way down to the sandy bottom at 110 ft. There were some large schools of bogas just above the reef. The usual Bonaire critters kept us busy - reef beauties, rock hind, angel fish, sargent majors etc. Pairs of scrawled filefish swam by during our dives here, really neat guys which we hadnžt seen the year before.. Grouper cleaning stations, grottos in the reef and sea horses.
I didnžt mention it but out at the edge of the blue there were b.i.i.g.g fish, just too far away to identify but they started in the 6ft plus range and I saw a couple of monsters - most likely tarpon and reef sharks.
The Lake: This is one of the double reef dives. We did four dives here. We found many grouper cleaning stations, Tiger, Black, Yellow fin and Cuestra(?) groupers cruising around 40-60ft deep, flashing their colors as they slid through the corals or took their turns waiting for the cleaners to their job. There were several schools of tiny, juvenile Spotted Drums in this area as well as an Ocean Triggerfish. I spent most of one dive enveloped by a huge school of boca and brown chromis while a group of jacks circled us endlessly, occasionallly darting in to feed on the cloud of fish. Under the mushroom corals we found many green morays and some spotted morays.
