Bonaire - April 2011

Well it has certainly been a while since last taking a scuba oriented vacation.  In 2008 we went to Bonaire, but unfortunately I had a cracked underwater housing and thus no photographs were possible.  That condition of course was rectified prior to this trip.

Once again Bonaire proved to be a relaxing place to be.  The weather was warm and dry with occasional clouds providing relief from the sun.  At first glance not much had changed on the island in the three years since our last visit.  But as we drove around during the week it did appear that there had been more development - more home building - especially in the northern part of town along the leeward side of the island.  The roads were in a little better shape as well.  Most noticeably is the fact that the official currency became the US dollar.  That is convenient!  Most things are still expensive - especially eating at a restaurant.

We stayed at the Den Laman condominiums and used Bonaire Dive and Adventure (BDA) as our dive operator.  The condo's are wonderful (the "Grouper" room was our home) and the staff at BDA were most helpful.  They gave very good directions to finding the frog fish and seahorses they were aware of - good enough for us to find them!!  Do be aware that if you are diving Nitrox and plan anything late afternoon or especially night dives, you'll need to set your tanks aside early in the afternoon.  Not a problem - but you will need to plan ahead just in case.

The biggest change we found on the island was actually below the surface.  The reefs in 2008 were nothing short of vibrant with lush soft corals and teaming with life.  On this trip at first glance things still looked good, but in taking a closer look the soft corals appeared to be mostly damaged.  The tube sponges were either broken or appeared to be mostly damaged.  The hard coral was still healthy but there appeared to be more sand spread around.  We only spotted one octopus, very limited lobsters, no green moray eels and limited numbers of other eel species.  We never saw a ray of any kind.  On our previous trip these under water species were all seen.  Although out of the hurricane belt, it appears that the island has seen some very strong storms in recent months that have taken a toll on the reef and its inhabitants. 

Another underwater observation was the infiltration of lionfish.  In 2008 we didn't see any, although I'm sure they were there.  This trip we saw several on every dive at every site.  Bonaire is losing the battle against the lionfish and will need to get very aggressive if they intend to get ahead of this growing problem.

Here's a link to the photos from the trip - both above and below the surface.

Cheers,

Monty