Trip Report Bonaire March 2024–Dead reefs

[Sure Squintsalot]

Just spent six weeks in Bonaire, 148 dives. The large brain corals are basically all dead due to SCTLD. The waters have cooled quite a bit and the bleaching is reversing in many cases. Some sites were worse than others, some much worse. Overall I found the bleaching was not so bad especially compared to the SCTLD.

Sad to say…the reefs of Bonaire are dead. Currently in Bonaire—last here 5 years ago. The change is dramatic, in a bad and sad way. We dove Klein Bonaire, Salt Pier, and a house reef. All in terrible condition. Dead reef everywhere. If I had know this in Nov 2023 when I prepared my trip, I would have canceled. I think the Caribbean is doomed due to SCTLD and climate change. Only two green dive sites at the Southern tip. All others are orange and red. Cozumel and the East end of Cayman are better than Bonaire.

Trying Karpata, 1,000 Steps, and more boat dives off of Klein Bonaire tomorrow. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but not counting on it.

My recommendation: cancel if you have plans to dive Bonaire (and can still cancel). Sad situation. Don’t believe it if you hear that the reefs are nice. Ask for photos.

Bonaire's reefs are stressed for sure, but they are not completely dead. Far from it. For what it's worth, I dove Bonaire last October and Cozumel in November and found Cozumel's reefs to be in far worse shape than I saw in Bonaire. And I wouldn't tell people to cancel their trips to either location. Salt Pier is mostly about the sponges and schools of various reef fish. In terms of the reef, it's always going to look pretty beat up compared to healthy sections because it's an industrial site.

I was there in Nov 2023 and previously July of 2022. The difference in that year was startling to me. I was also depressed and have no plans to go back to Bonaire unless there are reports of significant turnaround on the reef health. I had also been there over 20 years ago and that was just fantastic - but now, it was a horrible difference.
I have some videos from the November trip - mostly targeting sea life, but you can see the reefs in many of the videos:
Bonaire 2023 Playlist

In addition to the reef, the lack of life compared to previous trips was significant as well. One example, in both of my last trips, finding small drums occurred on one dive each trip - previous trip (2000) there were several on each dive. I did not even see a single squid on the 2023 trip (others did, but used to see them on almost every dive).

This. Salt Pier is my favorite site, but it is not what I would call "beautiful"--certainly not in terms of coral. It's like muck diving, but instead of a featureless muck bottom that the animals live in it's discarded junk and the "artificial reef" of the pier.

Just finished my second day. So far the reefs are still as fishy but there is no denying the damage done by disease and warming seas. For the sites we have dove thus far, the shallows look pretty good as you would expect since they are less about the hard coral and more gordonians, fans and such. But as you go over the edge the loss is notable. The stoney corals on these sites have been hit heavily. Very few corals that don’t show any signs of disease if not outright gone with algae growth already obvious. Today I did not see a single living flower coral and other health appearing hard corals were rare.

Yes, almost every brain coral and similar species from 18 Palms to Bari are pretty much dead. And they are affected in the previously closed sites north of Bopec all the way to Ligthouse too. But there is lots of species unaffected. The extreme bleaching from September to November has largely recovered. So if you focus on the bad, yes, lots of it. But if you focus on the good, lots of that too.

So, as sad as it is that the reefs are not as spectacular as they once were, if you look at what is good as opposed to what is not, the dives in Bonaire remain very enjoyable. Every day is different, you never know what interesting thing you will see or what behaviors you will witness. But it is a rare dive where nothing interesting happens.

Been following this thread. And of course it's upsetting. But what is the choice? Give up diving in the Caribbean? I will be back there in May and will enjoy getting together with old friends, the weather and yes diving. We've dove enough in fishless, zero viz lakes, etc so whatever the negative changes in Bonaire, its still better!!!

I've been diving on Bonaire for a week now and this is my first time here. So far mainly in the north. It's really devastating how damaged the reefs are. I can't yet confirm that some people here can report healthy corals. 1000 Steps today felt like 95% of it was dead. I am still surprised that there are still so many fish. Karpata was a little better, as there were several soft corals. At the beginning of the year it was even worse in the south of Mexico on the border with Belize, where there weren't even any fish to be found. Cozumel was thriving compared to Bonaire. Nevertheless, I meet many people here who rave about the reefs. Either they don't know any better, have never been diving anywhere else or are afraid of a collapse in tourism.

The national park has been quarantined and diving is prohibited until further notice.

I will follow your advice and explore the south from tomorrow. Unfortunately, I have already come to the conclusion that I no longer want to plan a diving vacation in the Caribbean and will only head towards the Indo-Pacific.

I've been shore diving Bonaire for almost 25 years now. Yeah, climate change and SCLTD are a problem today. But the bigger problem, imo, is Bonaire is being over dove compared to 25 years ago. I'm not going to defend Bonaire;'s reefs here because I see first timers who won't go back as a positive sign.

Apparently the island has caved to mass tourism and that is, imo, the biggest problem for Bonaire's reefs.

Given my opinion on this if I was STINAPA, and I've posted this before, along with their antibiotic treatment of SCLTD and coral replantation efforts, should start temporarily closing sites on a rotational basis to allow them to recover from diver damage at least to some degree. Maybe they should start with 1000 Steps since 95% of the coral there are dead according to this thread.

It is miserable here, so I couldn't agree more. For those contemplating a trip to Bonaire, a truly horrible destination, I strongly recommend staying home and diving your local quarry or YMCA.

Just a small sample of the negative reviews of diving in Bonaire. I haven't really mined any other related threads, though a quick glance reveals a lot of the same sentiments.

The positive rebuttals to these statements tend towards the, "Yeah, it's not great but it's better than diving the crap at home. Plus, if you're a noob, there's stuff to look at."

LOL.

 

[tursiops]

Just a small sample of the negative reviews of diving in Bonaire. I haven't really mined any other related threads, though a quick glance reveals a lot of the same sentiments.

The positive rebuttals to these statements tend towards the, "Yeah, it's not great but it's better than diving the crap at home. Plus, if you're a noob, there's stuff to look at."

LOL.

Good example of confirmation bias.

 

[Outbound]

Just a small sample of the negative reviews of diving in Bonaire. I haven't really mined any other related threads, though a quick glance reveals a lot of the same sentiments.

The positive rebuttals to these statements tend towards the, "Yeah, it's not great but it's better than diving the crap at home. Plus, if you're a noob, there's stuff to look at."

LOL.

My review of diving in Bonaire is far from negative. The diving everywhere in the world, and particularly the Caribbean, is suffering from a host of issues (this also includes freshwater sites as well), and isn’t what it used to be. As Sylvia Earle says when asked where her favorite place to dive is, “Anywhere, fifty years ago.” But Bonaire still offers some of the best diving in the Caribbean. In my experience (admittedly not as extensive as some others here), perhaps only Little Cayman can compare.

So please don’t lump me in with the Bonaire naysayers.

 

[tursiops]

My review of diving in Bonaire is far from negative. The diving everywhere in the world, and particularly the Caribbean, is suffering from a host of issues (this also includes freshwater sites as well), and isn’t what it used to be. As Sylvia Earle says when asked where her favorite place to dive is, “Anywhere, fifty years ago.” But Bonaire still offers some of the best diving in the Caribbean. In my experience (admittedly not as extensive as some others here), perhaps only Little Cayman can compare.

So please don’t lump me in with the Bonaire naysayers.

Sylvia used to say her favorite dive was "the next one."

 

[Lorenzoid]

Just a small sample of the negative reviews of diving in Bonaire. I haven't really mined any other related threads, though a quick glance reveals a lot of the same sentiments.

The positive rebuttals to these statements tend towards the, "Yeah, it's not great but it's better than diving the crap at home. Plus, if you're a noob, there's stuff to look at."

LOL.

Hey, leave my quote out of this! I love Salt Pier and that kind of diving. My comment was limited to Salt Pier and was the polar opposite of a “negative review.” My point was only that the allure of Salt Pier is the marine life that hides in the industrial rubble and is not the coral, which was likely on a downhill trajectory ever since the pier was built on top of it.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

On my last trip to LCBR, we had a combo boyfriend / girlfriend combo as our "guide" and captain on the boat. On our first dive, the "guy" leaned over the gunnel and lost his $250 Maui Jims to the abyss and went into a ballistic total meltdown on the loss. His girlfriend immediately said..... "Hey..... just go to acceptance and you'll be happier for it". He immediately realizes she was right.

I have since adopted that the "acceptance" philosophy works and am happier for it.

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

Hey, leave my quote out of this! I love Salt Pier and that kind of diving. My comment was limited to Salt Pier and was the polar opposite of a “negative review.” My point was only that the allure of Salt Pier is the marine life that hides in the industrial rubble and is not the coral, which was likely on a downhill trajectory ever since the pier was built on top of it.

OK...so, one vote for the "sea life hiding in the beat-up-looking, underwater industrial rubble".

Anyone else?

 

[uncfnp]

OK...so, one vote for the "sea life hiding in the beat-up-looking, underwater industrial rubble".

Anyone else?

Seems the 20+ dive trucks parked at Salt Pier each day we have drove by seems to imply more than one vote.

I think your earlier post might just win for the most quotes taken out of context.

 

[bcaderunr]

Seems the 20+ dive trucks parked at Salt Pier each day we have drove by seems to imply more than one vote.

I think your earlier post might just win for the most quotes taken out of context.

To paraphrase the legendary Yogi Berra: "Nobody goes there anymore -- it's too crowded".

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

I think your earlier post might just win for the most quotes taken out of context.

I'm reminded of the joke where a bunch of shepherds are laughing at the guy humping the sheep, but only because it's the ugliest one.

All kidding aside, you guys really ought to read the context of which you write; better yet, understand it.