Curacao diving Oct 2016

[scubabuba1944]

Hurricane Matthew took out some piers so a drive to the marina was necessary to get on the boats. For six days I did both shore and boat dives. I have been diving Curacao for over 25 yrs, fish population has declined, especially large fish such as grouper, now now none. For the first time in my 30 yrs of diving I saw locals using a seine net several hundred yards long in a bay near a beach collecting fish from boats and divers maintaining the net. Some locals fish the reefs on occasions but this was sad to see. While places like Cozumel ban fishing on their reefs, Curacao takes a pass. It will affect their tourism in time. Next time I will probably go to Bonaire. Flight connections to Bonaire are limited from the US.

 

[tkaelin]

Where were you diving? Did you make it out to Westpunt and was this your experience there?

 

[scubabuba1944]

Where were you diving? Did you make it out to Westpunt and was this your experience there?

Yes, I did get out there, saw a few turtles. Again fish population seems down because of local fishing. There are things to see and I love the island and the locals, just disappointed with the management of the reefs.

 

[tkaelin]

Heading to Cur 1st of the year for our 1st trip there. Will post a report and will be interesting to see how it compares to Bon and elsewhere.

 

[AdivingBel]

We just returned from out first trip. Stayed at Marazul in Westpunt. We thought the diving itself compared favorably to Bonaire with easier shore entries. It was more work than Bonaire, multiple dive sites in general harder to get to, the dive infrastructure was not as friendly as Bonaire. That said, the diving was similar with lots of turtles, rays, schools of fish, seahorses, etc.. The dive shops were friendly and helpful. The small, isolated beaches/coves were stunning (especially the San Juan sites). The only negative was our timing, just after Matthew, which caused significant wind and surf on the leeward side that tossed a lot of rubble on some of the beaches (the locals worked very hard on the clean up) and some of the reefs with beach entries received a coating of sand that muted some of the color. We did several dives at Marazul (no beach, steps down from cliff) and they were great. We added a few boat dives and they were beautiful (we drift dived Watamula multiple times and it was gorgeous). All in all it was a memorable trip and I look forward to returning in the future.

 

[diver0008]

I have been diving Curacao for over 25 yrs, fish population has declined, especially large fish such as grouper, now now none. For the first time in my 30 yrs of diving I saw locals using a seine net several hundred yards long in a bay near a beach collecting fish from boats and divers maintaining the net. Some locals fish the reefs on occasions but this was sad to see. While places like Cozumel ban fishing on their reefs, Curacao takes a pass.

I noticed this too. no large fish at all. not even parrot fish. in discussing this with local dive staff, unregulated overfishing was the depressingly unanimous explanation. Sad.