A search of ScubaBoard will show that a minority of folks find all sorts of things wrong with Bonaire, including reef/fish status. IMHO, Bonaire remains one of the best, if not THE best, dive destination in the Caribbean. Moreover, it is one of the few places where there has been a major effort to keep the lion fish at bay. This effort has been quite successful, although by no means perfect. We have been to Bonaire about 20 times in the last 5 yrs and have seen huge differences from trip to trip. Some infrequent visitors might attribute those differences to deterioration of the island (if things are perceived to be worse). In our experience, things change. Period. Some of the dive sites seem much better than several years ago; some worse. But, for certain, nothing stays the same. Fish seen vary from one time of day to the next and across the year. This is particularly true with respect to the numbers of certain fish. For example, in early April we saw dozens and dozens of individual glasseye snappers. Now, this is by no means an uncommon species, but for some reason, we saw more on this one trip than all our other trips put together. The point is that Bonaire is a great dive destination, but you never know what you will see on any given dive or trip.
