|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| This is our seventh dive trip to Bonaire and we post some underwater photos and videos for family and friends. We posted a few above water photos as well. Photos from our previous trip in June 2008 trip are posted here and photos from earlier Bonaire trips are posted here. Unless otherwise noted, Alex took the stills using a Nikon D200 dSLR in a Subal housing and Linda took the videos using a Sony HDR-HC9 camcorder in a Light & Motion housing. The dive sites referred to below are shown in the map to the right. |
|
|
 |
|
|
| updated: 2/14/2009 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| February 5 - Our morning (Invisibles) and afternoon (Bari's Reef) site visits, our last two dives, combined into one page. Check out the video of hawksbill turtle muncing on some coral. |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| February 4 - Both morning (Bari's Reef) and afternoon (Windsock) dives combined into one page. You HAVE to look at the Porgy photos - simply amazing. |
|
| February 3 PM - We went to the WannaDive at Winsock site in search for a sea horse, the directions to which we were confident we knew. Oops - no sea horse. But we did see some nice squid. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| February 3 AM - We drove to Lac Cai with Fred Bekaert from WannaDive and his colleague and two other divers. This is a challenging dive. We did get to see some eagle rays. The visibility was not all that great. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| February 2 PM - We went to WannaDive at Windsock in search for a second reported sea horse. We failed to find him but we did see some neat critters and the coral is beautiful. After we exited, another diver told us where to find the sea horse and we'll go out again tomorrow at this site. |
|
 |
|
|
|
| February 2 AM - We dove the Tori's Reef site. Nothing out of the ordinary but still special. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| February 1 PM - We drove pretty far south to the Margate Bay site. The coral were really beautiful and we did see a large green Moray eel. |
|
 |
|
|
|
| February 1 AM - After a late start because of rain we set out to find a sea horse - and we did! Also saw some Palometas. Another good dive at Eden's Rubble. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| January 31 AM - We dove the Hilma Hooker wreck site. On previous visits to the site there were many divers there but today it rained in the morning and when we arrived only one couple was at the site and they had just completed their dive. We had a nice chat with them and then dove. The visibility was good and we saw a pretty large tarpon. On the way back to shore - a bonus - a squid. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| January 30 AM - Back to Eden's Rubble - again. We drove up about a mile and did a nice drift dive back to the Wannadive shop at Eden Beach hotel. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| January 29 AM - Back to Eden's Rubble - again. But this time we mis-read the current after going in and we started drifting. There were a number of ways out of the situation but we decided to ask two women in a motorized dingy to tow us in - which they graciously did. We exited and walked down the beach about a 1/4 mile and re-entered the water. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| January 28 PM - Back to Eden's Rubble - we always find something interesting here. On this visit we saw baby spotted moray and goldentail eels, kissing pufferfish, squid, a flounder, and a hawksbill turtle. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| January 28 AM - This was our first trip to one of the north dive site - Witch's Hut - one of our favorites. The northern sites took a real hit from Tropical Storm Omar last October. The rubble on the shore was re-arranged but otherwise the site is as beautiful as ever. The exit on this dive was pretty rough. There was a heavy surf as we tried to get out and we got bounced around a bit. That's Linda to the right. There are some nice videos here. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| January 27 AM - We visited the Tori's Reef site at one of the sea water gates for the Cargill Salt Facility. The swim out to the reef is over what had been extensive staghorn coral fields but these were destroyed by Tropical Storm Omar. Beyond that, the reef was in good shape. Linda used the time to systematically understand the interplay of manual white balance and using a red filter. The colors on her videos are now much truer. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| January 26 PM - Alice in Wonderland is south of the Hilma Hooker and one of the double-reef sites. The visibility was not great but we did run into an impressive school of jacks. |
|
 |
|
|
|
| January 26 AM - We dove the Eden Rubble site at our hotel. This reef here took a beating during Hurricane Lenny some years ago. Although the coral are gone - reduced to rubble - there are still interesting critters to be found. |
|
|
|
Bonaire Eels - Linda and I both noticed that we were seeing very few eels and the ones we saw appeared very young. I did a web search and found a lot of discussion on diver blogs about divers finding quite a few dead eels starting around July 2008. One report posted here (written by marine biologists from Puerto Rico) indicates that the eels were infected by a bacteria called vibrio which is related to the bacteria that causes human cholera. The report goes on to say that apparently one good side effect of tropical storm Omar, that struck Bonaire on October 13, is that trauma caused by the storm to the coral heads and sponges must have also cleansed the reef of the bacteria. After the storm, only a few dead eels have been found. The report also notes that the healthy eels now found are mostly juveniles. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|