Back from Bonaire

[viva1]

We've been to Bonaire about 8 times and love it. Next trip is planned for Dec., 2009. I'm a little concerned about reef damage from Omar. Any thoughts? Are some ( a lot?) of the sites as good as ever or is it going to be very disappointing this next trip?

 

[gypsyjim]

Have you checked the Bonaire Talk web site for info on reef damages?
We noticed lttle damage in the Bari reef area or south of the airport, but there was very significant damage from Omar at Oil Slick, when we were there this last Jan. We will be returning next week and I'll be exploring many other sites, as this will be my brother and his families' first Bonaire trip

 

[DeputyDan]

Omar waxed Oil Slick down to 40 or so feet!

 

[gypsyjim]

Yes, I think Chevy, who I was diving there with in Jan, expressed it pretty well when he said it looked like it was used for bulldozer practice across the entire top of the shelf and partway down the face! That part of the reef will take a long time to recover, which is such a shame, as it was one of our favorites!
DD, aren't you supposed to be there right now with Herman? I think we will cross paths with him at BON on Sat. :goingdown: :uwphotographer:

 

[DiveMaven]

We were very shocked at the damage Omar did to the northern sites. At times looking at the huge coral heads that had been knocked over made us think it had been bombed! This was mostly in the shallows above 30' or so, but the difference between last year and this year was very obvious. We noticed very little damage on Bari Reef, and the southern sites showed nearly nothing that couldn't be attributed to normal ocean condition damage.

Last year we did a lot of dives at the northern sites, this year we went south a lot more.

 

[gypsyjim]

How were the extreme north sites in the park itself effected? We have yet to do the north coast sites, and were thinking of taking my brother and his family up there next week, on their first trip to Bonaire. We won't bother if those site got hit anything like Oil Slick did....

 

[DeputyDan]

Jim: We just returned from the liveaboard in Belize.

The diving was so-so. The in country part of our trip was awesome!

 

[DiverVince]

We were on Bonaire in March & was really saddened at the damage at Oil Slick. It was one of our favorite dive sites, but we chose to go elsewhere after we visited it. Generally speaking because of where we're situated on the island, our dives are more often than not confined to the southern sites which are all fine. We're down in about 3 weeks so we'll view Oil Slick again & if not acceptable will probably continue a bit further north to Karpata.

**Jim** If you have internet connection, let me know what you find out at Oil Slick if you're going to be there next week. I suspect eventually it'll come back, but it'll take some time. From what I read the ocean temps are a bit cooler than last summer so hopefully the hurricane activity in the Carib. basin will be less. I remember when we flew down last Aug, there were not 1, not 2, but 3 hurricanes in the Carib!

 

[gypsyjim]

Oil slick will take years to recover. Coral doesn't grow very quickly, and that site was hit hard!
I think the high rock face, combined with the relatively shallow shelf area at Oil Slick made the impact of Omar much worse than other sites. It is a shame, because that site was always a great dive, with tons to see!

 

[rjchandler]

shallows at Witches Hut were also hit badly - probably like Oil Slick. Red Beryl was hit noticeably in the shallows but has the look of a reef on the mend. reef in front of the Divi looked awful to my eye.

But don't forget - the critters don't care how pretty the coral is.

I am not sure I was in Bonaire tho --- nobody stole anything.