Trip Report Bonaire 2017 trip report, slideshow, & video

[Joneill]

Here's a before & after shot of the former home of a little froggie I found at Something Special in 2014.

Before (during my morning dive):
View attachment 403939

Later, when I returned to show with my wife, the froggie was gone and a large chunk of sponge had been torn away by an errant handhold.
View attachment 403940

Another firsthand experience: In 2011 I exited Andrea II after a late afternoon dive and encountered a friendly couple with a fancy camera rig just entering the water with dive gear. Still feeling the thrill of the seahorse I had just observed on a coral head at 75', I gave them directions so they could take photos. Early the next morning I returned to find the coral head damaged and the seahorse gone.

There's no valid reason to hang onto the reef while taking photos. Ever. It's a selfish act performed by myopic divers who prioritize their desire to capture better photos above any professed desire not to harm their subjects or their habitat.

Bonaire's delicate and increasingly stressed marine park receives 40,000+ divers a year. It's a resource to be treasured and protected, not consumed by a steady stream of divers looking to "do Bonaire" and add another destination to their dive and photo logbooks before moving on.

If my criticism makes me a "don't touch the coral Nazi" then I guess I'm probably okay with that moniker. Whatever it takes.

Sponge damage aside, those do not look like pictures of the same location.

 

[jorgie6]

Oh No! joneill....don't get him going! He's certainly well meaning...but rather on the pedantic side.

 

[wwguy]

Sponge damage aside, those do not look like pictures of the same location.

Same sponge, opposite angle. Also slightly different elevation perspective and maybe different filter or white balance on the camera. Both shots were just screen grabs from GoPro video.

 

[diver0008]

wwguy -- During our two week trip this month, I saw more of this than on any other trip. People "stabilizing" themselves by touching coral (or "dead" coral as they claim), laying in the sand (yes -- there is tons of life in the sand!), not caring that they kick the hell out of soft corals with their fins, taking shot after shot till the point of creature harassment, and -- my biggest pet peeve -- absolute ignorance on what buoyancy control is and how to attain and/or maintain it.

I'm convinced that the single biggest threat to marine life and the reefs is digital photography. Idiot divers like the one in your photo above feel they have the right to do whatever it takes to "get the shot".

I wish the marine park would ban cameras.

Dave.

Sadly, I too am seeing more and more bad behaviour from divers with cameras.

 

[diver0008]

I mean ...have you seen what a turtle does when he sits on the reef..and not to mention the Giant Wrasse in the Pacific..they munch the hell out of the reef.

You did not just try to justify divers damaging coral because native creatures feed, did you?

Surely, you are trolling.

 

[jorgie6]

Not at all! I'm not justifying anything! Even when we are most cautious..accidents/touches happen. I'm just not going to go all "high & to the right" ...but work on buoyancy and be patient. I've done enough muck diving in Indonesia to know that even the slightest fin touch can be devastating. Macro life is so amazing...let's all be careful.

This entire thing started because I just wanted to know about pointer sticks (which Ken mentioned in his post...didn't even think about their use on Bonaire...I've only used mine in the Pacific and on Roatan) Audible sigh!........ I THINK I got an answer to my original question. Thanks also to those who responded about the lionfish. We're back on the Gulfcoast after 7 years in Micronesia...didn't do any lionfish hunting there. Argh! It is good to see that most of these Caribbean destinations seem to be on board with some type of program/training. We hunt them on every dive up here in the Florida panhandle.
Happy Diving Everyone!

 

[jorgie6]

To segway this thread back to Ken's great post....really enjoyed your trip report and photos! Thanks again!

 

[wwguy]

Didn't mean to start a thread about "touching the coral" Nazis and all. Just wanted to know about pointer sticks.

This entire thing started because I just wanted to know about pointer sticks (which Ken mentioned in his post...didn't even think about their use on Bonaire...I've only used mine in the Pacific and on Roatan) Audible sigh!

You give yourself too much credit. This "entire thing" started because the OP, a dive pro, posted a video showing one of his divers hanging onto a coral head while taking video or photos. Regardless of what you or anyone else does around the rest of the world, "don't touch anything" has been the Bonaire National Marine Park mantra for decades. It's also the fundamental tenet of the mandatory marine park orientation and buoyancy check dive required for every diver.

Like everywhere else in the world, Bonaire's fragile reef is stressed. Coral bleaching and rising nutrient levels have contributed to an estimated 10% loss of coral on Bonaire's reefs since 2010. In the meantime the number of divers visiting continues to grow. The struggle is real.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I don't intend to start a flame war here but thought I'd throw in a couple of thoughts:

This "entire thing" started because the OP, a dive pro, posted a video showing one of his divers hanging onto a coral head while taking video or photos.

The other way to look at it is that someone tired to make a mountain out of a molehill but I don't think you'll see it that way . . .

First of all, she's not steadying herself on a CORAL HEAD. That's a piece of DEAD ROCK. The marine park and the operators don't encourage this, but they do say that if you need to steady yourself, find a dead area to do so. WHY the area is dead in the first place is certainly fair game but again let's be clear: She not killing reef to get a shot. And quite frankly, when I slapped the video together, I didn't notice this or I simply wouldn't have used the shot.

Like everywhere else in the world, Bonaire's fragile reef is stressed . . . In the meantime the number of divers visiting continues to grow. The struggle is real.

Yes it is. And the sad reality is that every time we certify a new diver, we kill part of the reef because at SOME point, that diver is going to inadvertently damage something. No one's perfect. No one does it 100% right 100% of the time. That likely includes me and even you wwguy. And I didn't include in the video each dive briefing where we reminded people not to make contact, nor did I show the times we guided people away from making contact, nor did I show the times we either didn't show something to people or didn't shoot it ourselves simply because the subject of our attention was in too tight of a location.

The conundrum of the dive industry is that we probably help kill the very thing we love and want to protect. So you could go to the extreme and ban all diving on all coral reefs. Or you could go the deregulation way and say "Do what you want and when it's gone, it's gone." I think as an industry, we've reached a healthy balance of having respect for the reef while trying to observe and interact with it. Not perfect and never going to be, especially with "vacation" divers. But I've been diving for close to 40 years now and the attitude we try to impart to divers about "peace on the reef" (as Mike Ball would say) is immensely better now than it was when I started in the late 70s.

- Ken

 

[wwguy]

Thanks Ken. I appreciate and respect your comments and general perspective. I agree that inadvertent contact is eventually inevitable and I've certainly done it myself. However intentional contact by a photographer trying to get their special macro shot isn't inadvertent or inevitable. It's 100% predictable and avoidable. If you can't steady yourself in the water column for the shot you should back off of the reef, rather than close in and seek a handhold.

Some dive professionals might wink and say something different to their paying customers, but Bonaire's marine park rules are pretty clear about "don't touch anything". They don't say "use your best judgement" or "only touch something if you really need to take a great photo, but only if you make sure you grab something mostly dead".

I admit to making a mountain out of a molehill here. It's a classic and instructive example of how some divers (and people in general) bend or otherwise reinterpret rules to meet their own objectives. In this case it affects a fragile resource that I hold near and dear to my heart. Thus my passion for protecting it.