Bonaire ~ After 50 dives...

[bonairefans]

On our final dive today, after wondering for 2 weeks why we weren’t crossing paths with green morays, one not only appeared at Atlantis but put on an talented, free-swimming performance.

The dive conditions for most of the days since our arrival have been exceptional: no current, the visibility stretched to…let’s just say we could almost see Curacao from our underwater back yard. Maybe it’s a combination of no winds with scorching sun , but on 3 days the illumination of the reef was so intense and shimmering it was as if a huge disco ball was installed above us…cue the BeeGees. How many strobing lights can a mere mortal take before the optic nerves are tripped?

We cut our driving in half by diving twice at the same site. If there’s no current and the dive north was great, it will be just as great south…why burn gas driving around?

Maybe it’s because we spend so much time on the reef’s crest and shallows, but we encountered 48 turtles – a new record for us – 35 greens and 13 hawksbills. These are just anecdotal observations, but it’s always fun to think it's part of a trend and numbers are increasing.

We observed a huge drop in lion fish sightings from one year ago, when they were spotted on 90% of our dives. We only saw 5 over a two week period of 4 dives daily.

Witnessing the reef spawning event on 04 October was unexpected and incredibly cool. Sharing the Salt Pier with a manta was…we’re still trying to find the words…watching it gracefully weave between the pilings was the best show in our corner of the Caribbean.

It’s not easy to convey what it’s like to spend 50 hours under water on Bonaire’s reef, but we tried to compress it anyway and here’s our trip video:

[video=youtube;DL8bWGCA4bk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL8bWGCA4bk][/video]

 

[DiveMaven]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing....makes me even more excited to return!

 

[drrich2]

Delighted to hear you saw so many turtles; I've never seen over a hand full in a week of diving there. Green morays are hit or miss; a week in August, I found one & my buddy found a couple of more over 22 dives total.

Richard.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[morecowbells]

Thanks for sharing such an awesome video! Turtles, green morays and sting rays are my favorite sea creatures.

 

[Drewpy]

Very well done! My last 4 trips have been to Bon..love it!
We have decided to switch things up and head to Coz and PDC and throw in some Mayan ruins and a cenote!

 

[bcaderunr]

Thanks for the video and the well written account of your stay. We'll be there for 2+ weeks in January - again! Concur with you on the 2 dives/site stategy. If a site looked good on the first dive, we'd do it again -- the second time heading in the opposite direction. Can't wait to thoroughly scrutinize the shoreline again in 2013.

 

[phoenix31tt]

nice vid... we'll be heading there for the first time next year... cant wait!!

 

[lmorin]

A very large percentage of the green morays died because of disease a few years ago. They are coming back, but slowly. Saw two on one dive and 2 others during 2 wks last June. Many spotted morays also died, but that population seems barely dented.