Trip Report Bonaire March 2024–Dead reefs

[Catito]

All of the sites are orange or red but for the two I mentioned. Wonder why you are so Invested in stating that the reefs are not dead. Photos to follow.

Photos are posted.

 

[Catito]

Bonaire's reefs are stressed for sure, but they are not completely dead. Far from it. For what it's worth, I dove Bonaire last October and Cozumel in November and found Cozumel's reefs to be in far worse shape than I saw in Bonaire. And I wouldn't tell people to cancel their trips to either location. Salt Pier is mostly about the sponges and schools of various reef fish. In terms of the reef, it's always going to look pretty beat up compared to healthy sections because it's an industrial site. Where are you staying and what is the house reef? Many of the house reefs are also in areas that see a lot of traffic and get beat up (18 Palms is a prime example).

Why don't you finish your dive trip while keeping as open of a mind as possible before you start telling people to cancel their trips?

Photos from Karpata and 1000 steps. I am not driven to destroy Bonaire’s reefs’ reputation. I am saddened by what I see and I am just sharing what I see. Again, if I had received accurate information, I would not have taken a dive trip to Bonaire given the state of the reefs. Of course, anyone can visit and decide (once here) if they find the reefs to be healthy. In my opinion, the devastation is alarming.

 

[Joneill]

Just finished my second day. So far the reefs are still as fishy but there is no denying the damage done by disease and warming seas. For the sites we have dove thus far, the shallows look pretty good as you would expect since they are less about the hard coral and more gordonians, fans and such. But as you go over the edge the loss is notable. The stoney corals on these sites have been hit heavily. Very few corals that don’t show any signs of disease if not outright gone with algae growth already obvious. Today I did not see a single living flower coral and other health appearing hard corals were rare.

We plan to get an early start tomorrow and head further south.

As for any enforcement for rinsing? No, it hasn’t even been mentioned by any dive staff. I think everyone knows Bonaire is well past that having any impact if indeed they had any real hope even at the beginning.

Little Cayman was much the same in late September - sad to see!

 

[emoreira]

I have just returned from a week at Bonaire.
Though I´ve seen dead corals, the situation seems not to be not as catastrophic as mentioned by the OP.
This was my first visit to Bonaire, so I cannot compare with past times, but I cannot say that EVERY SITE was dead.
We´ve visited 13 different sites from green to red, from south to north and they all looked good so far.
We stayed at Buddy Dive Resort. In the reception briefing we were told to rinse our gear with chlorinated water if we intended to go from a red site to an orange or green site. Dive sites maps with colours were in several places in the Resort.
Besides we've seen those coral nurse stands at the shallows of Buddy Reef. They are worried by the status of the reefs and they are doing something to improve.
Dying reefs is a fact, as ocean warming and acidification, but they are still alive.

 

[agd]

Good news and bad news.

Yes, almost every brain coral and similar species from 18 Palms to Bari are pretty much dead. And they are affected in the previously closed sites north of Bopec all the way to Ligthouse too. But there is lots of species unaffected. The extreme bleaching from September to November has largely recovered. So if you focus on the bad, yes, lots of it. But if you focus on the good, lots of that too.

Fish life is luck of the day, but anecdotally, more sting rays, eagle rays, octopus, sizable groupers than other years. More live conch than in recent memory, but lobster are too rare. Squid come and go. Sometimes they show up many dives in a row then none for some weeks. Dolphin sightings are much more common. For years I saw none but a pod went by me south of Red Slave a while ago and today a pod buzzed within 20 feet of me at Lighthouse. Quite a thrill.

So, as sad as it is that the reefs are not as spectacular as they once were, if you look at what is good as opposed to what is not, the dives in Bonaire remain very enjoyable. Every day is different, you never know what interesting thing you will see or what behaviors you will witness. But it is a rare dive where nothing interesting happens.

Come if you wish, go elsewhere if you do not. I have no skin in the game and, frankly, I enjoyed the uncrowded Covid times when one had the reefs to oneself. But to say that the reefs are dead and not worth visiting is hyperbolic overstatement. And in the end, where else on the planet can one find as much freedom to drive up, walk in and do your own dive on your own schedule?

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

For what it's worth, Catito's photos remind me of what I saw on Roatan's West End.

However, I did notice that the damage was constrained by a pretty clear thermocline at around 30 feet. I wish I had quantitative data that links my videos to water temperature and depth, but I don't, yet. All I have is qualitative data where I noted about +5 degree warmer water at less than 30 ft where there was a preponderance of clearly long dead and heavily algae-overgrown corals.

At depths greater than 30 feet, the water was colder and, overall, corals , and especially encrusting sponges and calcareous algaes seemed to be in better shape. Still, there was tons of filamentous algaes trying their best to glom onto things. All this at what is generally believed to be the Carribean's healthiest reefs.

As for data, we could ALL use to see photos and videos of reefs regardless of condition. The internet is awash in "best of" and "highlights" of dive sites that give a near-useless view of dive conditions and reef health status. It's also well past time to call out dive operators and force them to acknowledge poor reef health and start working on solutions. I bet lots of us would happily pay for a week of reef restoration if it meant transplanting coral stubs or painting fungicide on white or brown stripes. The days of sightseeing are over. Time for us to get to work.

 

[Catito]

I have just returned from a week at Bonaire.
Though I´ve seen dead corals, the situation seems not to be not as catastrophic as mentioned by the OP.
This was my first visit to Bonaire, so I cannot compare with past times, but I cannot say that EVERY SITE was dead.
We´ve visited 13 different sites from green to red, from south to north and they all looked good so far.
We stayed at Buddy Dive Resort. In the reception briefing we were told to rinse our gear with chlorinated water if we intended to go from a red site to an orange or green site. Dive sites maps with colours were in several places in the Resort.
Besides we've seen those coral nurse stands at the shallows of Buddy Reef. They are worried by the status of the reefs and they are doing something to improve.
Dying reefs is a fact, as ocean warming and acidification, but they are still alive.

Thank you. Please tell us which reefs still look good so we can go there while we are still here. Yes, I am comparing the reefs to my last visit (5 years ago).

 

[mbs]

I was on the island in the beginning of the month and it is recommended to do so when changing dive sites. Also it is suggested - in case you are planning to dive different spots per day - to start your day where there is less SCTLD according to the map and eventually progress to the areas where there is more of an issue, not the other way around. That's obviously also aimed at trying to reduce spreading the disease.

When entering the national park in the north of Bonaire any swimming and snorkeling equipment has to be cleaned with bleach as well. They have a cleaning station set up at the entrance. Scuba diving was not permitted up there during my stay.

Ok, so basically the same as when I was there last May. Thanks.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

According to a post on Stinapa’s Facebook page they have started doing antibiotic treatments on targeted sites. Presumably, these are sites that have been affected the least. Who knows, there might be a little hope for some of the areas around the island.

As for some of the southern sites, I would agree with @drrich2 regarding the larger areas of soft coral. When we were there this past Jan/Feb you definitely saw some hard hit corals in these areas but, since there are fewer of the type that are susceptible to SCTLD, the overall appearance of the reef was better. We also saw large amounts of fish of different varieties. At least 5 scorpionfish, 3 octopuses during the day, many eel and rays, spotted drums and high hats of all sizes and more filefish and trumpet fish than I could even begin to count.

Erik

 

[uncfnp]

Thank you. Please tell us which reefs still look good so we can go there while we are still here. Yes, I am comparing the reefs to my last visit (5 years ago).

Did you try any of the southern sites today? The other posters are spot on about the shallows on the southern dives. These were always my favorite dives and now even more so. While still affected, there was some fairly good areas of hard corals between 20 to 35 feet as well. The pencil coral seemed to be largely intact at Red Beryl even though it seems they are susceptible. The Staghorn is resistant and it shows. And of course the Firecoral has no idea there is anything going on.