Bonaire Night Dive: carry lights or rent?

[backprop]

Thanks for the followup. I am still not able to see where the ban language is. Page 4 of the document reads:

6. The prohibition contained within the first paragraph does not apply to visiting yachts, where tanks are filled for personal use only and not for commercial purposes.
Section 2: Marine Park (including Klein Bonaire)
Article 3
1. Without a permit from the Bestuurscollege it is forbidden to collect living or dead animals or plants in the Bonaire Marine Park
2. This prohibition does not apply to the collection by hand or using traditional fishing gear of fish, crusta-cean, mollusks and turtles as regulated by articles 14, 15 and 16.
3. By traditional fishing methods are meant the use of fishing lines (linja), fishing rods, casting nets (trai), drag nets (reda) and fish traps (kanaster)
Article 4
1. It is forbidden to dump or use biological or chemical substances in the waters around Bonaire which might cause damage to the marine environment
2. Biological, chemical or other substances considered harmful to the marine environment may be determined by EHAM
Article 5
Without an exemption from the Bestuurscollege it is prohibited to enter the Marine Reserves of the Marine Park. This prohibition does not apply to vessels traveling through the reserves or fishing using traditional fish-ing methods with the exception of fish traps.
Article 6
1. It is prohibited to anchor in the Marine Park. By EBHAM anchoring may be allowed in certain areas.
2. The prohibition in section 1 does not apply to vessels with an overall length less than 12' providing they make use of stone anchors.
Article 7
Without a permit from the Bestuurscollege it is prohibited to destroy or remove anything cemented in or on the bottom.
Article 8
1. It is prohibited without a permit from the Bestuurscollege to build, place roads, moorings, piers or or simi-lar structures in the Marine Park.
2. Only the management body for the Marine Park may remove or intentionally damage the moorings placed by or on behalf of the Bestuurscollege
Article 9
Users of the Marine Park must strictly obey instructions, which are in the interests of protecting the environ-ment, marine environment and nature of the Marine Park, given to them by or on behalf of the management body.

The only vague reference I see is in red, and theoretically that could apply to nickel-cadmium batteries, motor oil, and diesel fuel. Fortunately all of these things are contained in containers and not placed "in the waters around Bonaire", much like the material inside sealed chemical light sticks.

The article is more interesting for sure. I'm going to go to BMNP directly and ask them. I saw lots of divers with light sticks doing night dives, and the orientations should probably include wording on such a ban if it indeed exists.

 

[DiveMaven]

Let us know what you find out, I'd be interested to know out of curiosity.

 

[georoc01]

I'd certainly bring my tank light and my backup light. I brought a 4C cell primary and was fine. I know last week they ran out of rental lights at Divi Flamingo. When they had them, they were charging $7 a day for rentals.

 

[Paavo Nurmi]

BTW I'm not advocating chemical light sticks; however if returned home for disposal, I see them less damaging than, for example, the water bottles that are discarded by the dozen every day by many divers, or the numerous diposable batteries used by regular lights.

Problem is for every person like you who takes them home there would be 10 people that throw them in the garbage and they end up in the landfill. One could argue that ban or no ban they are bad for the envrionment in general, not just in Bonaire.

 

[backprop]

Problem is for every person like you who takes them home there would be 10 people that throw them in the garbage and they end up in the landfill. One could argue that ban or no ban they are bad for the envrionment in general, not just in Bonaire.

Probably true, but I wonder if anybody takes their disposable batteries home -- I saw plenty used but not sure if folks would pack away several sets of 8 C-cells in their baggage. Same for plastic water bottles. None are environmentally friendly, unfortunately.

 

[Paavo Nurmi]

Probably true, but I wonder if anybody takes their disposable batteries home -- I saw plenty used but not sure if folks would pack away several sets of 8 C-cells in their baggage. Same for plastic water bottles. None are environmentally friendly, unfortunately.

No arguments there, I know I take home a bag of dead AA batteries, but I'm sure most don't.

 

[Bosun]

I think the issue with chemical light sticks was the disposal and possibility of the chemicals getting into the ground water.

People do take dead batteries home, a lot oif us now only use rechargeable batteries.

 

[backprop]

Those of you who said that the light sticks were banned are absolutely correct. Here is the response I received from BNMP:

Since the use of chemical lights is not one of our biggest problems we didn’t post it in the web page. Most of the divers do not use this kind of markers any more.
The information about this prohibition is in the orientation chart in all dive operators.
So, to answer your question……yes, the use of chemical lights is forbidden. I would like to ask you if you feel that this is a problem or if you have a different idea about the use of this lights. Thanks for your input

I did suggest that such "banned but not as big of a problem" items be listed in the actual regulations, even if there is just a list rather than a lot of verbiage. We did not get that information in the orientation itself, but most of us did read the official regulations on bmp.com and other sites.

 

[DiveMaven]

We plan to bring home our used batteries from Bonaire.

 

[salth2owannabe]

A site marker alternative:
Here is a neat little light that you can use as a site marker or to wear to keep track of your partner if night diving with a group. You can also just keep it in your BC pocket for safety as a locater flasher.
Pelican 2130 Mini Flasher™
These things are water proof, very small, and cheap. They blink a red light.