I visited Bonaire in November 2009 and in November 2010. After my trip in November 2009 I was ready to buy a house on Bonaire but I was shocked by the degree of bleaching in 2010, both at the North and South end. I hadn't visited Klein in 2009 but we dove at a site that had a large amount of algae on the reef in 2010 and the DM told me this has been getting worse and worse in the past few years. Bonaire was spared major bleaching in earlier episodes in the Caribbean but the temperature last Fall was way too high for way too long. It's sad to hear the corals haven't recovered, which seemed possible in November 2010. I appreciate it's still a great island to dive, but I couldn't help feel bad about the visible decline even in one year, including bleaching, lion fish, and algae. I sincerely hope the reefs will recover somewhat from the heat but in my view there is no denying the adverse affects.
Despite the decrease in coral health, I do think much of the difference in other life between 2009 and 2010 is still random rather than a systematic decline. We saw turtles both trips, spotted eagle rays on the East side in 2010, octopus in various places include the little salt entry channel at one of the sites near the salt flats, reef squid, at night crabs and shrimp galore, and I agree with a previous poster that diving along the shore line wall near Buddies in the shallows is great fun. One of my favorite dives was very shallow, swimming from Buddy Dive north to the last resort/dive-op before the big rusty steel wharf (?) and back.
I can only compare Bonaire in 2009 and 2010, plus a handful of dives near Playa del Carmen that were incomparably bad compared to Bonaire, and Hawaii, which I loved but is very different and didn't have nearly as much fish. I'm going to Cozumel this Fall and hope to go other tropical places in the future, perhaps it might change my perspective but it seems to me Bonaire has a lot of life and it's extremely sad that one of the last healthy reefs in the Caribbean is in serious danger.
Despite the decrease in coral health, I do think much of the difference in other life between 2009 and 2010 is still random rather than a systematic decline. We saw turtles both trips, spotted eagle rays on the East side in 2010, octopus in various places include the little salt entry channel at one of the sites near the salt flats, reef squid, at night crabs and shrimp galore, and I agree with a previous poster that diving along the shore line wall near Buddies in the shallows is great fun. One of my favorite dives was very shallow, swimming from Buddy Dive north to the last resort/dive-op before the big rusty steel wharf (?) and back.
I can only compare Bonaire in 2009 and 2010, plus a handful of dives near Playa del Carmen that were incomparably bad compared to Bonaire, and Hawaii, which I loved but is very different and didn't have nearly as much fish. I'm going to Cozumel this Fall and hope to go other tropical places in the future, perhaps it might change my perspective but it seems to me Bonaire has a lot of life and it's extremely sad that one of the last healthy reefs in the Caribbean is in serious danger.
