Comparison of fish & coral in Curacao & Bonaire

[bkpix]

My wife and I have recently returned from a dive trip to Curacao. (We stayed at AllWest and dove with Ocean Encounters West - both were great) The coral formations were amazing, but there was a definite lack of mature fish. We did find several seahorses and frogfish. For our next trip we are thinking of going to Bonaire. Are there any dives in Bonaire that are as spectacular as Watamula or the Mushroom Forest but with lots of fish?

In Curacao the locals have over fished the reef. In fact they will occasionally target your bubbles!

So what I am really trying to ask is if there are any dives where we will see wonderful coral formations and tons of fish?

Thanks, bkpix

 

[lmorin]

In my limited experience (Curacao once, Bonaire twice), the diving is similar in the two places. I actually rate the dives near Mushroom Forest (Hell's Corner, Retiho City) in Curacao among my favorites anywhere. Thought there were abundant fish, as many as in Bonaire, and were extraordinarily picturesque. Small stuff is great in both places. But, it depends on what you want. Some folks say that the most abundant large reef fish are off Key Largo where they have been protected for a long time in the marine park. Others like the fact that Bari Reef in Bonaire has the largest number of reported fish species anywhere in the Caribbean. But, I suspect similar evaluations of Curacao dive sites have not been done.

 

[morecowbells]

We are headed out to Curacao in Jan. It is so discouraging because I have been hearing a lot of discussion about the over fishing of the waters. Hopefully some areas will eventually get some protection because divers like myself enjoy seeing the groupers, jacks, tarpon etc. At this rate many divers will just plan to visit other areas by the sound of things.

 

[mempilot]

I just returned from Bonaire in September, and with the exception of some sort of disease or other reason killing the spotted morrays, the fish populations and corals seemed healthy. The only exception was the top of the reef surrounding the west side of Kliene Bonaire, the small island that all the dive boats go to. While the wall leading to the bottom seemed healthy, the top (20 fsw) seemed to be bleached and stressed. The shallow reefs along the west shore of the main island were wonderful. Some of the best reef in my opinion are up on the north shore. You have to enter the park via your rental pickup, and spend about a hour or two getting to the secluded coral beaches up there. There seemed to be less 'traffic' and larger fish up that way, and it was well worth the effort. The west shore reefs at the south end of the island make great shore dives, and seemed to be in great shape as well, both in coral and fish. A favorite dive there was a surface swim out to the Helma Hooker, descend on the bow, move along the wreck to the screws, and then up the reef wall into the shallow reef, and then stay under all the way to shore. This is a cornicopia dive. You'll see it all.

 

[diversteve]

If you dove with OE West, although you probably did some of the better dives on the island, you were also diving outside of the Marine Park - which conversely starts on the East End and ends somewhere near Piscadera. (not sure where) It really surprised me that the pristine, less populated west wasn't in the Marine Park and the touristy, industrial areas were.

So that may've contributed to the lack of larger fish.

The only dive I did east was by the SeaAquarium and the reef was trashed so we didn't see any noticeable fish life.

Bonaire by comparison has been completely surrounded by the Marine Park for over 20 years. So it's had a chance to develop healthier fish stocks. You won't see a lot of bigger fish on either island though - at least we didn't.

My personal recollection (Bon in 04 and Cur in 07) is that some of the divesites on Bonaire - especially south of town - had much more fishlife than I saw anywhere on Curacao.

As mentioned, Bari Reef has something like 350-500 counted fish species - depending on whose #'s you read. I also recall that things were pretty healthy looking north of there.

 

[diversteve]

because divers like myself enjoy seeing the groupers, jacks, tarpon etc.

Try mid/north-island. I think I saw some (2-3') either just south of Habitat, or possibly at Playa Jeremi. It also might've been Lost Anchor - do that dive from a boat. Didn't see a single tarpon though - but I didn't do any night diving. Did spot the occasional barracuda, including one that seemed to live under the boat dock at Habitat.

 

[Diver OnLu]

Hi all,

I am diving the Bonaire / Curacao area for more than 10 years now. To tell the truth my own Bonaire experience was 10 years in the past, so I have no up to date comparison. Curacao I know it for 4 years now, working here for almost 1 year as a dive instructor. For the reefs I remember Bonaire to be rather similar to Curacao overall. Of course every island has its more and its less beautiful sites. I saw more groupers on Bonaire back in the ninties, indeed, but I don't know if that still would be the case. On the other hand, I never got lucky during a total of approximately 70 dives all around Bonaire to see a ray or a turtle. Of course other SB members will be able to report also on such encounters. On Curacao, we meet turtles rather frequently, and rays every now and then. Also, I feel that jackfish and snappers are quite abundant on our reefs, same as all kind of moray eels. But I prefer to "hunt down" the small creatures like frogfish, seahorses and all kind of shrimps, anyway.

Even though the east to center region of Curacao is declared a marine park same as Bonaire, I don't see a big deal of a difference regarding marine life, there. It is true, fishing is allowed in the west end, but normally local fishermen do not fish on the reefs themselves but out on the ocean for tuna, wahoo etc. which you will rarely find on a reef anyway. bkpix told me he had a different experience on one dive, and of course I believe him. But I never saw a fishermen's hook on a line fishing close to me on any of my approximately 450 dives around Curacao. So you cannot say that this was a rule.

Nobody should feel discouraged to visit either Curacao or Bonaire for a dive trip - I am sure you can have wonderful dives and great animal encounters under water on both islands

Hope to see you around (again) some day
Andreas

 

[bkpix]

Don't get the feeling that I am trying to tell folks to not dive Curacao! The reef at Watamula is one of the most fabulous I have ever seen. The folks at All West Apartments and Ocean Encounters West were great. But it is worth mentioning that I was randomly targeted by a local fisherperson. If it happened to me, what are the chances it was the first time or only time it has happened.

The purpose of this thread is to find out if there are places in Bonaire where the coral is as outstanding as someplace like Watamula and the abundance of fish is more like Belize or the Florida Keys.

Thanks, BKPIX

 

[BonaireDan]

I have no experience with Curacao but to add to Andreas Curacao's comments we always see plenty of turtles on BON, around Klein, westside and eastside along with rays (eagle and southern) at really all sites. Squid (calamari on the hoof) are rather ubiquitous on the west side and Klein. Barracuda are also plentiful, up to 4-5 feet at times and present on virtually every dive. Frog fish can readily be found if you know where to look as with seahorses. Rarely seen a shark in hundreds of dives but they are rare around BON. Lots and lots of tarpon, day or night, jellies during certain times of the year. One day I will make it to Curacao, have friends living there but not connected yet.

 

[crazybert]

Hi Andreas, my name is Bertram from Germany. I guess you are the well known dive instructor from "All West..."
If so I would like to ask you some quesions. I've got an offer to spend 2 weeks at All West appartments in October and it's still my plan to come for a lot and graet dives. My only problem is that I'm travelling on my own. Please let me know, if there is always a chance to find a buddy or to go by dive boat with instructor as single diver or to find somebody to dive with? I'm asking because I read the comments on All West Appartments which does not recommend it for singles.

I would like to meet you in October and don't worry: I'm not counting the big fishes - I like the small once and it would be graet to find all this fantastic creatures like frog fish, shrimp and morreys.

Kind regards from Germany

Bertram
Crazybert