Comparison of fish & coral in Curacao & Bonaire

[dvrliz1]

Bkpix,

I can only speak for Bonaire. I dove Karpata, one of my favorite dive sites on Saturday. It was spectacular! There was a tremendous amount of fish life and the coral was spectacular. My favs were a wonderful queen angel, quite a few french angels, LARGE fish (schoolmasters, a couple of groupers and alot more not sure what kind). Had a HUGE midnight parrot fish but my camera konked out (dam battery!). That dive is north. The wednesday before I dove Red Slave and it was spectacular as well with fantastic soft corals. I think you will enjoy Bonaire just as much if not better.

Liz

 

[Diver OnLu]

Hi Bertram,

I just sent you a private message to answer your questions.

For everybody else who might be interested in solo traveling to Westpoint:

Though most of our guests at All West Apartments are not traveling on their own, we had quite a few over the last 12 months who did (from Germany as well as from the US), and they all were very pleased with their stay - there is always a chance to meet new dive buddies at the apartments, at our dive shop Ocean Encounters West, or on our daily boat dives. Nobody who arrived in Westpoint on his/her own had any issues to make contact with other nice people, diving or on shore. It is like everywhere else: You just need to be a little bit of an outgoing personality, and you will make new friends.
The only thing you should know is that Westpoint is not exactly Curacao's "party zone" - everything is rather quiet and much more private than in the Willemstad area, but also more relaxing in my point of view.

If you want to know what creatures you can expect to see under water, there is a lot of information in the thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/269787-curacao-wildlife-report.html, or on our homepage ..:: All West Curacao ::.. - just follow the link to the Diver's Talk News Blog, for example.

Best regards
Andreas

 

[jd950]

I have only been to Curacao once and to Bonaire once, both within the past year. I would say that both have few large fish, compared, for example, to Cozumel. Curacao and Bonaire have plenty of smaller and juvenile fish. Bonaire has the Marine Park, but fishing is allowed in the park, so I don't think that makes any difference. Other than Tarpon, I saw few large fish, by my standards.

If large fish are the goal, I would have to conclude there are better locations, such as Cozumel, but I think either Bonaire or Curacao offer lots of other attractions and I think they are more similar than different as far as coral and fish.

FWIW, I think overfishing is a major problem throughout the Caribbean and as much as I love fresh fish, I only eat a few types. As to fish widely available in the Caribbean, I will eat Wahoo and Mahi Mahi, but that is about it. Please don't eat grouper.

Sorry for getting on a soapbox for a moment.


Oh, now that I think about it, I guess the manta, humpback and hammerhead that have recently been spotted off Curacao would be a bit of an exception to limited number of large "fish" one might find.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Dove Bonaire in January and Curacao in April. I thought that Bonaire had more "big fish" than Curacao but felt that neither could compare to other areas for the bigger fish. It is more of a macro environment for sure. I also note that I saw fishermen at all of the dive sites we were at south of Wilemstad. That could account for the lack of bigger fish. Apparently people gotta eat!

 

[Crowley]

To follow on... and woooo I'm back!

Don't be discouraged by talk of over-fishing and depopulated reefs. Mushroom Forest and Watamula are indeed lovely dive sites but I've been there and seen very little in the way of fish life. Other divers have reported similar. I don't get up there very often so can't give you a running commentary but I hear that quite regularly (I live and work here on Curacao). The reefs I dive more regularly - including our house reef - are not short at all of wildlife. The fishies have been very busy recently and there is currently a wonderful explosion of juveniles. I see barracuda regularly, particularly at Vaersenbaai where there has been a family of them in residence for at least the last 6 months. Two Spotted Eagles rays were - er - spotted - there yesterday by one of our other instructors, as was a turtle. Haven't seen any Tarpon recently but there is plenty of fish life at the moment.

Up west is good - but the best dives I've done recently were at Directors' Bay (Caracasbaai) which is towards the south east of the island - 120ft viz, stunning reef, simply beautiful. And not a fisherman in sight!

Safe diving folks,

C.

 

[DiverVince]

BKPIX..Just so you know, Bonaire over the last year has instituted absolute no fish zones in an effort to combat overfishing & provide a sanctuary in certain areas (so far 2) on the west side of the island.

jd 950..ditto on the consumption of fish at the local restaurants..Please do not order grouper! There are other species which are just as good & not in short supply.

Last month we did a snorkel trip on the Woodwind & saw a total of 20 turtles off Klein in a matter of only 2 ours!

 

[DiverVince]

BKPIX..Just so you know, Bonaire over the last year has instituted absolute no fish zones in an effort to combat overfishing & provide a sanctuary in certain areas (so far 2) on the west side of the island.

jd 950..ditto on the consumption of fish at the local restaurants..Please do not order grouper! There are other species which are just as good & not in short supply.

Last month we did a snorkel trip on the Woodwind & saw a total of 20 turtles off Klein in a matter of only 2 ours!