How are the jellyfish in Bonaire in April/May?

[sasscuba]

Sasscuba,

Normally July/August is usually "jellyfish" season. I usually dive with my bathing suit and t-shirt on, but in July/August I wear a skin. This is not to say you may not encounter a jellyfish anytime of year, or microscopic tenticale stings (they are a turtles favorite meal), but you should be fine with just a t-shirt and your suit.

Hope this helps.

Liz

Thanks Liz.....see you for the drinks on the 30th.

 

[Fordan]

According to my "DAN Pocket Guide to First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries"

Interesting, the manual from my DAN First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries class a couple weeks ago is a little different:

First Aid Procedures for Fire Coral, Hydroid, Anemone, and Jellyfish Stings

1. Flush injury with large amounts of sea water to remove remaining tentacles
2. Immerse the affected area in hot water for 30 to 90 minutes to neutralize the unfired nematocysts.
3. Remove the tentacles with forceps (tweezers)
4. Shave the area with shaving cream and safety razor
5. Apply hydrocortisone lotion or cream
6. Monitor for allergic reaction and/or infection
7. Apply warm (113F/45C max) packs for pain control for jellyfish stings.
8. If warm packs are not available, apply ice or cold packs for pain control for jellyfish stings.

Box Jellyfish

• For box-type jellyfish, soak affected area with household vinegar or other mild acetic acid. This neutralizes any unfired stinging cells still on the skin.
• Do not use vinegar on a sting from a Portuguese man-o-war; it can fire off more nematocysts.

This is from the 2006 3rd edition.

 

[piikki]

I remembered this thread when the endorphines from the Bonaire trip started to drain out, and a weird emptiness kicked in... I was thinking what creatures I saw, and I think I saw one on them box jellyfishes during our April visit. At least it looked like this:

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/animals/enlarge/box-jellyfish.html

It was the size of my head, maybe less/shorter tentacles than that specimen. Pretty cool looking, saw it pulsating between the reefs at Alice in Wonderland on a morning dive.

This was on our first full day of diving, in the end of which I also got brushed on my chin with 'something', and blew up in rash all over my body. I went nowhere near the medusa but there where all kinds of things floating in water. Some sites were real egg-cities.

Later on the week I got a nice burn on my lip, and buddy got stung on the back of the hand in mid-water. No clue what it was, the pain was short-lived but saw some people with swollen necks and other parts of face too. Wonder what that is?

 

[Antietam]

When you say August is Jellyfish season-like how many do you see on a normal dive. We will be there in August for our 1st time and now I'm a little concerned. Should I be? We always wear a 3mil anyhow.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I remembered this thread when the endorphines from the Bonaire trip started to drain out, and a weird emptiness kicked in... I was thinking what creatures I saw, and I think I saw one on them box jellyfishes during our April visit. At least it looked like this:

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/animals/enlarge/box-jellyfish.html

It was the size of my head, maybe less/shorter tentacles than that specimen. Pretty cool looking, saw it pulsating between the reefs at Alice in Wonderland on a morning dive.

This was on our first full day of diving, in the end of which I also got brushed on my chin with 'something', and blew up in rash all over my body. I went nowhere near the medusa but there where all kinds of things floating in water. Some sites were real egg-cities.

Later on the week I got a nice burn on my lip, and buddy got stung on the back of the hand in mid-water. No clue what it was, the pain was short-lived but saw some people with swollen necks and other parts of face too. Wonder what that is?

If it looked like this, it was the same as we saw in November on Bonaire.

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/64944/cat/2142/sortby/v/sorttime/999/way/desc

The short-lived intense stings are typically siphonophores - one day on our recent March Curacao trip, they were all over the shallows in Varsenbaai, day before they were't around. We did watch a turtle feeding on them.

I've essentially retired my shorty wetsuit and have become a fan of the 0.5 mm full wetsuit. The siphonophores always seem to find my ears somehow though.

 

[spectrum]

Last week we saw no Jellyfish.

There was an uncommonly large outbreak of tunicates. These were clear bulb like organisms about 1 inch in diameter an maybe 2 inches long with a small nucleus. When we arrived on 4/29 they were solitaires. As the week went on they had formed chains that must have been over 30 feet long that formed giant helix's in the water. They were really cool to swim between especially at Angel City. By now they have probably passed. The upside is that they were expected to encourage more bigger fish to shore for feeding.

Having been there 4-28 - 5/6 we would (will?) repeat that time in a heartbeat. Refreshing breezes, lighter tourist crowd, and the place was still happening all over.

Pete

 

[The Dive Bum]

I'm leaving for Bonaire on Saturday. Yea!!!!!! My 6th trip in four years but the first time this early in the year. Never had much jelly problems. Been lucky I guess. July will be Roatan can't wait for that either!!

 

[piikki]

Last week we saw no Jellyfish.

There was an uncommonly large outbreak of tunicates. These were clear bulb like organisms about 1 inch in diameter an maybe 2 inches long with a small nucleus. When we arrived on 4/29 they were solitaires. As the week went on they had formed chains that must have been over 30 feet long that formed giant helix's in the water. They were really cool to swim between especially at Angel City. By now they have probably passed. The upside is that they were expected to encourage more bigger fish to shore for feeding.

Having been there 4-28 - 5/6 we would (will?) repeat that time in a heartbeat. Refreshing breezes, lighter tourist crowd, and the place was still happening all over.

Pete

We were there week before you, and those tunicates were really taking over some of the locations. It was funny, they could be all over one place (like whisk them away with one hand, eeew), and the next site you would see one or none. I was not particularly enthused if the place was egged out with them.

First one I saw, I thought was a snake. It was floating in unified manner and coming at us in this +20ft length! During our week they were generally in strings of 3ft to 20ft unless fish were ripping them into pieces. I think Calabas Reef was the worst - it was like stepping into a soup with these things.

 

[livingstone]

I saw a beautiful pink warty jellyfish (pretty small) while diving northwest of Klein on April 27th or 28th and then another purple one (about the same size) the next morning on the north side of Klein. I ran into something late the previous week that I didn't see in time and it stung me across my upper lip from cheek to cheek; I have no idea what it was. It hurt plenty at the time but the stinging was pretty well gone by the time the dive was over.

 

[alashas]

We were on BON from April 23 - May 3 and the tunicates had practically taken over some of the dive sites! I had to pull 'em regularly off the camera in order to try to get a half decent shot.

I don't have UW photos posted yet, but land pics are here:
http://honeymoon2.smugmug.com/

Other than being a little disappointed in the visibility, we thorougly enjoyed our first trip to BON...

cheers, alashas