We're currently on Bonaire and I can tell you that whomever is telling you that the reef is dead and there's no fish life doesn't know what they're talking about. We were last here in 2010 and are totally blown away at the new Elkhorn and Staghorn coral that are growing on every site. We've been excited to see the health of the reef and the HUGE schools of fish inhabiting them. We're seeing an amazing amount of biodiversity in the fish life, and the efforts to control the Lionfish on the regularly dived sites definitely shows. Back in 2010 they weren't actively hunting the Lionfish yet and we saw a few here and there. Three years later we're seeing about the same number of Lionfish that we did in 2010, so something is working. The numbers and variety of juvenile fish is wonderful to see as well.
I need to say that we haven't been diving on any of the northern sites as of yet. We prefer the southern sites, so have been diving our house reef (Bari Reef) and sites south of Hilma Hooker thus far.
Maybe they are just trying to keep Bonaire a secret not knowing that the secret is out!
BTW Hintermann, that started this thread with concerns about crime in Bonaire, must have been reassured since in another thread he announced his up coming trip!