...... turtles but we usual see at least one most days but not this past trip. In fact it was not until our last two days that we saw any squid, what I call the flash mobs of blue tangs or many eels. We only saw one ray of any kind and one moderate sized grouper and again it was the last day. The barracuda were even rare. No baitballs. And where are those near endless streams of creole wasse?............
My wife and I have been going to Bonaire multiple times per year since 2005. Everything you describe falls within the variability we have seen from trip to trip over the years. One winter, a manta was seen nearly every day for 2 wks at Sand Dollar and another, 2 huge snook resided under the (now) Dive Friends dock for months. These fish were defined as "common" because everyone saw them repeatedly. Last winter, my daughter and I saw a loose school of about 30 barracuda in the relatively shallow area 100 yds north of Salt Pier where most divers do not go; otherwise, we've only seen one, usually very large, barracuda at a time. Those mobs of tangs are unpredictably regular at Bari Reef, our house reef, and elsewhere. Spotted, purplemouth, chain, goldentail and chestnut morays are common, but with variable population densities and for some, you have to know where to look. Green morays have returned to modest abundance after a large disease-induced die-off a few years ago. We saw a school of 28 young squid under a tied up dive boat at Bari 2 winters ago and almost always see a few adults per trip at the edge of the sandy areas along with a turtle or two. Grouper, in our experience, have always been fairly uncommon on Bonaire, with tigers being the most common. As for the creole wrasse, sometimes they are there in abundance and sometimes not and sometimes there seem to be only 2-4" juveniles.
The bottom line is that we dive with a lot of hope about what we might see, but no great expectations. Every trip is different, which is one of the great features of Bonaire and, perhaps, all great marine parks. In the meantime, I have learned to search the shallows for blennies and other small critters. There are so many species to be found there that I never new existed outside of the fish ID book.
I think a note of optimism should be injected into this conversation. The sewage treatment plant has been operation for a few years. This will surely be beneficial in the long run, particularly for the elkhorn and staghorn corals that are trying to regroup after the 99% die-off in the 1990's. Every creature that directly or indirectly benefited from those corals suffered from the ecological disaster of their loss. The re-establishment of damaged species populations of all sorts probably will take many years.
We will be renting a truck while we are there, is break in / theft a regular problem?
