There's seems to be some confusion here, leading to misinformation.
Carel's Vision and Nukove (both north of Karpata and the BOPEC fuel tank farm, but not inside the boundaries of Washington Slagbaai National Park) were temporarily closed due to SCTLD in April '23 and then reopened in January '24. Both have been open for boat diving since then.
The other northern dive sites with mooring pins are significantly further north and within the boundaries of Washington Slagbaai National Park. Those sites—Boka Bartol, Playa Benge, Playa Funchi, Bise Morto, Wayaka, and Boka Slagbaai—were closed in April '23 and remain closed.
STINAPA's stated original reason for the closures wasn't related to recovery, but rather the hope that these areas might avoid SCTLD infection in the first place. This due to the theoretical inability for prevailing ocean currents to continue pushing SCTLD north around the island past Wekua Point, which is located between Taylor Made and Carel's Vision.
The sites that have since been reopened—from Candyland north to Nukove—were eventually infected anyway, which made further closure pointless. (Basically the same reason that STINAPA's dive gear disinfection protocol was initially put in place for all island dive sites, and then later abandoned once it became a futile exercise.)
The remaining closed sites within the boundaries of Washington Slagbaai National Park mentioned above remain closed because 1) they're considerably farther north and less likely to be affected or infected by currents on the windward side of the island, and 2) STINAPA can more effectively control access to them.
Not exactly. The Bonaire National Marine Park extends around the entire perimeter of the island, from the high water mark on shore to 200' depth.
You might be thinking instead of the the protected King Willem-Alexander Marine Reserve, which lies within the BNMP between Karpata and the BOPEC petroleum terminal, where diving has long been prohibited for conservation and study reasons not related to SCTLD.
There have never been marine park moorings in that area though. (I do remember some great shore diving at the northern end of the reserve before BOPEC fenced off access just south of the gate to their terminal back in the late 90's though.)
Candyland and nearby Taylor Made are both unofficial and unmarked shore diving sites. Neither have ever had STINAPA mooring pins for boat diving, and both were only closed briefly during the temporary April '23 to January '24 closure mentioned previously above.
Nukove is a marked STINAPA dive site with a yellow mooring pin, and has been open again since January 2024.
LOL, I know, right? Thanks for sharing this. Bonaire is dead! Be sure to tell all of your diving friends, post it on social media, and keep spreading the word!
I'm obviously being sarcastic. I hope you were too.
Yes, I agree!
Not exactly, LOL.
No doubt that cool water diving in the PNW is a great experience on its own, but it's obviously a quite different experience than the affordable, convenient, easy-access, warm-water, high-vis, current-free, unlimited air/nitrox, self-guided shore experience offered on Bonaire.
Climate and reef health issues aside, there's literally nothing else anywhere comparable to Bonaire's easy shore diving access, managed marine park, and predictably consistent sea conditions anywhere else in the world. It's really not the same as PNW diving at all.
Regarding declining Bonaire reef health in general:
No doubt the health of Bonaire's reef system has been in a state of decline for years, just like most everywhere else in the world—and especially in the Caribbean. But the ecological reef health issues related to warming seas temps aren't exclusive to Bonaire by any means.
STLCD was first detected in Florida's reef system in 2014, and has since infected 20+ species of stony corals along the entirety of Florida's coral reef and in 22 Caribbean countries.
As longtime repeat visitors who've enjoyed almost 500 hours of bottom time on dushi Bonaire since 1997, we've observed the various changes specifically on Bonaire too though. Red algae blooms due to increased levels of nitrates and phosphates, coral bleaching due to warming sea temps, increased traffic from giant cruise ships, the lionfish invasion (also started in Florida,) and now SCTLD have all played a part in stressing the reefs around Bonaire and the rest of the Atlantic-Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.
But there's still nothing else like it, and so we're still looking forward to returning for another 3 weeks this winter. Plenty of others obviously are too, as dive and other tourism on the island unfortunately continues to grow by double-digit percentages annually. (Thus my sarcastic comment above.)
I get your point. But if the past is any indicator it seems unlikely that the coral reefs systems around Bonaire—and everywhere else around the world will trend towards recovery going forward.
If anything, they're likely to continue deteriorating.
