Visibility & Coral Spawning

[brooklynbelle]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are completely new to snorkeling but are going full-on and planning a trip to Bonaire. The week in September we're available to go will be at the height of coral spawning (Sept 17-24). I understand that night snorkeling trips would be quite interesting but what will the spawning do to our snorkeling visibility and water clarity during the day? I'm picturing floating around in a sea surface filled with tiny balls of tapioca all around me. (Sometimes my imaginations turns these into those bubble tea balls but I digress.)

As this will be our first ever tropical vacation and beginning snorkeling sport adventure, what encouragement/warnings/advice/etc do you have about going the week of spawning. We plan to spend every minute in the water somehow.

Thank you!

Alexis

 

[South4Scuba]

It appears nobody else was willing to venture out there and reply to your question. I have been to a couple of places when corals were spawning. In Little Cayman we observed some pretty cool stuff during a spawn. The barrel sponges looked like chimneys with smoke coming out of them. I seem to recall that the visibility was down a little bit, but not that it would ruin your trip. With the currents that normally flow most of the "stuff" will get diluted pretty well.

Visibility will vary from time to time. I have seen beautiful places like Cayman and Cozumel with viz down to 80 feet from a norm of 150 feet. This is all relative though since 80 feet is better than many of the dive places in the world.

Just take your gear and have a great time. I find that I sometimes worry about things that don't materialize when I get to the resort.

We are actually thinking about taking a trip to Bonaire in October.

 

[brooklynbelle]

Thanks for the reply, South 4. I also reached to to a few adventure vendors on the island and they all said the gunk dissipates before the next day with the currents just as you say. Should be great! We are so looking forward the trip. Hope you get the opportunity to go as well!