It was good to get back to one of my favorite dive destination. As you might remember Barb and I didn’t make last year because of my back issue, but we had a great time this year as always with our good friends Sal and Patty. Its hard to believe that we been coming to Bonaire every year except a few for more than thirty years and thinking back to the early days compared to now its changed quite a bit. Especially this last couple of years the change has picked up rapidly. Development of our sleepy little island is at break-neck speed and on the days when there are cruise ships in port its a mad house! and all this activity is starting take it’s toll on the scuba diving. This year was very noticeable for me for the first time(maybe because I missed last year). Visibility was way down with a lot of sediment in the water column. The corals are suffering large die-offs from a bacterial outbreak on the reefs from a couple of years ago (you can read more here) and the warming waters is putting a lot of stress on the corals that are left. Another side effect of coral loss on reefs is the loss of reef fish and that seemed very noticeable on some of the best dive sites. But all is not lost, we were told that Bonaire has gotten control of the of the die off and if the water temperatures lessen the next couple of years should see some new growth on the reefs hopefully. For this year? I still love diving here. The ease of diving and the ability to shore dive is some of the things that makes this place great. And the life on the reef? I managed to find many of my favorite subjects to photograph and also a first for me. This guy along with a dozen or so others( a favorite of mine in Cozumel, Mexico) was pointed out to me by friends.
This is a Sargassum Triggerfish and they were located on a specific reef at about 130′. What a beauty. And if you want to see more of the subjects I found this year, head over here.
It’s going to be along road to recovery, but I plan on being there every year I can to support it.
While I’m talking about wildlife I’ve added some new pictures to closeout my Florida wildlife 2024 page and also started my Florida wildlife 2025 page, so check them out too. I’ll also be adding a new telephoto lens in the next couple of days, so I can gets some better shots of the wonderful wildlife that Barb and I see on our nature hikes.
And lastly you might have noticed a little difference in the layout of this blog page. I’ve moved my blog from WordPress host to my present website host. The move was a little sudden, so it’s kind of a work in progress at this point, but over the next couple of blog posts I hope to get the site laid out the way I want. If you’re interested in catching up with the the older posts you’ll now be able to use the link “Blog Archives” located on all the main pages to access them. Along with this change, I haven’t figured out how to continue auto email notices on new posts yet. I’ll being doing that manually for now.
Well, I think I’ve said enough for now. I’m a little backed up on topics, so if I can get some free time(This retirement gig is tough!) I hope to get a few more new post out soon. For those of you in the north? stay warm. And for you in the south? stay cool.
Tim
