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Snorkeling Bonaire: Snorkeling/freediving trip report Mar. 6th-15th
Bonaire Talk: Snorkeling Bonaire: Archives: Archive 2001- 2007: Archives - 2006-03-01 to 2006-12-31: Snorkeling/freediving trip report Mar. 6th-15th
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By subaqua (BonaireTalker - Post #32) on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 10:25 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Just back from our 1st trip to bonaire. Bonaire is a freedivers/snorkelers and I'm sure.. divers paradise! drop off is within 100' of the shore or so it seemed everywhere except Lac Bay. My wife being a snorkeler and with an ear that limits her to about -12' or so it worked out great as from the shore to the drop was usually gradual slope to 20-35'. Good corals seemed to usually start around 15-20' and with a 12' limit she was still able to get a good look at the color and variety of the shallower corals. Northern sites had the best corals in the shallowest waters for my wife to see. Vis from the surface was around 60' most of the time but vis to the fish was maybe 40' or so..maybe more. The day we did the Hilma Hooker vis was at least 90' but the sand contrasting the deep may have helped. The hilma was a great freedive as we saw our first bait ball there!! It just hovered over the ship for a long time. Easily seen from the surface by my wife also so vis had to have been good. We had so many good sightings.. some rare I understand for Bonaire.. nurse shark, octopus, and 4 turtles at Lac Bay (Lac Bay is a very shallow snorkel.. 6' max inside the reef and a very loooooooong swim and walk through the windsufing traffic lane in less than 3' of water out to the reef). Tarpon and several small lobster near Eden Beach on a night snorkel. Several Scorpion fish at different southern locations.. Hilma & Red Slave. A dead reef shark where the kite boarders fly. Small eels at almost every site, several smaller green morays and several very large ones also at different sites. the morays are there if you just take the time to look under the ledges in the shallows.. The huge bait ball with tuna/bar jacks? doing the feeding... they sure looked like tuna.. at the Hilma Hooker. We saw so many more fish I need a book to name them all and if I did this report would be twice as long. filefish, angels, trumpets, flounders, triggers, parrots, etc., etc., etc., etc.. What a treat!!
The ledge and the drop off is just great with live corals, super color, wife and I were so impressed.. We had currents only the 1st day we were in the water right off Eden Beach, after that it was difficult to decide what might be up current because the currents were so weak. What a pleasure for freediving Bonaire compared to the stuff we've done in Mexico where we go off the shore at one angle against the current, swim forever to get to deep water, and then swim against the current forever to get back to the entry point because now you're a mile down stream.
Although the corals in the shallows must have taken quite a beating in the past as was evident by the broken up corals and dead corals, it seems to be re-growing. The number and variety of fish we saw made up for the damaged shallows.. I only wish my wife was able to do the deeper stuff as I was able to. I did talk her into doing a resort dive just to go and have a look...(her ears work while scubadiving, just not while trying freediving) her response... "It was nice to see so many corals up close in one area, but I really didn't see any thing that I haven't seen snorkeling" She thought she saw more fish and more rare fish while snorkeling too.
We looked and looked for the elusive seahorse.. didn't find one.. good. We'll have to come back and try again!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lorraine Meadows (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #998) on Sunday, April 9, 2006 - 9:20 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

For years we looked for a seahorse by ourselves and finaly asked a divemaster and took us right to one.Seahorses are so good at the camaflodge(sp)thing.
Glad to hear you had a great time.

 


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