We have begun to plan a dive trip to Bonaire for July (staying at Buddy Dive). My dream is to see a seahorse while there.

Any hints on where to look?

I've just started reading BT and learn lots of everytime. Thanks for all the good info!


JoAn

JoAn, go on a boat dive, and let the DM know that you want to see a sea horse...most of the time they will find one for you...or, you can ask around if any have been seen at shore dive sites. At the drive through station at Buddy's, they have a chalk board, and if you site something unusual (like a turtle, frogfish, seahorse) you post it on the board. Last July, I saw a turtle AND frogfish on my check out dive at Buddys!

2 years ago, we heard that there were 2 black seahorses at Oil Slick, it took 20 minutes of searching in the area described where they were, and Michael found them...you have to look HARD to find them...enjoy your trip!

I echo Cynde. Ask the DM. If you're diving without an instructor or DM, you will have a tough time finding them as they are very hard to see. We lucked out on our dive to Karparta. We were just finishing our dive when someone by the mooring buoy motioned to us to come over. I couldn't believe how small it was. What a thrill! But I was out of film. Rats!!!! Good Luck and have a blast!

JoAn
On our last visit my wife and I were able to see some amazing creatures. We are just snorkelers and when we would hook up with our dive friends at night they couldn't believe that we were able to find many more "rare" sightings than they had. My wife has an amazing amount of patience and visual dicipline; more than most people we've explored with. On our own we came across several different eels, peacock flounders, cleaner shrimp, a lobster seeking shelter under a rock cave with just his antena sticking out, an octopus and squid. On our second to last day we booked a guided tour with Toucan Dive at Plaza and let them know the two things we wanted to see, turtles and seahorses. At our first stop our tour guide found a gold colored seahorse on a gorgonian in 15' of water(Ebo's) and we were able to free dive and see it very well, and at our second stop there were 3 hawkbill turtles. Needless to say, no promises were made that they would be able to find our goals but they tried very hard and we could not have been happier......

Three days until departure..........

God I'm Ready

Big Ed

JoAn,

Here's a seahorse that calls Oil Slick Leap home.

JoAn,
Last March we hired Jackson from Toucan Divers to guide our night dive at Town Pier. He led us to a family of 3 seahorses.

They're very hard to spot, so I say ditto to the advice in the above posts. Ask the divemaster in advance to point them out to you.

Good luck! Robyn

Jo An,

There are two beauties to be seen on the Town Pier dive, I went with Eddie from Photo tours for a night dive to this wonderful spot.
Believe me if you want to see the cool little stuff go with Eddie, he's really great at searching out critters. He found us a frog fish ( there are two who make the pier home) a pair of reef lobsters ( the female was fanning eggs, so maybe by July there will be little ones?) and even a turtle! It was a great dive! On a later dive he found a juvenile french angel about the size of your thumbnail in the same area as the seahorses.Pretty exciting stuff!

A note of advice... if you're gonna do a night dive at Town Pier, try to go a little later in the evening, as it won't be so crowded with divers.

Enjoy! Julie

Beautiful pic of the seahorse!

Diver Debbi found it for me in @ 25' of water. She's the best at finding neat things.

I found my first seahorse at Salt Pier, but I've already posted that image once before.

There is a 6" yellow seahorse that live at about 53' between Eden Beach and Sunset Beach. Talk to the guys at WannaDive. They can tell you where he is. Supposed to be a second one there but we did not find it.

thanks for all the great info! We are planning to do some boat dives, so will definitely let the DMs know of my interest early in the week.

Sure wish it was weeks away, rather than months :-(

JoAn

Best bet is to ask the DM. They typically know where they hang out and have an eye for them. If you're like me, and don't dive Bonaire or even tropical very often you won't have an 'eye' for them. Seahorses, and frogfish are downright hard to spot for the average diver. They blend in so well with the environs. I was in Bonaire in december. Just to give you an idea, in 21 dives totalling 21 hours, we saw just 4 seahorses, and 3 frogfish. Of the seahorses, 3 of the 4 were found by DM's. Of the frogfish 2 of the 3 were found by DM's. In other words, as travelling divers to Bonaire we found only 1 seahorse ourselves and 1 frogfish ourselves in a full week of diving, which was somewhat disappointing. Still, I would go back to Bonaire tomorrow if I could, it is that beautiful, and everyone is very friendly.
bw