I have heard about the new regulations for diving Town Pier but, I have not heard anything about diving Salt Pier. Any information would be greatly appreciated as it is/was one of my most best dives.

Thanks!

Hi Shannon,

Yes, but, you have to dive with a divemaster and with permission of the Harbormaster. We are going down in September and staying at Buddy Dive. I emailed them to ask and that was their response. Of course, we have to pay for the dive master's time but, we probably will because we love diving the Salt Pier.

Renea

We dove the salt pier about 5 years ago and did have to get the harbormasters permission (I assume to make sure there were no ships due, we were given a time frame of about 2 hours) but weren't required to have a divemaster present. Is this something relatively new? We are looking at a Feb trip and definitely want to do the pier again, it's a cool and interesting dive.

We dove Salt Pier last week, and yes, you need BOTH permission and a local divemaster. Also, he was allowed to only take 6 at a time so our group had to split it into 2 dives. But it was awesome!!!

Aha. Checking a previous post on diving the piers, with a security aspect in mind, it does make sense. Being a logical person with a mind toward doing no harm to wildlife, habitat or others possesions, it did not occur to me that there might be a security aspect. So, we go with a divemaster, no problem there.

What about snorkeling the piers?

Bud

I can understand needing someone at the pier due to security concerns. I wonder if anyone has thought of posting a Marine Park officer at the site to check ID's and gear of the people going in and out of the water. If you are not taking any "foreign" objects into the water you can dive.

Just a thought....

Too bad terrorism has impacted such a beautiful place as Bonaire.

Sorry, but I just can't agree in any way that it makes sense to have these new restrictions at the Salt Pier. I believe the reason was to protect foreign ports from terrorism originating from ships in Bonaire. I really can't imagine what kind of device terrorist would bother with that could stay under sea water for days waiting for a ship to tag onto just to blow up a cargo boat carrying salt.

I suspect in order to protect diving the piers, the port officials were required to go through the motions and show they have some type of plan. While I agree that these dives should be made available to protect Bonaire's tourism I don't think we should just sit back and agree that it makes sense.

OK, maybe I'm taking it too seriously and eventually it will all blow over with a don't ask don't tell policy.

My personal opinion is that I sure wish the local authorities would pay as much attention to the escalating crime issue as much as they do to all the red tape involved for diving the piers. Just MHO.

I'll second that!

Ditto about the escalating crime. My group of 16 is leaving for Bonaire this Saturday and we'll be using rental vehicles. It's tough having to explain to them that they can't leave anything in their trucks, and that they'll be financially liable if locals vandalize the vehicles.
Still, I can't wait to get there See you soon everyone! Robyn

Kelly,

You hit the nail on the head. The Bonaire officials are saying they will watch the piers 24/7 but, the police can't respond to a break in within 2 hours. Sad....

When we were there (Oct-Nov 2003) we could dive at the salt pier, WHENEVER the PINK BUS (Dive Bus) was parked there (If I remember correctly mostly on wednesdays??)

These guys have an overall permit for diving at that location, WHENEVER THEY ARE THERE!! Ask them about this, as you are all permitted to dive when they are parked there. Complimentary service, I suppose :-)

Grtz

michael

Michael

There are new rules for Town and Salt Pier, but you can still dive them by pre-arrangement with your local dive operator. They will explain what is required and this has to be done in advance.

The good news is that by getting the extra permission it keeps these dive these sites open. The other option was that they would close.

Full details are on http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/30/170814.html?1089741102

Brian - six and a half weeks to go.