I just read in this months SCUBA magazine that it is necessary to hire a guide when diving Salt Pier. Is this true? I was there 2 years ago and wanted to, but never did dive Salt Pier. I am definitely going to hit it this July. I had thought you just needed to check with the harbor master to insure no ships were in or due in and once given permission, you could dive the site.

Rich this is part of new international security rules, it looked like divers would lose access completely to Town and Salt piers. Fortunately new procedures have been put in place to allow access. See http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/30/170814.html for more details.

We just got back from Bonaire and we were told that you have to have a divemaster and that it would be $35/diver. This seemed pretty steep since a boat dive only cost $25/diver. It was our first trip to Bonaire and all the shore dives were new to us so we just passed.

Also, only 4 divers to a divemaster.

What if one in your group IS a divemaster? My husband is certified, both PADI and NAUI.

I believe it has to be a local divemaster. My husband is a Master Scuba Instructor, but that didn't make a lick of difference... we still had to hire one of the divemasters on-island.

Last July it was 6 people at a time, because we had to split into 2 groups.

I think since the divemaster's function is to be a "guide" as well as a divemaster, it doesn't matter if there's a divemaster in the group. That's what I was trying to put across earlier...

Also, last October it was 6 people, too.

A local guide is required -- but they don't all charge the same price.

The dive master that ran the shop on site at the place we rented an apartment told us the following: You can go somewhere and set up a trip to the pier or you can dive at the site next to the pier. In saying this he said then you following the proper rules of diving and go into the current to start with (which would lead you to the pier essentially). And then, oh look there is a pier! Well here we are, and we might as well dive it!!!! It was so funny! He was really against having to pay fees to dive the sites though. I guess his reasoning would be ok, however I suggest searching the horizon for any ships that would be coming into the pier. We saw several during our recent trip. So watch out for the boats.

We were given the same advice. So we went diving "next to" Salt Pier recently, and found out that we were not the only ones that spent the last 50 minutes or so of the dive at the Pier ...