A few months back, while talking with some of my old students who had been to Bonaire, they casually mentioned that while there, they took in a brief Fish ID course, received a small Fish ID kit then volunteered some time for the same place that did the Free Fish ID course. Does anyone know who runs this service. We will be there in March and would like to help out and get some firsthand fish knowledge while there !

See either

Jerry Ligon at Bonaire Dive & Adventure
http://www.bonairediveandadventure.com/

or Linda Baker at Carib Inn
http://www.caribinn.com/ID%20Courses.html

Both offer fabulous courses.

go to www.fishid.com
they also have a curriculum on fish id.
I used it in marine bio class and was excellent.
bud

We took Linda Baker's basic fish id course a few years back. It was great. We spent some time in the morning reviewing on a computer her list of the 60 most commone fish on Bonaire. This made it easier for us to recognize them. Then we did a dive with her, and she spotted 59 of the 60 in a single one hour dive at the Lake. So many of these fish had been right in front of me and I had missed them.

The following years we did intermediate and then blennies and gobies. She is a knowledgeable, and kind and funny teacher.

I wonder if the part where they 'volunteered some time for the same place that did the Free Fish ID course' was part of the R.E.E.F. ongoing fish count program. Jerry Ligon would be a good person to ask about that; BD&A, as the then Sand Dollar Dive & Photo, was the pioneer with that program on Bonaire.

My wife and I took the course with Jerry Ligon at BDA/Sand Dollar. I recommend taking it early in your trip. We took it only two days before we left and had little time to put our new knowledge to work.

Jerry at BDA , great course, even taught me some new ones.