With the help of all good BT'ers positive energy making our short atlanta connection happen, we will be arriving Oct 18th for trip #10...the timing looks as though it could be prime for possibly seeing the coral spawning at night..was hoping to get some best guesses from you experts as to which sites you would reccomend to try for this experience...have done night dives on both ends of the island but never this time of the year with this relation to the full moon thanks ahead of time

Monty it is very variable, we have been in the water at La Machaca and seen snow storms of eggs whilst others at Bachelor's Beach and Andrea have seen little and vice versa at the same times. I would go for sites with easy access, it will happen so keep looking for small changes.

Monty - We agree with Brian, there's a bit of luck involved, but you need to hit the water about 9:30 and be around the big mountainous star and boulder corals 25-45 fsw by 9:45. Seems the corals have timers... The entire thing happens in about 10 minutes start to finish, so be alert. Meanwhile lots of other things are happening too - all the reddish-colored brittle stars that you never see otherwise are out and many other critters spawn at various times. Check out the bizarre spawn of the sea cucumbers in the hour before dark!

Monty, you'e from Monroe? One of us (Donna) grew up in Ruston! We arrive on-island Oct 18th too - staying at a house in Belnem (12th trip - usually stay at Don's) with our gang of 7. Flying the Continental red-eye?

Bill-thanks for the great info. that's the kind we were looking for...tell Donna Go bulldogs..staying down the road at Belmar..that's been our home the last 3 trips.love staying on the south side..wish we were doing the redeye, but doing delta out of atlanta with a really short turnaround that am..was 1:38 when booked and changed to :51..do-able,if no problems getting into atlanta hope to see ya'll there

Monty

Have a look at http://habitatbonaire.com/articles/News/2008-Coral-Spawn-and-Love-Our-Planet-Week.aspx for a guide as to what to look for.

We tend to dive at noon for sponges as Bill says look for the sea cucumbers at 17:00 18:00 ish especially if they have climbed onto coral heads or are the Cobra position. We tend to dive until about 23:30 unless things are happening.

Sweet !!!! Looks like our timing is near perfect this year. We will be arriving on Oct 18th, on the Continental red eye from Houston.
Always wanted to see those coral critters makin babies. Staying at Buddy's this year. Perhaps we should have a BT coral spawning dive?

Have seen the ocean full of ostracods on two occasions on Bonaire, was wondering if the timing of the moon also right for them to be about..was truly amazing experience..would be wonderful to have the ocean full of them and be lucky enough to witness the spawn...just might not ever leave

I just stumbled on to this info as a matter of finding out when the spawn was expected. This is great info. I'll be trying to catch it Oct. 11-25. Thanks. Gord from Calgary.