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Diving Bonaire: Low viz...
Bonaire Talk: Diving Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999-2005: Archives - 2002-05-24 to 2002-11-25: Low viz...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruce Kemp on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 2:10 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I love Bonaire. I must, I've been there six times in the last five years. I 'm recently returned from my latest trip. I noticed much lower viz than I've ever seen before on all of the dive sites, north and south. My trip previous to this latest one was 14 months ago. I noticed lower viz then, but the viz was worse this trip.This is all relative-of course- the Florida divers on our trip who had never been to Bonaire before thought the viz was good. My expectations are for something nearer 100'+ viz, the "gin clear" water Bonaire has ben known for. I haven't seen that in a while. Does anyone know why the viz is getting worse?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Matthew Brown on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - 10:22 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I recently made my first trip to Bonaire (7/13-7/20) and was a little disappointed with the visability as well, although the diving was still amazing. According to others who had visited Bonaire many times, the visability was the worst they had ever seen. Some speculated that this was due to an upswell of deeper waters that periodically occurs during July and can drastically reduce visability.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ida Christie on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - 12:35 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well....I sure hope the upwell is gone by August 7th! Gee Weez....
I'm atleast hoping for 60'?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By jason thomas on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - 3:03 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bruce or Matt, what was the diff. is sites from the north and south? Also, what was the best viz in terms of feet by your estimation?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - 3:26 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Ida, 60' at least. It was that in early July. The reefcam pics are typical. There was an upwelling then-- cool water fingers coming all the way up to the top break of the reef and 2 mild thermoclines further down. And, of course, the 'stuff' in the water is plankton so there are lots of plankton feeders about.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruce Kemp on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - 7:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jason- we seached north and south trying to find better viz. Some sites were better than others.I would say generally, the sites in Kralendiyk and north of Kralendiyk had better viz than the southern dive sites. At Red Slave the viz was so bad (15'-20') in shallow at the beginning of the dive that I almost ended the dive and left. Good thing I didn't because the viz did get better at the drop-off and at depth. Don't let the bad viz at your entry spook you off the dive, viz will improve as you go deeper. The viz was erratic and unpredictable. For example, I thought the viz at Karpata and Ol' Blue was better than the viz north of BOPEC and the viz at Margate Bay was better than Vista Blue and much better than Invisibles. I could't see a pattern or figure out why one site was better than another. I would estimate the viz I experienced to be in the 50'-60' foot range. Worse in some places and at shallow depths. I was hoping someone could present the group with some science to explain what's going on. Viz-a-viz the viz, that is. (Sorry)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 7:51 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I am always in the shallows snorkeling and I have found when there is a lot of surge, which I have heard there has been quite a bit lately, the sandy bottoms in the shallows gets all churned up and the visability is affected. If you are looking for something more scientific, I don't have that answer. Of all my trips to Bonaire there was only one trip with not so good visability and that was only for a day or so! The rest of the trip was great! :)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Leif S on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 12:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Pic for viz assessment...

Klein

This was taken 6/20 at Capt. Don's (Klein) looking up at an angle from 60', the dropoff in the distance being at around 20' and reasonably clear (the pic is compressed and thus the viz was actually somewhat better than the pic indicates). A little quick geometry tells me that basic viz on that dive was better than 60', but it got noticably hazy beyond that. The "outer edge" of viz I thought was around 85' - although it was lower at several sites.

I also recall being able to fairly clearly make out the bow of the Hilma Hooker from a point just 5 or so meters shoreward from the crest of the second reef (around where you find the chain that leads across the sandy bottom back to the ship). How far is that?

I observed no distinct thermoclines (even down at 90' at the Hooker), but the water did seem a notch cooler overall than our last trip which was in August 2000.

I concur that viz was about 20-25% lower at depths less than 40 feet - probably from suspended biomass.

Finally, viz at town pier at night was variable; 50+ (or as far as your light would reach) in the open water, but anywhere from 20' to 0' immediately under the pilings due to a parade of divers silting up the whole place...

Would anyone volunteer to fund a Bonaire marine visability research project for the next 12 months or so? I would volunteer to conduct the data gathering!

-LS

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Leif S on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 12:35 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Note on that pic...
It was substantially cropped, too, to fit within the 50kbyte limit. The camera was at about 20' out and down from the person (me) - I was hovering at around 45' at the time. The cropping makes it look like camera and subject were a lot closer to each other than that.

-LS

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruce Kemp on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 2:32 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bonaire's forte is small citters and great coral,sponge etc. The more you look the more you see when you swim slow and look close. From that point of view, seeing 60' or seeing 80' doesn't really matter. Everything looks great up close. Even with reduced over all viz, I still had great dives and really enjoyed Bonaire, as I always do. When I say viz of 50'-60' that's the distance at which I can see things clearly, not as a vague shape that could be anything. You should also know that I have 45 year old eyes! You youngsters will no doubt see things better than I do. Also depth did matter for viz. in the shallows, viz seemed lower as I said and at depth, things seemed darker. That kinda makes sense with a lot of particulates in the water. My interest in the viz situation is strictly academic, in no way will it affect my decision to keep going to Bonaire on a regular basis. One suggestion I've heard is that the heavier than normal rains are causing run off that can cloud the water.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By jason thomas on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 3:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bruce said-

"One suggestion I've heard is that the heavier than normal rains are causing run off that can cloud the water"

What rain?! Its raining in bonaire this time of year? Is it El Nino related... Anyone?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 4:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Maybe one of the resident biologists will chime in and help.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lola B. McClellan on Friday, August 2, 2002 - 10:09 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

We just returned 7/24 - 7/31. We pretty much had rain every morning, we are early risers around 6 am or so and drank our coffee watching the showers. It wouldn't last very long but was heavy several times. Clouds would hover and pass through out the days as well, and that's what we had speculated caused the fuzzy water. Everything was beautiful; however, we had expected the water to be as clear or clearer than our visit to Cozumel last year. It wasn't but then we only snorkel so we weren't down deep.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rio on Friday, August 2, 2002 - 9:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Does anyone have a recent viz rep?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Geoffrey Feldman on Tuesday, August 6, 2002 - 10:50 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

For the best diving, think like a fish.

In Bonaire, bad viz is invariably related to more food and thus paradoxically, more to see. One needs to shift the objective from long vistas to observing behavior.

(In other UW environments bad viz can be related to dredging or sewage outfalls etc., but not Bonaire, bad viz is just part of the natural ocean cycle which we ARE there to observe.)

Susan and I were delighted when we noticed a trunk fish unusually high in the water column selecting these worm like plankton that macroscopically looked like snot, and slurping them up. It really was a high point of the trip! We learned something about trunk fish and had the satisfaction of seeing that they were working at making the viz better.

You might also notice that downstream of a coral head the water is clearer. This is because the coral is eating the goodies. Another feature is that the current is limited by the coral, so the photo ops and ability to stabilize for them are also improved.

I also recommend lights off night diving during bad viz. Turn off the flash lights, give your eyes a chance to adapt and you will still be able to see. That's because all those obnoxious little marine organisims that bug you by day glow in the dark.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bruce Kemp on Tuesday, August 6, 2002 - 5:23 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Geoffrey- good points. I had the pleasure of watching a black and white crinoid feed VERY aggressively on the additional food drifting by. I also saw five coronet fish this trip, which I thought was interesting, because I'd never seen them before off Bonaire. The coronets were very tolerant of my presence, on a night dive I had one approach my dive light instead of swimming away. Also, a tilefish in hunt mode- another first for me! And north of BOPEC, a school of 100 or so barracuda. Every trip to Bonaire- every dive- I see something I've never seen before.

 


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