my first trip to bonaire is in 2 weeks!! are these dive sites still closed??

Yes, they are still closed.

actually a few shops will do Salt. Frank at Belmar/buddy offered to take us this past week but my 13 yr old was too pooped to drag out in the evening. Salt has to be done as night dive.

Also know Toucan will do it

Interesting, was on island beginning of June 7-14, didn't see anyone diving Salt Pier, they must have just started it up again? Will have to look into this with my dive shop on island to see whats up with the pier diving. Thanks for posting, Paul.

What is happining is they are parking and going in at salt city, and swimming out and to the north to get to the south part of the pier. If you park your truck at salt pier area, and enter there, you stand to be charged, and all of your gear,and transpartation conviscated. You can be treated as a terrorest, and deported. So not worth the dive! The Salt, and Town Pier's are closed! IF YOU BREAK THE LAW, YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU GET!!!

Ron,

My friends dove it with Toucan in January, and had permission from the Salt Co. and I discussed that issue with Frank at Belmar and he said same thing, they ok it for evenings just not day when they might be loading.

The Harbor Master gives permission, not the salt co...

whatever, point being you can legally do it now.

I know someone who dove Salt Pier in March with a paid guide thinking it was legal, finding out after the dive it wasn't.

It would be very nice to get the true status of Salt Pier though.

Money rules! There are people(guides)taking divers to salt pier without permission. Make a call to Buddy Dive(main shop)and ask! THE PIER'S ARE CLOSED! Dive at your own risk... Ron

Go to the Harbor Master office, and get it from the horses mouth!

Easy Ron, my friend, easy. Take some deep breaths...in with the good...out with the bad...in with the good...out with the bad...

Folks, you better check and be darn sure you have correct info before you venture to the Salt Pier. Like Ron said, if you're not getting permission from the authority that can bust you for violating the law, you will be breaking the law.

Well said, Smack. I will add to those of you who may not be aware. There was damage done to the Salt Pier from Omar. I know I for one would not want to dive it without knowing IF repairs had been done and also with the proper permission, meaning going to the Harbor Master and inquiring. Safety/Law go hand in hand. I personally don't dive Salt or Town Pier, so haven't really looked into it myself. Will check it out in August when I go and report back on repairs/legalities of it all if someone doesn't do so before then.

You can not legally dive the Salt Pier at the moment. Permission from the Salt Company means nothing. As stated above the Harbor Master needs to give you a written permit and without it your are trespassing in an international harbor. I for one would LOVE it if they start issuing permits again but for now we'll all have to wait.

At our Marine park orientation at Belmar on 6/14/09 we were told permission could be obtained for a guided night dive at Salt Pier but we did not try it.

Maybe someone from Belmar can shed some light on the situation? My information might be outdated.

we love diving salt pier, day or night. hope they reopen it soon. in april i had heard from two different people (both business owners on bonaire) that both piers were open but i never saw anything in writing.

There are (at least) three layers of law concerning diving (or access in general)in/to international harbor area's. 1/access must comply with ISPS code 2/access must be granted by national and local authorities and 3/ by the owner of the property, which might be private. In the case of Bonaire's Salt Pier, South and North Pier national and local authorities do not grant authority because of, among other reasons, the damage done by Omar, as the damage might pose a safety concern, whereas South Pier has always legally been off limits to diving. There is no telling if or when local and/or national authorities change current policy. Until any change is implemented, diving under the aforementioned piers IS ILLEGAL. As said in previous posts you will need a written and stamped permission (timed and dated) among other rules. Since these are not issued, present permits are forgeries (SP?). Oh well, that leaves "only" 90 something legal dive sites, some 50! or so, free of addittional charges such as for guiding or boat. Bummer!! HA!!!

phone number harbormaster: 00599-7178151

Bas and Bart, as usual, thank you for the correct information. I know there are a lot of other dives, but Salt is one of my favorites...it's magical to me

Now, this is just me blowing my mouth off, but, I doubt they will ever open diving back up to the piers...I bet it's a PITA for the harbormaster to do all that paperwork so folks can dive there...again, this is just my "theory." ;-)

one of the major reasons for closing the piers is that they are international and were closed after 9/11 in accordance with international laws. even as a tour guide i have had to get special security clearance and I.D. to be on the piers.

Pietri, I think we all know about that, particularly those of us that have been around prior to 9/11, and have dove the pier many times.

Pietri, Thanks for taking the time to post the information that you did! I'm quite sure there are many people that read this board that were not aware that guides have had to get special security clearance and I.D. to be on the piers... SLAP!!!

O.K. hope to shed some light on this subject. We dove the Salt Pier last week on a guided twilight dive. This was offered through the dive shop we are using on the island. We had to sign up and wait 24-48 hours for everything to be processed. We could have done a night dive however we chose the twilight dive. This was one of the coolest dives we have ever done. Our information is that you have to have a guided tour and the Harbour Master has the final authority to approve the dive.

I have a cool photo of a basket star from this dive to post as well but I can't figure out how to post a picture.

however, we dove them legally a number of times post-9/11. yes, the restrictions were stricter. we had to sign up at the dive shop and supply our passport numbers etc. but we could still dive them. only since omar have they been closed to diving. it just seems strange that salt ships can tie up to the salt pier and cruise ships can tie up at town pier but the excuse given divers is that the piers might be unstable because of damage from omar.

if, as jb has just posted, the piers are now open to diving i hope the word gets out so divemasters can start taking people there again. it's a great dive and also a good source of extra income for the divemasters who lead the dives on their own time.

Pat the only pier that is open is the Salt Pier. No option to dive the Town pier is available and from what we were told it will be some time before Town pier will re-open. Apparently a lot of wires/cables broke loose during Omar venturing this site "very dangerous" to divers. It will take some highly skilled divers trained in that type of work to clear the site. At least that was the information we were told. The structures around the Salt Pier are very stable and full of colorful sponges.

Has repairs "been" done to the Salt Pier, jb?

thanks jb...IMHO, salt pier is a better dive anyway.

"No option to dive the Town pier is available and from what we were told it will be some time before Town pier will re-open. Apparently a lot of wires/cables broke loose during Omar venturing this site "very dangerous" to divers. It will take some highly skilled divers trained in that type of work to clear the site. At least that was the information we were told." JB

I am not debating that we are "told" the site is too dangerous to dive after Omar. I am questioning the truth of that statement. If conditions were so dangerous at the town pier after Omar why was the Wannadive staff and volunteers allowed to clean up garbage at the site and reattach various sponges to the pillars afterwards??

Read the story in the Bonaire Reporter from the Nov 7 edition.

http://bonairereporter.com/news/008pdfs/11-07-08.pdf

I am curious how this story can be reconciled with the current reasoning for prohibiting diving at the pier.

Any thoughts?

The clean up was done right after Omar, before any real assessment was done. Unfortunately, we may have contributed to the closure, although the goal of the clean up was to repair the damage, and keep the pier open. At the request of Robby St Jago, we reported what we saw under the pier, the report itself the reason why we were allowed to dive there at all. I can tell you that a lot of wiring was dangling underneath, and at the spot where the pier was attached to the shore, there was a lot of structural damage. To find out what the exact status is, for all piers: 00599-717-8151, ask for Mr St Jago or Mr Abrahams

Thanks Bart. That explains it.

Who assessed the structural integrity of the Salt Pier after Omar?

Kevin,
I suppose the owner, Cargill, did that, or had that done, or simply found out the hard way. You know, dock the boat, pier starts wobbling, that kind of stuff. I called the harbormaster (Mr Abrahams) today as well as the salt company (Mrs st Jago, apparently there are three St jago's working there :-). Both of them said the piers are officially closed, while at the same time they know people are sometimes diving under them, but both said it is illegal to dive there right now. Major work is apparently scheduled for the town pier. Not only just repairs but also an extension. Hard to find out what's up exactly. At the Salt Pier I have seen crews working on the structure above the water line. Mrs St Jago said that work will be finished relatively soon, within some weeks. FYI

Thanks again for the info Bart.

Interesting...
I just returned from Bonaire and conducted a night dive at the Salt pier with a Dive master from Capt Dons on 9th of July. When we arrived at the Pier there was already another dive group suited up and entering the water.