My wife and I will be coming back to Bonaire in January, and we are wondering if anyone has spotted any flying gurnards on any of the shore drives? This is my wife's favorite fish and the only place we ever saw them was in Dominica.

Hey Bill..I saw one. I think I may have been very lucky though!
I was at about 80 feet and it was well below me..."flying" in and out of the formations..I never got a picture because it was deeper than I was willing to go....but it was very pretty.
Everyone I've talked to say they have never seen them there but I am certain that is what it was!

Dive in the area of salt city, invisible, tori's reef and if it's your lucky day, you will run into one. (happy diving)

I seem to recall them flying through the air, skimming the waves, on boat rides out to Klein a few trips back.

Tom sorry to disappoint you, but what you were seeing were just flying fish.

That may well have been.
Last Klein boat trips were in 2002, just shore dives last time.
But don't confuse the Flying Gurnard with the SandDiver...

We've seen them on evening dives, usually over sandy areas. Not often, and long ago ('95 & '96), 1st 2 outta our many trips to Bon, but lotsa other very cool critters!
The miles of garden eels at the sandy base of Something Special......awesome. (say Hey to the web cam there)

Happy "hunting"

http://www.oceanfootage.com/stockfootage/Flying_Gurnard

At home here Nova Scotia, the dives are littered with sea robins

I've been diving for over ten years and my wife 5 years and we now love to hunt the smaller more old ball creatures. I've seen so many turtles that I barely look at them when people point them out. Give me a cool frog fish, blenny, pipe fish, jaw fish or tiny shrimp and I'm happy as a clam.

What's the oddest fish that you have all seen in Bonaire?

Also, my favorite fish is the juvenile yellowtail damselfish. I know they are common, but I can't help smiling whenever I see one. That was the first fish I saw that took my breath away and got me into diving. But I wish the bloody things would stay still for one moment so I can get a good picture of one in order to hang on our wall of fish back home! Between my wife and I, I think we have taken over 1000 digital photos of the buggers and we still haven't gotten a good one yet. We have awesome pictures of other stuff like whale sharks, squids and octopus, but not this guy.

Web Burrfish and Harlequin pipefish are two of the strangest I've seen on Bonaire. One sighting each.

Aquaman

Black Brotula.... very strange little fish (3"). Fav juvenile...... trunk fish fav fish....changes every dive!

I snorkel and Back in 95, Renee from Renee Snorkel Trips found me a Flying Guarnard in the shallows somewhere around Yellow Submarine and I got a photo. But I do think they are a rare find in Bonaire.



The most odd fish is the Unicorn Filefish that was the first one ever spotted in Bonaire and I spotted it!!! There was an article and the not so good picture that I took in the Bonaire Reporter. It was also in the sandy flats that same year.

I forgot about the Black Brotula that Jake had taken me to see in the little cave at Small Wall back several years ago

Barry:

Got a pic of the Black Brotula that you can post?

No, but Jake had some good ones.

Jake has the best pics I've see of them....ever. They're in the archives here, were posted Feb 26/01 by Linda........or, google black brotula, and the BT thread with these pics will come up.

Thanks Brenda! I had to camp out in a small cave at 60' with a 6' green moray to get those :-)

The pictures of the brotulas are here:

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/30/2819.html

Linda and I once (maybe 9 years ago?) saw a flying gurnard on a clean-up dive off of the area near Yellow Submarine (then, Green Submarine) too.

I also saw baby queen triggerfish in the shallows on a clean-up dive once. They are extremely rare in any size on the leeward side of Bonaire, although less rare on the windward side.

Jake

The first time I took my wife to Bonaire, she had just gotten us digital cameras and was happy taking pictures of everything. A large black bull shark went by and she was all set to chase after it for some close ups. I had to hold her back and let her know those aren't the fish you want to get close to. About 2 minutes later a school of dolphins went by overhead. I guess they were chasing the shark away. That being said, other than nurse sharks, we haven't spotted any other sharks in Bonaire.

Thanks Jake for re-posting link. Absolutely stunning. If people knew how hard these little 1's are to find,,,,,,,,leta alone......... shoot...... Frogfish? seahorse?,,,,,,ha!! At least they stay still once found! These guys,,,,, like trying to shoot a flea!! Human has a blog on(the 1st) thread of that google search,,,,,,took him 5 yrs!! My siting, I was a newbie (32 dives, no cam, blind luck, that I found it), sooo long ago. Spotted a couple over at Cur, 1 at Saba since. And no, no acceptable, never mind brilliant shot(s)! Hats off to you, Bre