My wife and I are coming to Bonaire the last week of January. We would like to dive the Salt Pier. (The last time we were in Bonaire, there was a ship docked at the pier the whole time) Does anyone have information on who to contact and how to inquire of the ship docking schedule. And any other helpful hints on diving Salt Pier would be appreciated.

Talk to your Bonaire dive shop. They will confirm when it is safe and legal to dive the Salt Pier (you need permission from the harbor master). Alternatively, you can dive the pier when the Dive Bus is there (see http://www.divebus.com for the schedule).

Jake

I think hands down one of the best dives!!! Last time we watched a HUGE hawksbill turtle munching on sponges for at least 30 minutes. He (she) couldn't've cared less that we were there. Very cool. Billions of fish. Although we haven't had a chance to yet, I think this would be an incredible night dive. Ask the dive co. to call the harbour master--if no ship is scheduled in then no problem.
PS--watch your kit when getting close to the pilings for those macros--the pilings sorta come at you from different angles and it would not be hard to start bumping into fragile stuff behind you.
We liked the small sandy beach just south of the pier (there's a shed there and a fishing boat or two) for entry.
Have fun!

Really Jamie, south of the pier? We have always gone in from the north side, and yes, it can be a pretty great night dive.

Salt Pier is fantastic as a night dive. On our last trip we dove it in daylight; assuming permission was not an issue since another group was just exiting as we arrived. Later we jumped in again directly beneath the pier just as the sun was setting. 15 minutes into the dive the pier's light came on, casting an extra glow and adding eerie shadows to the water. Even though one of our two lights had failed at the top of the profile (batteries!), we had no reason to abort because we still had one good light cannon and could not possibly get lost due to the regular interval of the angled pilings. Even had both lights gone out, a safe ascent and exit would not have been a problem. One never knows what can be seen under the pier... on our day dive it was the usual daytime parrots, angel and trunkfish, but at night we witnessed barracuda and tarpon, a calvacade of trumpets and coronetfish and a gaggle of silky sharptail eels in the open, shallow sand. Next time I plan on spending some time "lights off".

My preferred course is entering from one of the coral ledges directly under the pier, kicking out to just north of the pier about 2/3 of the way to the pier-end, descending (at an angle down the slope) and traversing south against the mild current along the pier-end (about 60-70 ft is as deep as one needs to go). Then we navigate slowly (and carefully) back through the east/west arcade of pilings (around 50-30ft), finally exiting just north of the pier.

-LS

Yeah, spending lights out time will show you many wonderous things. I have never gone one a night dive without at least two lights; I find smaller lights to be more than bright enough, and I often hold my fingers over the front of the light and use them as a douser.Then critters don't run away (as fast)at your approach.
Sometimes you can flash your light over the reef and turn it off, and see endless chains of phosphors training upwards in the water, we've spent over an hour doing this by now, we originally thought it was site or time specific but have found otherwise.

The pink bus parks at Salt Pier on Thursdays when there is not a ship coming in. So, if you go down that way on Thursday and the bus is there, jump in.

thursday is my normal travel day...we may have to "get" them to change the schedule...maybe switch the day with the windsock stop...



does sound like a cool dive and i have heard it is a good dive for photography...

we'll see

Randall,


If you get a chance to dive the pier at night I highly recommend it. We've done it both night and day and there are some significant differences. There's a large light on the pier itself that shines down into the water attracting fish. It's still pretty dim, but visibility is decent.

On the swim out look for a smallish coral lump about halfway out-it's in about 10' of water directly underneath the structures. There are some interesting fish that hang out there and we were fortunate enough to see 2 octopus using it for a home.

At night we saw a spotted eagle ray (BIG female) and small schools of Barracuda. You'll need to shine your lights back up at the surface to see them if you're down near the bottom. Also, the cup coral on the pilings is out at night (not during the day).

One thing I recommend ahead of time is to carefully study the structure from the surface before you go out. The pier isn't actually a 'T' shape, it's got some funny angles to it. It can cause some problems navigating at night if you assume one heading will take you straight out under the structure running parallel to the shore. I diagrammed it out on a dive slate and it was a giant help.

Have a great trip, I can't even begin to express the depths of my Post-Bonaire Depression.

Cheers,

Michael

Thanks to everyone for the info on Diving 'Salt Pier' I sure hope we get an opportunity on this trip. Only 20 days and counting and we will return to Bonaire for an all too short week,

Randall

well, i suppose because it is a pier, finding a lot of trash at the site may be pretty much par for the course - in another thread the site is even referred to as a "dump" ...i keep seeing references for this pier being a great photo dive, a great night dive...really am just gonna have to see for myself...

Trash = Habitat

Indeed, Bob, the debris field under the pier is different from what we see at most of Bonaire's sites (although the Town Pier is quite a bit "uglier" by comparison). On the other hand, the human debris mixed into the coral-populated shelf adds to the richness of the site IMHO. It has become part of the habitat. I can't count how many spotted morays we spied curled up in the occassional discarded tire. Boxfish tended to camp out at night in the protective cover of metal frames of various sizes. Peering into the ends of scattered pipes can reveal shy juveniles - from graceful Spotted Drums not more than a finger's length from tip to tail to the angel varieties still in their early color stages.

-LS

And the fact that the trash eventually becomes habitat is why a lot of this stuff is still there, despite all the cleanup dives and such. If a moray has moved into the old tire, then to remove the old tire removes the moray's home, and that's not nice for the moray. And morays seem to -love- old tires! So before you can remove a piece of trash from under the pier, you have to decide whether or not it has become home for something first. Is it still shiny and new? or is there a crab sitting at the mouth of that bottle looking fierce and trying to stare you down? The answer determines whether it can be considered trash anymore...

Faith

I am always amused at the people who complain about junk under Town Pier that is teeming with critters. Of course, you do have to look for them