This probably seems like a silly question, but...I will be going snorkeling and I was wondering if sharks are a problem. Am I likely to see a shark?

In all years diving in Bonaire (almost 20 yrs), Have only seen a few hammerhead sharks and they were not interested in us but just passed on their way. Nurse sharks could be seen more often long ago but they are not seen much anymore.

I have lived here for 12 years and been in and under the water thousands of times and only say a nurse shark twice. I tend to think it was the same one...

While snorkeling this past January off of Klein we had the good fortune to see a shark. A small one that my eleven year old son identified as a black tip reef shark. He was so scared about a potential run in, but to see his excitement after the encounter was worth the price of the trip and then some!!! All this within the a few minutes of his first snorkeling experience.

We were indeed "fortunate". About 7 years ago we saw an 8' bull shark. Thank goodness we had it on video, because only three other people on our dive saw it, and no one else, including our divemaster, believed it! He told us that in the several thousand dives he had logged on Bonaire, including on the "rough" side of the island, he had never seen one. Never saw one again, though, and it turned out that when we got back on the boat we saw a half-devoured dolphin floating nearby - we guess that was the temptation for our large dive buddy!
Awfully rare to see any sharks at all, though, so shouldn't be a concern!

Assuming you are worried about them, sharks aren't the problem. TV is the problem. Unless sharks are presented as dangerous horrible creatures which will eat man at the sight of one drop of blood, the program won't sell. I have been bitten by more dogs than sharks.

Once at SW Corner we saw 3 black tiped reef sharks at about 100'-120' below us. They started to come up, saw us, and left. As everyone says, sharks are rare on bonaire and generally mind their own business. No problem to snorkelers or windsurfers.

About 1 to 1 1/2 years ago, in the old Newsgroup, somebody posted a message descriving a Whale-shark encounter in front of Sand-Dollar. The author even mentioned having the whole event on video. I canīt remember more details, neither can I guarantee the truth of story.

It was true and Julie Morgan. one of the photo pros at SD has it on tape. The story is that she was shooting a custom video for new divers and they thought it was a common occurance. I missed the whole thing by 5 minutes and did see the video..