The Bonaire E-News is trying to compile a list of all the fish found on Bonaire, which we understand to be over 350. However, in searching on-line, the best we could come up with in terms of a published list are the 264 species listed below (courtesy of REEF and the computer skills of frequent Bonaire visitor, Bill Brittain). If everyone could please review the list below and let us know (via a post) if they've seen other fish not listed by REEF's volunteers, we'd appreciate it.

In reviewing the above list, several less common fish we've recently seen (but which are not listed above) include:

• Flat Needlefish
• Flying Gurnard
• Southern Sennet

We've seen the Manytooth Conger Eel several times, a large school of Ladyfish, hovering goby, blue goby, orangeback bass, marbled grouper juvenile, and the Molly Miller and Hairy Blenny. All of these species were photographed in Bonaire and are included on ReefNet Software's ReefSeries Vol 1. (The exception to that is the Manytooth Conger eel picture which was taken somewhere else.)

You have a resident expert on the island, have you asked Dee Scar? I'm sure she could help this list grow by leaps and bounds!

Patti Chandler

Hi Patti,

Betcha can't wait to come down this summer, eh? :-)

Asking Dee would be taking the easy way out!

You've just added 8 to the list. Puts us up to 274...

See you soon!

Jake

how about a Broadbanded Moray and Sargassum Triggerfish? My wife got several great pictures of the Broadbanded Moray at Something Special on a night dive a couple of years back. Sargassum Triggerfish can be seen down south around Margate.

I found a Shortfin Pipefish at Oil Slick and a Pork fish at Salt Pier.
Jessie Armacost

I e-mailed Jerry Ligon (Sand Dollar) since he is working quite a lot with REEF and getting people in the water diving and snorkeling for Fish ID. He offered to get me the list for the Netherlands Antilles area and cross off the handful of fish not found (yet!) in Bonaire's waters. Once I have the information, we will post it. REEF is also going to be on island running a week long series of seminars in June so we hope to get more divers reporting in those rare sightings.

Hi Jake,

Your right - I can't wait!!!!!

I've gone over the list again and found a few more species we've seen that aren't on it. We've seen a nurse shark (Washington Park), bigeye scad (Town Pier), the flameback angelfish (off Sunset Beach Hotel), and the roughhead triplefin blenny (Invisables). I appreciated the fact that others included where they saw specific fish so I put it in too.

Bad news though, your Southern Sennet are already on the list.

See you in 21 days!

Patti Chandler

Another species to add to your list of Bonaire sightings is the Short-nosed Batfish. I spotted one while returning across the sandy area to the ramp after a night dive at Town Pier in January,1997. Even got a reasonably good photo. First and last time I ever saw one, but I suppose that is why it is considered uncommon.

By the way, kudos for running a great bulletin board.

One of the newsgroup readers sent me an email asking where the sharks and rays were. I will be emailing and asking about the island for confirmed sightings and these will be added to the new Fish ID list that I posted this morning.

On another note - this same reader asked about the 'other critters' mentioned in this conversation header like dolphins, crabs, squid, etc. I'll start putting together a list of these other denizens of the reef that snorkelers or divers might see.

Dolphins and Whales

I just got in a scientific report about the local cetaceans of the ABC islands. Total of 13 confirmed species.

The most common whales are Bryde's Whale and the shortfin pilot whale. The most common dolphins are the spinner and bottlenose.

The other cetaceans are:
Goosebeak whale
striped dolphin
pantropical spotted dolphin
sperm whale
melonhead whale
killer whale
Antillean beaked whale
humpback whale
dwarf sperm whale

Info from the Caribbean Journal of Science, Vol 34, No. 3-4, 204-210, 1998