Good morning bter's. It is a nice bright sunny day here so far, and quite mild too. Makes a person feel cheeful does that.

The sun is rising on Bon. It's gonna be a nice day.

goodmorning all my father and mother be and dineke are arived in bonaire they stay for two monthes have a nice holiday in our house greetings mark and esther emmen holland

Hello,

I have been soaking in all the neat threads from the webcam, and I don't know if I can wait till June, but I guess I'll have to. Where is the reef camera located, I would love to say hi to all my family and friends back here in Texas.

More info would be awesome!

Yissak

The reef cam is at the dive site called Small Wall. It is a boat dive because the shore is alll private residences. The street cam and beach cams are at Jake Richter's house, on Kaya Rotterdam, a little north of Kralendijk.

Hi Marisa,

Are you going to DiveFest? or another week?

Good afternoon everyone. Looks like sparkles on the water.

and a little rain....

And a little Fish. Hi Ida.

More exactly, the WEBCams are at Kaya Rotterdam #2, this street is a sidestreet of the Kaya Gobernador N. Debrot. From Kralendijk it is in the direction North, pass all the big diving resorts (Buddy Dive a.s.o.), pass the Electricityplant, second road on the left, just after the Divers Paradise appartments. It's the first house in the Kaya Rotterdam, you can see paintings on the wall, about the webcams.
Don't forget to wave and laugh to the camera!

Harrie

Don't know anything about that, info would be great. I will be staying at the Plaza, for the last week of June well more likely, the 28th thru the 5th of July! My boyfriend and I are so excited. We are just going by ourselves and we want to know all there is to know! I am sure I'll go by there to say hello.

We are both very outgoing, young me 26 and him 28, we have been dating alomst a year and our first trip was to Grand Cayman, now we want to expierience so much more. Tell where all I have to go and what I just have to do.

I would like to say hi to all my friends and familys back in Texas at one of the cams when we get there.

P.S have you ever seen anything crazy with the cams.


Yissa

very little that is not crazy

check out the year in review that is under the "everything else" section...just won't believe your eyes

mornin' all...hey kevin, are you and claire going back in June?

Marisa,

Details on where all the cams are located, including information on how to find them, can be found at http://www.bonairewebcams.com/FAQ.php

Jake

Yep, we're planning to go the 21st to the 29th, right after divefest. I'm looking at staying at BelMar they got a nice 2 for 1 dive deal. Just waiting on Air Jamaica to get their schedule finalized.

Marisa, If you go to www.bonaire.org you can get information on Divefest. I believe it's the 14th to the 20th.

Hey Jake, any turducken sightings? Man we had fun at your party. By the way , Claire's doing great and her hair grew back just fine.

Jake, One more question. Did the octopus steal the red filter again?

Diver sightings

What are they doing

Those were two jerks wearing gloves, lying down all over the live coral (never mind kicking it and kneeling on it too). Their goal was apparently to pound two stakes with loose rubble into the ground so they could attach a sign no one can read, and then leave it there as garbage to be collected. If anyone hears about these two schmucks bragging about this endeavour, please let me and the Bonaire Mark Park know, as they violated several rules during their adventure.

One of them had a shirt with the word "MDAD" across the top. Not sure about the other (he did have a t-shirt with a big design across the front and bright yellowish fins). They dove from shore (not from the boat moored at Small Wall at present) to get to the ReefCam.

Sigh.

Jake

Damage

Some people are just so inconsiderate. Annie B.

Some more divers.

Kevin,

The Dive Festival info is not at the Web addres you mentioned (which belongs to someone not related to Bonaire). Look at http://www.infobonaire.com/divefestival03.html instead.

As far as turducken goes - last sighting was about 4 weeks ago when we thawed frozen leftovers from Thanksgiving (Thanks Kay!) :-)

See you soon!

Jake

And I bet they're so proud of themselves, too -- I bet they show up in front of your house too, Jake.

You bet Jake,

How did everyone recover after that devastating storm last summer? The one that knocked out power and phones. I remember watching it on the NOAA satellite images before it hit.

K

I can't believe it they left the sign down there, They should be fined! That is called littering, get them off the island. Check their pockets, I am sure if they did something that stupid, then they probably took something for a memeory. Hoefully their memory can be a bad one when they get caught.

This disturbs ME!

yissa

issa...i agree...i hope that someone from one of the dive ops recognizes them and pulls the plug on their air fills. such disregard for the landscape...

Would be nice to identify these losers - I'll know more when I go out tomorrow morning for a long overdue ReefCam cleaning and sign removal dive...

Kevin - I'm not sure about a devastating storm, but our Internet connection was out for about a day or two. Power was out for a few hours. Not much more than that...

Jake

jake, hopefully the jerks will have put either their names, or club name...that will make it easy...oh, and a nice dive report would work wonders for those of us desk bound

family picture bluetang???

yes bob, aren't we beautiful!

Hmmmm, maybe we should start another thread "Plan To Kill the Retarded Divers on Bonaire"...
Sorry, had 2 vent...

Igor...big difference between stupid and retarded.(We're trying to raise funding for the Special Olympics on Bonaire!) No excuse for those guys doing somsething so stupid.

Wish I were here....

Stupid sign still there....blocking our view of Smokey the Rock. Rusty won't like that. Bet she can think of some choice words for those divers and their sign......

well,

we all know the rules, mostly from hanging out on this newsgroup...not everyone has that advantage so it is most probably a case of ignorance more than anything else...

give them a chance to learn...they may not be such bad folks afterall...

I hope those divers are stupid enough to stand in front of the house with a sign which would say something similar to the one they left at the reefcam. The yellow fins are quite distinctive.14.44 pic. Annie B.

Some more divers

The first thing I was taught in Discover Scuba was to never hold your breath, then, don't touch ANYTHING. It's sorta common sense besides. Whatever...... glad I didn't make that blunder. I do plenty of other silly things.....

Bob,

I would have been willing to cut them a lot more slack if:

1) They hadn't both been wearing gloves (a major marine park no-no for a pleasure dive not involving a wreck); and

2) Complete lack of respect for the coral around them. Bad buouyancy is one thing, but lying, kneeling in, and finning live coral is something completely different.

Pounding stakes through the substrate and leaving a sign just compounds the above sins.

Jake

The truth is I am bitter because I'm not there to clean up after the clowns. I would love to be there to pick up the mess and clean the cam. Then I would scold those divers and make them promise never to do that again ever. But here I am in McKinney Texas.

Surely someone out there would tell them to respect the coral, and stay off it. Annie B.

Don't they go over that in every orientation dive ? And isn't it basically illegal to wear gloves? Don't they ban you from ever diving in the park for life? Wonder how they follow up on that. I know in Cozumel, they have patroling diving park rangers. They're tough .

Visitors at the gate.

Grendel is looking for the Coral Killers.

Nearly time for bed here. Annie B.

ok i'm gone now. See you guys tomorrow. Annie B.

There are a few things I would like to say about those two damaging the reef. But can't mentionned here...

I know when my husband and I are going down south, we are going to get a lesson before we dive and then go with a Dive Master to make sure we do not have any problems with bouyency. The sad thing is, a lot of people are inconsiderate all over the world, quite a few wrecks have been vandalized up here.

Obviously these two clowns weren't paying the least bit of attention during the Marine Park briefing that they're required to get before anyone on the island will give them air...

Faith

Margarite and others,
sorry 4 my 'retarded' remark. I was frustrated with their behaviour, but I should have been more thoughtful
I do know the difference Margarite. An uncle off mine is mentally retarded and u will never ever here me calling him, or anybody else who is mentally retarded, stupid.
Again sorry...

Have they (turkey diver club members) been caught yet? Any updates?

Okay - sign removed, as you may have noticed. To use Dean's term, the turkeys were the same ones who taped a sign to the cement tree holder across the street from the StreetCam in the last week, and then sat next to it.

Both signs make reference to a Fewsons Systems in Austin TX. Anyone feel like doing some investigative work on the following:

1) Find the StreetCam pics of when the sign was put up (compare the 12:20 and 12:40 StreetCam pics to see what's missing (other than my truck), and then track back through the archives until you find it being applied.

2) Track down Fewsons Systems in Austin, TX, (area code 512? and maybe a net presence) and see if they are small enough to know if any of their staff happen to be on Bonaire (and get names).

Then let's see how we can track the coral manglers down from there... :-)

Jake

I found a phone number and address:

FEWSONS SYSTEMS
12426 DEER TRAK
AUSTIN, TX 78727
512/258-6960


Electrical Industrial Apparatus, NEC

I cannot believe some people.. the corals those divers have made contact with may well be vulnerable to disease now. Thankfully, most of us know that making contact with corals can cause tissue damage..

sigh indeed.

Well done Leigh Ann..

voice mail when I called, "please leave a message for Mike and Betty"...I declined, but it was Fewsons Systems

Chances are... it's Mike and Betty (or Mike and a friend :P) Fewsons. I'd bet if you called around the various resorts you might be able to find them, Jake...

still in defense...a lot of folks might not realize that rubble pile is a living reef...i am sure they heard the words, "stay off the coral" at their orientation but if you do not know what constitutes coral then you could make a mistake.

well, we can eliminate any of that uncertainty by restating the objective - don't touch anything you do not have to touch. obviously, one HAS to touch (step) on something to get into the water...just once in the water one really doen't need to make any furthur contact with anything. well, then what about the photo guys, kneeling down in the sand to get a photo or touching a single finger to a coral head while framing a shot - see where i am going??? there is always gonna be a little judgement involved...

i am sure that no one from BT would ever do such a thing but again WE know better as a result of having participated in this newsgroup...

the gloves might not have been mentioned at orientation...they may not have read the bonaire park rules...who knows...

ok...it may not have been so much an inconsiderate act as it was a result of simply not understanding...

well, they are from texas??? no goats for a month

In my experience, the orientation lecture is pretty thorough, and gloves are mentioned. Very strongly. And it's reiterated: no gloves on any dive unless you're diving a wreck like the Hooker.

If these people have a Marine Park tag, they attended an orientation. If the orientation-giver neglected to mention no gloves, then they should be chastised; still, I doubt that's the case.

I think it much more likely that we have a pair of "I already know how to fr***ing dive, why should I listen to that bozo!" types.

it's the doubt that is the problem...these guys have already been "hung" (no trial)

i've had a few orientations myself...

Looks like Betty Now

well perhaps not Betty!

I guess I don't share your "doubt" -- if they paid attention to the orientation, they heard "no gloves". If they heard it and ignored it -- shame on them. If they were too cocky to listen -- shame on them.

Either way, they look like the (other word for donkey)s that they are.

Don't know if the last name is Fewson or not. I have searched the internet for phone listings and got nothing in Texas for Fewson. Even tried to find out who owns the company with no luck. Maybe Jake can call some of the resorts and ask for Mike and Betty!

I remember seeing someone put up a sign, and I was pretty sure it was a guy. He then put a folding chair next to the sign and sat there for a short period of time, I think...

We have no guarantee that the people own/work for Fewsons, mind you - they could be friends or associates. No way to know unless we can get more information...

In terms of yesterday's divers - unless one of them was a rather manly woman, I'd bet on two men in their late 40s or in their 50s. The one with the MDAD t-shirt had a black lycra top and black gloves. The other one had bright yellow gloves. (I was watching them live on the cam - I wish I'd thought to video tape them).

Jake

the sign was not there before the 15:24 shot above...I checked three days prior to this picture.. hope this helped...don't see a chair though

Re: diving with gloves. I believe you will find at least two other conditions when gloves are allowed, according to an earlier Marine Park Manager. Neither would seem to apply to these divers.

One is when a hand or hands have been damaged and have poor circulation and turn blue underwater as 2 of my fingers do.

The second is when using a permanently installed underwater line to hang for safety or decompression. The park doesn't require that divers risk coral or mollusk-cut hands for safety.

i was also thinking that maybe they had a medical reason for the gloves...(siding with polyannaspongebob)....however, i agree with glen on his point. also, they obviously know about the cams, have watched the cams, by their desire for sign placement...so they must have seen/heard/read about the marine park rules, and the ribbing folks get for bad "cam ettiqute." i can't imagine that someone would come to bonaire to dive dive dive, and not know the rules...

jake, what are the penalties for their offences caught on tape?

Well, they weren't caught on tape, unfortunately (although viewing the larger ReefCam archive images certainly indicates glove use and lying on large obvious coral heads), but they could be fined and have their diving privileges revoked in extreme cases (determined by the BMP), which in turn would mean that no dive shop would provide them tanks or fills. However, that penalty has occurred only once that I know of and it was when some folks were caught spearfishing, which is a criminal matter, not just a violation of park rules.

Jake

Wow, I missed ALL of this..such intrigue...WOWSA..this sort of cures my PBD a bit..so where r the culprits?

Jake,

Just for the sake of (rhetorical) (short) argument, how is a revocation of diving privileges enforced? Confiscating the park tag would cost another $10 to remedy. Unless an old time 'wanted' poster with picture was circulated??? Interethting, as they used to say on 'Rowan and Martin'. Are park rule violations, as opposed to criminal acts, punishable by fines?

They would get blacklisted by all the dive operators (who are the only ones other than the marine park who can sell park tags), and it limits tank fill opportunities - only a private compressor would be able to used.

Jake