Diving Bonaire

These tiny blue polka-dot juvenile yellow tail damsel fish are among my favourite.  No sign of a yellow tail in the young.  I go for the cute as opposed to the big and threatening.

Truck dive, dinghy dive, yacht dive, night dive, day dive.  We did it all!  And loved it.  We even purchased our own tanks and are now fully equipped apart from a compressor.  Bonaire boasts some of the best diving on this side of the Great Barrier Reef.  Most of the protected reef that encircles the island begins just offshore which, uniquely, makes it possible to swim out to explore.  If the sites aren't close enough to dinghy to, we could take the boat.  All sites are equipped with shore access points and a mooring ball for boats to tie to.  The infrastructure makes the diving or snorkelling accessible and easy. And the fact that the entire shoreline is protected means that the fish are many and varied.  All but sharks which are not invited.

Getting ready for a dive from the back of the "cruiser's truck".  We could just walk into the sea and float to the dive site.  

Our night dive had a mission attached.  We were in search of the ostracod, a tiny crustacean, typically 1mm in size.  Within five nights after the full moon, it rises from the soft coral in what we understood was a mating call from male to female.  It's bluish bioluminescence appears in vertical dotted moving strands.  It's really tough to describe! And no photos were taken - you just have to believe me. 

To see the bioluminescence at it's best, and under the guidance of Rhapsody, an American boat who had done several ostracod dives, six of us went on iCat to the leeward side of Klein Bonaire, a smaller island of the "mainland". It is protected from all development and, hence, very dark.  We got into the water just after sunset, descended to a spot where we were surrounded by soft coral and then floated and waited.  Slowly one or two ostracod strands glowed.  Within minutes we were surrounded by hundreds of glowing blue pinpoints.  It was amazing!  Followed by a night dive with flashlights in hand.  Followed by a potluck dinner on iCat.  Followed by a motor back to the mooring field.  A grand adventure!!

Preparing for our night dive on iCat which was packed with dive equipment for six.  Just jumped off the back of the boat, shortly after sunset.  Very exciting adventure!

The Ostracods looked like this but without the swirl.  Kind of like New Years Eve streamers. You would think, as you drag your finger across the "strand", it would break the bioluminescence.  But no! it doesn't affect them at all.  Mysterious and very cool, especially surrounded by the black of a night dive.

We celebrated Christmas Day with a dive off the back of Milly with friends, one of whom was a beardless Santa.

All underwater photo credits go to Sabine on iCat.  Thanks, Sabine!  After seven years our underwater camera's seals are not doing what they should.

Blue-tipped anemone

A blue tang, also among my faves, visiting some brain coral.

A speckled eel looking threatening but actually just breathing with open mouth.  Nonetheless, showing it's sharp little teeth.  Interesting but not among my favourites.

Fat Fungus Coral

Fireworm

Flower Corals

Juvenile French Angel Fish

French Angel Fish - most often hang out with their mates

Among the strange fish, a peacock flounder, with two eyes on it's flat horizontal side - if you understand what I mean

Very large green moray eel, watching us from inside a pipe.

Our final dive at the salt pier was our most eventful.  Fish seem to like hanging out around the human detritus that the pier and it's making provide.  A great barracuda on one side was not paying much attention to us but I was paying close attention to it.

A green moray eel later swam by.  Definitely the biggest we've ever seen.  He was on one side of us at the same time as the barracuda was on the other.  I needed to have eyes in the back of my head.

These trunk fish are also odd.  Long and exceedingly thin with huge eyes and not a very fishy shape.  They hang vertically in the water, trying to look like coral or vegetation, waiting for prey.  Or they swim directly over and just behind a fish, using the fish as camouflage.

The parrot fish is a dime a dozen in the reefs but never get ho-hum.

Last sighting on our last dive.  Never tire of turtles.

Another strange one - a pufferfish looks kind of big, slow and dopey.  Huge eyes and large roundish head.  It  puffs up with prickles if threatened.  Not so dumb, after all.

Scrawled Filefish

And another great shot of an eel.  Remember, it's just breathing!

Another favourite, these box fish are sometimes, so tiny they look like cartoon characters.  From the back or front they look triangular and somehow very friendly.

Christmas Tree worms on brain coral.  When touched the trees collapse into themselves.

We had a wonderful time.  We dove six times with dive partners Zoltan and Sabine.  So fun to be underwater again.  Very Zen!