A Divers Paradise

I returned from Bonaire yesterday exhausted but very happy with my first ever dive trip.

The results: 26 dives, 17 hours, 37 minutes underwater.

I saw thousands of fish, many species of coral, sponges, invertebrates and a few really cool new birds. We left the St. Paul/Minneapolis airport around 5:30 a.m on Saturday April and arrived in Bonaire, the Netherlands Antilles at about 2:30 p.m. It took a while futzing around with luggage, customs, car rental and all that stuff but we got to the Sand Dollar in time to pay our "Nature Fee" and pick up our tags that will allow us to dive on Bonaire. The $25 fee for divers ($10 for non-divers) funds the Washington Slagbaai National Park. I also had time for a snorkel in the sea that afternoon.

On Sunday we had our mandatory briefing before being allowed to dive. It was a long (1.75 hour) session where we learned about the marine park rules and the procedures used by the resort's dive operation, Bonaire Dive and Adventure.

We were finally able to dive shortly before noon and we wasted no time before we geared up and dove on Bari Reef just off the Sand Dollar dock. Bari Reef is, according to Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) surveys THE most diverse site in the Tropical Western Atlantic (i.e., the Caribbean) with more than 370 fish species recorded. According to the information compiled by REEF, 8 of the top ten sites for species richness are on Bonaire. Quite a place!

A typical day included an early dive on Bari Reef at 6:30 a.m. A quick rinse and change of clothes for the breakfast buffet, which included an omelet cooked to order, fresh fruit (like papaya, mango, pineapple), granola, yogurt and bananas, orange juice and coffee. Then a boat dive out to Klein Bonaire, the little island just to our west. Returning to the dock allowed for another dive at Bari Reef before a quick lunch. After lunch we would load a couple of tanks for each of us and head off to one or two sites for a couple of shore dives at Oil Slick Leap or 1000 steps. By the time we got done with those two shore dives I was usually more than ready for dinner, a beer and bed.

On Wednesday morning after breakfast Paul and I participated in the class offered by the dive shop's naturalist Jerry Ligon. He offers an opportunity to "Dive with the Naturalist" a couple times each week. It's a half day class that includes fish ID, discussion of fish behavior and a variety of marine biology topics. I liked the way Jerry took the information from REEF surveys and put together a very informative program using the new Reef Fish Identification DVD by ReefNet Inc. We then dove with Jerry for close to an hour at Bari Reef while he identified fish and pointed out behaviors we had just discussed.

Stay tuned for more details from the trip . . .