Dive Trip to Bonaire, March 1-8, 2023

Steven A. Melnick March 17, 2023

HUGE Bearded Fireworm

Another dive trip is in the books. I traveled to Bonaire via American Airlines through Miami (Dante's 10th Circle of Hell) without a glitch for the first time in several trips over the past few years. It is always nice to travel with great friends and share the diving and island experience (Tim Schaeffer, Deborah Potts-Ragan, and Brenda Yorke). Bonaire is part of the Dutch Territories in the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean and is about 40 miles or so off the coast of Venezuela.

The Three Amigos (Deb, Me, and Tim)

I want to share some of the photos I took and some pictures of my friends I shared time with. Tim and I were scuba diving, Deb was snorkeling but also did a Discovery Dive (odds are she's hooked on scuba and probably setting up scuba lessons for her first certification as I write this).

Tim and I did a couple of shore dives to check equipment before embarking on the boat dives. As usual, the waters were calm, clear, and brimming with sea life. On our boat dives (usually two a day), we saw flying fish most days as we headed out to our dive mooring. One day a pod of dolphins were playing a good distance from our boat but we were still able to see them breach -- nothing dramatic like jumping out of the water but rather merely surfacing for air as the scooted along. Still a thrill.

Deb seemed to quickly become addicted to snorkeling as the shallow waters were quite clear and sea life abundant. A few times she was snorkeling above while watching the dive group ascending to our safety stop depth. At one point, as I was ascending, I looked up to see Deb enthusiastically pointing at something below. At first all I saw was a coral formation but as she kept pointing excitedly, I finally saw what she was trying to tell me. This little turtle was hiding out around the other side of the coral formation. I got some nice closeups of it.

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Tim trying to sneak up on Deb snorkeling on the surface... but she caught him at the last second !

Lion fish are an invasive species in the Caribbean with no natural predators. As a result, their presence has decimated some of the fish population. Consequently, many islands allow hunting them to thin the population and lessen their impact on the reef ecosystem. The last time I was on Bonaire, we saw dozens of Lion Fish all over. This time, the hunts have obviously been successful as I only saw a total of three the entire time I was there. Now, they are wiley (not quite like Wile E. Coyote) and learn so it could be that they were just hiding better in the nooks and crannies in the reef until nighttime feeding but I believe Bonaire has been successful in reducing the population. Although they are supposedly good eating (for humans), but you can see from the picture why it would be difficult for a predator to swallow this critter.

Below is me exiting the water (courtesy of Tim Schaeffer). I hand up my fins first, then the weights (no sense carrying them around), and then straight up the ladder and walk forward on deck to take my gear off. Pretty nice hat, eh? Nice shot Tim !!! Thanks.

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Enough description. Enjoy some of the shots I took underwater on this trip with identification of what they are... I'm still working on some of the videos I took that show, among other critters, HUGE tarpon that went for a swim with us...those will come in the next post.