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Bonaire 2009
We are back on
Bonaire. Johnny, Linda, Wally Robin and I are back in "Divers' Paradise. If you want to see more dive pictures, scroll to the bottom of the page to find links to pages from other dive trips to Bonaire on other locations. |
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The van is packed up and ready to diving. 10 tanks of air and nitrox will get the five of us through 2 dives before lunch. Then we will come back, eat sandwiches in the room, get 10 more tanks and hurry back to the ocean to do a couple of afternoon dives. | ||
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The scuba gear on the tank ready to enter the turquoise and blue waters off the beach. | ||
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We saw this turtle on the first day. | ||
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Johnny hovers over a brain coral. | ||
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A sea horse that Linda found on the first day. | ||
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Returning to the van after a dive. | ||
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Two Flamingo Tongued Snails. We have seen thousands of these guys down here this trip. | ||
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Linda found this sea horse. | ||
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A yellow eel comes out to say, "Hi." | ||
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A golden eel sticks his head out to see me. (They all do. I am famous in Bonaire) | ||
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On one dive we saw 6 turtles. This one thought he was well hidden in the soft coral but my sharp eye spotted him. | ||
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Another turtle swims by Johnny. It was just too much excitement for Linda. She had to hold her regulator in her mouth so it didn't pop out. | ||
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The invasion of the Tangs. | ||
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Four Yellow Stripe Goat Fish foraging along the bottom for food. | ||
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If you look very closely in the center of the picture you can see another sea horse. | ||
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As we get out of the water after our fourth dive of the day, we can see the sun setting to the west. | ||
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And as we turn to walk off the
beach, we can see a full moon rising in the east. This will make for a nice night dive. |
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Two Six-Banded Butterfly Fish. These fish mate for life. | ||
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Parrot Fish | ||
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View looking north from the top of the steps at "1,000 Steps" We had to walk all the way down and back up these stone stairs with all our scuba gear and tanks. A lot f work but the dive is well worth it. Beautiful hard coral formations and lots of fish and sea creatures. | ||
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In this south view from half way up the stairs at "1,000 Steps" Johnny and Linda stop take in the view of the dive site we just completed. | ||
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This Blue Tang looks a little like Dorey in "Finding Nemo" but Dorey has a yellow tail and is a Royal Blue Tang which are found only in the south Pacific. | ||
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Johnny found this sea horse on our late afternoon dive. The lighting was not good at this time of day so the picture is dark. So far we have seen sea horses every day. We have also seen turtles and juvenile drum fish every day. (of course it is only day 3) | ||
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The small dotted creature in the center of the picture is a pea-sized juvenile trunk fish. | ||
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An adult trunk fish hovers over a coral head. | ||
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This arrow crab looks like a Daddy Long Legs spider. He is finding a meal on the coral at night. | ||
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On day four we found more turtles. The hawkbill seen here was eating at Angel City. So, we have still found turtles and juvenile trunk fish every day but today was the first day that we did not see any sea horses. (I am sure a few sea horses probably saw us.) | ||
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Even though we did not find any sea horses we did find a lion fish. Sightings of these fish on Bonaire are rare. This is only the 26th documented report. They are normally found in the south Pacific and have invaded the Caribbean in recent years. They have no known predators here and are upsetting the ecosystem. Bonaire has a program to capture any lion fish that are reported. | ||
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We also found a group of squid on one dive today. | ||
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This is a parrot fish taking a bite out of the coral. | ||
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A spotted Eagle ray cruises by on a dive off Klein Bonaire. | ||
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This is the second seahorse that Johnny found this week. | ||
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Robin found this sea horse on our last day of diving. | ||
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Tiny juvenile drum fish swimming in a little cove of coral. | ||
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This an adult spotted drum fish. The little guy above will grow up to look like this one. ......Well, if he doesn't get eaten. | ||
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A pair of six banded butterfly fish. | ||
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Honeycomb (notice the pattern) cow fish (notice the horns over his eyes). | ||
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Johnny looking at a squid that hovers between us. | ||
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