Tag Archives: night dive

Salt Pier dive

Diving the Salt Pier

Another day out on Ad Astra for a diving adventure under the Salt Pier also known as “Waf di Salina”.  The Salt Pier, one of the best dive sites on Bonaire, is also one of the most photographed sites on the island.

Cargil currently operates the Salt Pans which cover one tenth of the island’s surface and produces 360,000 to 500,000 tons of Bonaire salt every year.  The varying colors of the ponds reflect the various stages of production.  It starts with crystal clear seawater which then turns to green, then brown, and then the salt crystallizes turn pink.  The unique pink color us caused by bacteria which are enjoyed by flamingos.  Did you know, baby flamingos are born white until they eat the brine shrimp and bacteria?

Aerial view Salt Pier and Salt Pans

Overlooking the Salt Pier and Salt Pans. Photo courtesy of We Share Bonaire

Diving the Salt Pier takes you to depths between 5 to 15 meters, where you’ll explore a maze of pillars fully encrusted with sponges and corals shooting up, hanging down, and jutting out.  These sponge and coral covered pillars are in vibrant shades of purple, yellow, and pink.  Each pillar provides you with a unique sea community filled with sea life large and small.  Large schools of fish congregate in the shadows created by the salt terminal overhead.

Our first dive of the day was to get the “lay of the land” and give us Salt Pier newbies a quick glance of what the Salt Pier looks like during in the light.  We anchored at Jeannie’s Glory and decided to swim to the Salt Pier.  It was a pretty big distance, but we were able to mark our path by a large cargo ship mooring which indicated the half way point to the pier.  It also had a distinct “clink, clink” sound as the chain links bobbed up and down off the sea floor.

It was absolutely amazing to see the corals and sea life hanging precariously from each pillar which offered new and surprising communities.  We moved on to the 2nd and 3rd set of pillars to get a quick glance of everything before our night dive.  We were surprised to see the large amount of trash and tires, but I guess that is to be expected below a pier??

Salt Pier Dive

Salt Pier looking up from the sea bed.

Salt Pier Dive

Salt Pier Pillar with coral growth

At dusk, we jumped in the water in small groups as there were a lot of us diving (12 divers), we followed our dive plan and headed toward the Salt Pier with torches in hand eagerly anticipating what we might see.  Our goal was to swim slowly to the huge mooring, then over the reef to the first set of pillars.

New and surprising creatures appear during night dives that were not there during the day.  Flowers bloom, sea anemones pop up, eels and shrimp come out and so much more. It is an exchange of sea life where the day fish go into hiding and the night fish come out to play.

Large tarpon surrounded us checking us out – some as large as our bodies.  They have no fear and will often swim very close to you which is unsettling when you don’t see them in the dark until they are in your peripheral vision or right in front of your face.

A delightful slipper lobster was cruising around the bottom of the sea bed in between the pillars.  You can’t tell from the photo below, but at night his eyes glow and his tentacles reflect the light from your torch.  He moves slowly and methodical – pretty spectacular.

Slipper Lobster dive

Slipper Lobster photo courtesy of Info Bonaire.

Salt Pier dive

Salt Pier Pillar coral growth

Ostracods Sexy Dance

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Ostracods in Bonaire – a sexy dance while diving.  A few days after the full moon an astounding phenomena happens underwater in Bonaire that is akin to an underwater firework display by tiny creatures called Ostracods!

Our friends on Ad Astra had been talking about this amazing display for weeks and so after the full moon they decided to plan another day out on their big boat, Ad Astra.  Our friends from Element joined us for a total of 10 people (7 divers).  We headed over to Klein Bonaire to a site called Sharon’s Serenity.  The plan was to dive the site during day light hours, then go back and do a second dive at night to try to witness the mating of the Ostracods.

The first dive was pretty amazing.  Matt and I headed out first and explored 23 meters below the surface to find a wide array of sea life.  We saw a small school of Hawaiian Black Triggerfish also called Black Durgon which are actually dark blue with a tad bit of green if you get up close and personal (which they wouldn’t let us).  The white strip is actually silver, but it appears to glow as they swim by.

Image courtesy of Google Images. Not our own

As we were waiting for the other divers, we explored a huge coral that had a large cave or protected area (perfect for lion fish and/or lobsters) so I peered in and to my surprise there were 4 HUGE lion fish – probably 15-18″ in length hovering upside down!  I was so darn impressed and in awe of these stunning creatures that I almost forgot they are destroying the reefs.  I showed Matt and a few of the others the find and eventually swam back to the boat.  Matt and I had a good long dive, over 60 minutes at this site.

We got back on Ad Astra and enjoyed some light snacks and shared stories of what we saw below.  Just after sunset, we put our gear on again and jumped back in the water.  Since the current had picked up a bit, we decided to head to the bow of the boat toward the mooring.  A few of us were armed with flash lights so as we waited for full darkness as we explored the shallows and found several eels and lots of fire worms which are pretty spectacular at night but hurt immensely if you touch them.

Source: http://bit.ly/1rnwnD7 Photographer: Phillipe Guillaume

We had a strong current and in an effort to minimize our movement and use less air, we decided to hold on to the mooring line to wait for the Ostracod show to begin.  We had already turned off our lamps and were truly just hanging out in 6.5 meters of water in the darkness.  We did have the moonlight and once your eyes adjusted you could see so it wasn’t total blackness.

The Ostracods (or Seed Shrimp), are tiny creatures (only a few millimeters long) live in shallow water for mating.  They belong to the Crustacea family (shrimp, lobsters, and crabs) and produce a blue glow to attract a partner.

There are many creatures that can glow, especially marine life at greater depths.  This phenomena is called bioluminescence. The glow is produced to attract a partner for mating or for signaling alarm to others. Other sea life that glow underwater are (specific types of) octopus, jellyfish, worms, plankton and deep sea fish.

Cypridinid ostracods are one of the type of Ostracods that can be found around Bonaire, the ones that produce the magnificent bioluminescence show around full moon. On land male fireflies attract mates by producing light patterns with bioluminescence, the same goes for Cypridinid ostracods underwater.

The magical mating show happens two to five days after the full moon. The glow and glitter explosion will take place 45 minutes after the sun has set and before the moon fully rises – and if and only if the Ostracods have NOT been disturbed by any light (dive torch, street light, lights from buildings, etc).

While we were waiting for the Ostracods to start mating we experienced a pretty cool display of bioluminescence ourselves.  We started to wave and clap our hands underwater and were gifted with a dramatic display of something that looks like green fairy dust from Tinkerbell. This came from much smaller (microscopic) animals, a type of plankton, called Dinoflagellates. Dinoflagellates are found around the whole world and mostly seen around the new moon phase.

After the Dinoflagellates showed up,  we slowly saw more and more tiny dots lighting up in the reef, for just a split second. After a few more minutes the dots became strings. The single Ostracods were swimming in a vertical line towards the surface while flashing and signaling the females. The line of bioluminescence was about 50 cm long sometimes and stayed visible for a few seconds. Nature can be just astounding!  The closer we got to the soft coral, the more we saw, surrounding us – it was truly magical and a bit romantic.  Maybe because Matt was holding my hand, but also because we knew we were enjoying a once in a lifetime experience.

We did not bring the GoPro down as we don’t have the proper equipment to shoot at night below the water, but thanks to Google you can find plenty of images online (see below).  Famed photographer Elliot Lowndes who filmef this National Geographic documentary, you can see a different species lighting up the nighttime Caribbean.  This is ont the same species who were in Bonaire, but it gives you an idea of what it is like during this mating ritual.  Check out this video, especially :30-:53 for highlights

Image courtesy of “Sail Away – a travel blog by Curly”

Image courtesy of Scientific American Blog

Above the water, you get a beautiful show as well – we did NOT see anything this spectacular, but we did see vibrant green ostracods floating on the surface of the sea.

Diving Bonaire

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With the purchase of our new dive gear, Matt and I set out to explore as many dive spots as we could on Bonaire – as it is the dive capital of the world!  Listed below are some of the sites we visited -keep in mind that I am a relatively new diver so what I think is cool and exciting might be “routine” for the more experienced diver.

There are over 80 dive sites on Bonaire and Klein Bonaire so you could do a dive a day for nearly 3 months.  This is a good site – Info Bonaire – dive map

  • Back of boat – Matt and I explored the wall beneath our boat seven times, sometimes to burn through the last remaining bits of our air and other times enjoying longer dives. We started out doing the giant step off the sugar scoops but I found it was much easier for Matt to dump the gear in the water and put it on while it floated.  We always saw something new when we explored this site.
Little blue fish in the water off Sugar Shack

Little blue fish in the water off Sugar Shack

  • “Something Special” – Just before the entrance to the marina, and a short dinghy ride from our mooring, is a dive site called “Something Special” which has extremely diverse flora and fauna.  There are not many corals at this site, but the sandy bottom is a great pace to see rays and turtles.  We did see a spotted eagle ray, turtles, and several other beautiful sea creatures.  We dove this site twice as it was convenient and a great dive.  Here is a great shot of a flounder trying to hide from us.

I cannot remember where Matt shot this video of a flounder running from him – but it is share worthy.

  • “Just a Nice Dive” is located off Klein Bonaire.  Erik, Kyle and Max from Ad Astra joined Matt and I for a 60’ dive.  We swam up current first as it was pretty darn strong, and when we were about half way through our tank we turned around.  The current was so strong that it took us less than 1/3 the time to get back and as we popped up hoping to find our dinghies close by we realized we over shot it by a 1/4 mile.  We attempted to swim back on the surface, but realized we were not moving forward, but rather backward.  After what seemed like forever, we accepted that this route was not going to work, so Matt and I swam toward shore.  Kyle and Max followed as Erik tried to power through.  Unfortunately, he ended up about a mile back.  Matt took off his gear, handed it to me, and swam along the coast in about 18” of water. He passed our dinghies and kept going to the tip of the island and was then able to swim/drift back with the current to the dinghies.  He went after Erik first as he was the furthest away and out of air, then rescued me and the kids.  It was a pretty dive despite the current.
  • “Small Wall” – Our friends, Mizzy and Brian from Kokopeli joined us for a dive at Small Wall which is north of the mooring area. This dive has a stunning vertical wall of corals beginning at 7 meters that deceptively entice you down to about 25 meters.  I would have thought that this would have made me nervous with the wall on one side and the bottom and surface 25 meters away from each other, but it was lovely.  I truly enjoyed seeing all the coral embedded and thriving on the wall – what a totally unique and different experience.  Loved it.
  • “Andrea II” – This site is known for its large variety of sea anemones, hard and soft corals. You will easily spot Grooved Brain Coral, Corky Sea Fingers, and Staghorn.  A remarkable number of large female Queen Parrot fish  (each kind: blue, midnight, and rainbow over 1 meter in length) and can be seen throughout this site.  It was a stunning dive site with a large variety of fish and coral. Kokopeli joined us for this dive.
  • “Mi Dushi” (Klein Bonaire) – Our day out with Ad Astra, Always Sunday, Manado, Kattimi, Cape Grace, Kokopeli.  Mi Dushi is a reef dive with lots of different corals including elkhorn, staghorn, ad gorgonians, sea anemones, and lots of fish.  There were so many of us diving that the allure was a little lost, but this was a very pretty dive site. See blog post “A Day out with Ad Astra”
  • “Karpata” The 2nd dive, on a day out with Ad Astra, was at Karpata.  Good visibility, panoramic view, over branching colonies of elk horn which can stretch from 3 meters up to the top of the surface.  This site freaked me out a little bit as the wall was enormous and curved or was in the shape of a side ways wave.  Meaning there were caverns that you could swim in and out of – the problem was that each cavern had no end in sight – you could not see the bottom – it was a vast empty hole below and that completely WIGS me out.  See blog post “A Day out with Ad Astra”
  • ”Vista Blue” Shore dive with amazing topography of soft corals and sponges along the top reef with schools of goatfish, wrasses, blue chromis and a pretty large green moray eel! See blog post “Sea Donkey Takes us to Vista Blue”
  • “Bachelor’s Beach” –We arrived by dinghy which provided an easy entry and descent. A fairly shallow dive that maxes out at 30 meters.  Lots of hard coral and sea life but not many pockets of sand which makes it harder to see the beauty under the sea. Many fish including reef fish, trumpet fish, file fish, trunk fish, and wrasses.  Kokopeli joined us for this dive.
  • “Eighteen Palms” –This is the first site as you travel south where the reef separates into a “double-reef”. Large tarpon and schools of fish like to swim and play between the two reefs.  I really enjoyed this dive as the fish were exceptionally active, the corals seemed more colorful and the water was crystal clear. Kokopeli joined us for this dive.
  • “Night Dive” – Ad Astra invited Cape Grace, Always Sunday, Manado and us for a night dive. It was my first night dive and I was very nervous.  We jumped in the water right at sunset so that there was still light in the sky.  We headed to the front of the boat to check out the eel between his mooring and to get comfortable in the water as the sky turned dark.  Everyone was outfitted with flashlights so it helped me keep an eye on where everyone was at all times.  We soon headed to the wall and slowly descended down until we hovered at 16-18 meters.  I had hoped to see iridescent corals and fish but it was probably too early in the evening (even though it was pitch black out).  We did get to see all the night fish and sea creatures come out (that usually hide during the day), spotted several eels, some brittle stars and other fascinating creatures.  But, truth be told, I much prefer to dive during the day.
  • “Hilma Hooker” is a wreck dive located on the southern side of the island and is the only dive site with multiple buoys . I will dedicate an entire blog to this dive as it is really interesting.  We dove this site twice and the first time it was pretty clear, but the second dive was later in the afternoon and with a setting sun it made it little merky – but over all a super cool dive.  The stern of the wreck is 21 meters (69′) and the bow is 26 meters (85′) which made this my deepest dive yet at 95′ (stay tuned for this blog). Dove with Ad Astra
  • “The Invisibles” is a double reef system and is located on the southernmost tip of the island.  With gorgeous soft corals especially Sea Plumes and Corky Sea Fingers.   This was one of my favorite dives!  The first reef runs parallel to the shore and a sandy channel cuts through it. The first reef is beautifully overgrown with soft coral that gently dance with the current, it is magical.  An enormous school of Boga were spotted here along with lots of Butterfly fish, Angelfish, and Trunk fish.
  • “Sharon’s Serenity” we dove this site during the day first to get the “lay of the land” before our night dive.  We came to this spot to see the beautiful Ostrocod sexy dance (which is described in detail in a separate post).

I asked several people where there favorite dive spot is and came up with a list of dive sites to explore next time we visit Bonaire.

  • Wayaka II (new post w/ details)
  • Alice in Wonderland (new post w/ details)
  • Salt Pier
  • Tori’s
  • Joanne’s Sunshi (Klein Bonaire)
  • Angel City (two reefs)
  • Cliff
  • Oil Slick
  • 1000 Steps

 

Catering to the dive community with this rum bottle?