We did a Bonfire dive on BON with Martijn of Twilight Diving - Private and Personalized Night Diving Trips in Bonaire. Good guy and a fun dive. Similar to blackwater but done from shore in 40 feet of water. Not as many critters as we've seen in offshore blackwater dives, but still a lot of larvae and much more convenient.

1 hour ago, Hilljo88 said:

We did a Bonfire dive on BON with Martijn of Twilight Diving - Private and Personalized Night Diving Trips in Bonaire. Good guy and a fun dive. Similar to blackwater but done from shore in 40 feet of water. Not as many critters as we've seen in offshore blackwater dives, but still a lot of larvae and much more convenient.

Tell us more about the logistic. Ho many lights? On the bottom?

Yes, please do tell - very interested in how people are organising this in different places.
We actually have a little thread up on the subject here: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/1671-bonfire-dives-light-trap-dives

cheers!

ben

To round this thread out--I've done some bonfire dives with Martijn and Mirjam, at Front Porch and Oil Slick. Basically, lights are anchored --I believe it was a set on the surface and at maybe 5m--and then we did a normal night dive for 15-20 minutes while the critters, such as the were, assembled. We never saw much in the lights, although my buddy got inked by a teeny squid; that made her night. We are huge fans of Twilight Diving Bonaire for night dives--they are both terrific spotters and guides.

I've traveled to Bonaire every year for the past 30+ years. I can't seem to figure out why no operator does blackwater dives. They have this deep protected trench between mainland and Klein and they also have the windward side. I have to say I haven't had great experiences with bonfire diving. Just not the same.

14 hours ago, Toque said:

I've traveled to Bonaire every year for the past 30+ years. I can't seem to figure out why no operator does blackwater dives. They have this deep protected trench between mainland and Klein and they also have the windward side. I have to say I haven't had great experiences with bonfire diving. Just not the same.

Since you've done both, what would you say is the main difference? More heptic predatory action as opposed to more spaced out encounters?

in terms of species - this is probably highly location dependent - there seems to be about 80% concordance between deepwater and shallow water in places like the Philippines or Indonesia, but deep water has unique deep water specimen, and the fact that you're stationary on bonfires rather drifting in blackwater means that current also affects things a lot more.

Not sure what heptic is, but for me the difference was the action. The bonfire dive I did had mostly recognizable reef creatures on a night dive, where blackwater has just the craziest creatures. I done blackwater in Lembeh and Palm Beach, Florida and there is so much life in the water column and I also love the feeling of the drift. I only wish I could do it more, because so far I have failed at the photography side.

1 hour ago, Toque said:

Not sure what heptic is, but for me the difference was the action. The bonfire dive I did had mostly recognizable reef creatures on a night dive, where blackwater has just the craziest creatures. I done blackwater in Lembeh and Palm Beach, Florida and there is so much life in the water column and I also love the feeling of the drift. I only wish I could do it more, because so far I have failed at the photography side.

I see, thanks - by hectic (typo) I mean that with bonfires you're reconstructing the food chain, and there's a lot of fast pace hunting/feeding going on, a lot of swarming in general.

I find the subject of shallow planktonic dives vs. deep water dives very interesting.
The vertical migration in the water column often evoked seems to be a little more complex than it looks at first glance.

I'm in contact with someone doing bonfires in Anilao for a while now, and he's getting roughly 80% the same creatures as on drifting black water dives over deep water, including blanket octopus, argonauts, etc...
This is something you also see in that Lembeh interview I'd posted in the dedicated thread, where a lot of footage was actually from bonfires more than deep blackwater, and it's similar if I compare what I saw on bonfires in east Bali compared to deep water dives off Tulamben, similar subjects mostly, with the odd critter only seen over deep water (larval phase crustaceans, etc)

It's very interesting to see what people like Ryo Minemizu are seeing both in bonfire-type stationary setups and actually drift dives over drift waters. You also have very interesting encounters Gil Koplovitz is getting snorkeling (!) at sunrise off the beach in the west Mediterranean.

More than actual life / subjects, the major difference seems to be the nature of the encounters.
In blackwater you're drifting along, and because of that you're not building up the food chain. Encounters are more relaxed, and there's generally more paced-out activity unless you run into swarming critters.
Which makes it more accessible for imaging, despite the logistical constraints.

Edited Monday at 12:04 AM2 days by bghazzal

Thanks for the info. That was not my experience on my attempts at bonfire. My first was done years ago when t was first coming out. They actually did large lights (hence Bonfire) on shore. and the other time was more like a shallow blackwater dive. This produced a ton of critters, too many to get photographs. Again a few years back. I'm also not familiar with any of what you speak. I Haven't really looked for info on bonfire dives. I'll have to look this up when I'm in Bonaire this winter. Thanks for the info.