Muck Diving in Bonaire ?

Hi all,

Having discovered muck diving in the caribbean in St Vincent (and very good it was too) I was wondering if anyone has found good muck sites in Bonaire.

I am in the process of booking a week at Habitat for end of April and would love to get to some of those out of the way places that yield interesting critters.

Other than muck diving are than any other sites out of the way that are recommended ? I have already dived the Marie Bahn (Windjammer) and will definitely do it again.

Mark

In my experience, muck sites tend to form around high (volcanic) islands - rather that flat coral islands. You need hills for rainfall and sediment run off - so that you can have high organic content (land derived) sediment slopes - ideal muck diving. Coral sand slopes have far less food in them and tend to be less lively for muck critters.

Well that's my theory!

Alex

p.s. I have not been to Bonaire - but I think it is flat. There are good critter sites there - with frogfish and seahorses.

The house reef at Captain Don's Habitat is an excellent dive site for good photo subjects. We saw 7 kinds of eel's on one dive on the house reef. There were two frogfish on a large coral "head" if you swim to the right a bit, also sea horses. Ask the photo pro to draw you a map. We had a rental truck with our package but decided that we would have been happy diving the home reef and one boat dive a day.

We did not get to dive under the town or salt pier, but I understand they are great dive sites also. Our favorite sites other than the house reef were to the north; Karpata, Andrea 1 and The Cliff are a couple.

Have fun!

Kathy

I have been to Bonaire many times, and just led a group of 16 to Habitat in December. Bonaire is very arid but certainly not volcanic. It has a fringing reef system and I am not aware of any muck.

The macro shooting is fantastic and nightdiving is oustanding. The house reef at Captain Don's is one of the best (easy navigation with the divers highway), but there are many really great sites to choose from. The house reef runs between 25 and 130 feet deep and you can dive 24x7. Great people - Let the DM's know what you are looking for and they will do their best to find it for you.

You can also rent a car/truck and shore dive till you drop. Site are well marked from the road. There is also an operator (I think his name is Larry) that will take you out on the exposed side of the island if you want a little higher adventure.

Since 9/11, diving the town pier or salt pier require a bit more planning and can only be done accompanied by a local DM with a max of 4 divers per DM, and as always, requires prior permission from the harbor authorities.

Have a great time, and let me know if you have any other questions.

Cheers,

Sieg