Bonaire Scuba Diving

To many visitors, Bonaire's attraction is shore diving, not only in front of their hotels, but via rental car to one of a score of marked sites - but keep nothing in those cars as many get broken into while divers are underwater. Still, Bonaire is a diver's island par excellence, with diving that's especially well suited for easy divers and those who want to concentrate on photography.

Bonaire Seasonal Dive Planner

Bonaire is a desert island, with a terrain and climate something like southern Arizona. Air temperatures are in the low to mid 70s at night, and the high 80s or low 90s during the day. But with the trade winds and moderate humidity, it rarely feels as hot as it is.

Rainfall is usually scant, consisting of a few brief showers in the early morning, except during November and December, when occasionally it is overcast and rainy for a day or more. Total annual rainfall is about 20 inches, but every eight to ten years there's a peak year, with total rainfall of two to three times the normal amount. 1988 was one such peak year, with the highest accumulations known since accurate record-keeping started over 200 years ago.

Bonaire's protected western coast offers almost ideal conditions 365 days a year - calm, warm, and clear water with gentle currents. The sky is usually dotted with puffy fair weather clouds that give a welcome respite from a tropical sun which can get quite intense, especially in May, June, and September. Winds are always from the east at a brisk 15-20 mph from January through August. They slow the last four months of the year, with occasional calm days that permit diving on the island's exposed eastern coast. This is an experience not to be missed if the rare opportunity presents itself to see the huge sponges, gorgonia, coral heads and fish of the northern and eastern coasts.

The water temperature in Bonaire ranges from 78 to 81 degrees. About three years out of every five, upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep Atlantic spill into the Caribbean over the relatively shallow shelf that connects Trinidad with the Grenadines, and then it circulates westward to Bonaire. When this happens - usually during July - water temperature can drop into the low 70s and visibility everywhere can fall to 30' or less. These conditions can last from one or two days to a week or more.

Sometimes this cold upwelling water doesn't come all the way to the surface but is only encountered at depth as a murky thermocline.

Featured Links Interested in having your link here?
Bonaire Sea Side Apartments Bonaire Sea Side Apartments offers elegance with all of the charm and convenience you could want in a vacation retreat, just steps away from diving and more	Southern Cross Club, Little Cayman 12 luxurious beach bungalows all with ocean view. Uncrowded dive boats for professional divers. Sleep, eat and dive with service and comfort.	Sand Dollar Condominium Resort Bonaire Spacious & comfortable studio, one, two & three bedroom ocean view condominiums. Full size kitchens, dining and living areas with roomy porches or balconies.	Undercurrent Online: Instant access to the latest issues and all readers reports. Click here now	Den Laman Condominiums Bonaire Den Laman offers fully equipped kitchens, living area with LCD-TV, balconies, many boasting spectacular ocean views.

Bonaire Feature Articles and Reader Reports

Attention! You must be an Undercurrent Online Member to access MOST links in this section. However some articles can be accessed by the public -- these links have a button you can click to see the article.

For Undercurrent Online Members and some available for Public

Dive Articles - Land Based Bahamas, Canada, Caymans, Indonesia, planning your next dive trip? Here are readers’ suggestions, 7/08 Bruce Bowker’s Carib Inn, Bonaire, 10/07 Cuba, Bonaire, Belize... and a clever thief in Curacao, 1/07 Holbox Whale Sharks, Bonaire Wild Side Diving, 02/06 Thumbs Down: Plaza Resort Bonaire, 09/04 Reports From Readers: Part I; Cozumel's adult dive operators, Bonaire bummers, 8/04 More on Theft in Bonaire, (see sidebar, p.7), 4/04 S.E. Aruba Fly n' Dive, the Dutch Caribbean, dive in Bonaire, sleep in Aruba, 2/04 Available For Public Wild Side Diving in Bonaire, (see sidebar p. 4), 5/03 Thumbs Down , Bonaire thefts from rented cars (see sidebar p. 11), 10-02 Missed Connections, (see sidebar, p. 2) 10-01 Klein Bonaire Rescued from Developers, (see sidebar, page 4), 2-00 Bonaire, A Shore Diver's Mecca, 1/00 The Trouble with Going to Bonaire and Curacao, getting there is the hardest part -- ALM or TACA or ???, 7-99 The New Captain Don's Habitat, 7/94

Dive Articles - Liveaboards

Editor's Book Picks for Bonaire

The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com; just follow the links. -- BD

Diving Cozumel ... Cayman Islands ... Belize ... Bahamas ... Bay Islands ... Bonaire ... Bermuda ... British Virgin Islands ... Hawaii ... Micronesia
by Speck, Garoutte, Middleton, Cancelmo, Strohofer, Lewbel, Martin, Douglass, Verdure, Rosenberg, Hanauer...

No matter where you are headed, the Aqua Quest Books covering your destination are the only way to supplement Undercurrent's hardhitting critical information. Each of these books describes specific dive sites, depths and location, shore diving entries, the critters you'll see, local history and customs, places of interests. Take one as you travel or buy one after you return for the memories. Scores of excellent colorful pictures and maps supplement each of these 7x10 paperback 128 page books.

Paul Humann ID Books by Paul Humann, Ned Deloach: The three set fish, creature and coral ID books by Paul Humann are the unparalleled sources for information on Caribbean sea life and identification. This month Paul and his partner Ned deLoach released updated and expanded editions of each, with scores of new critters, even better photos, and information unavailable anywhere else. Why, the Reef Fish Identification book, at more than 500 pages, is 20 percent larger than the previous volume, which came out in 1994. Whenever I travel to the Caribbean, I tote all three books and spend my down hours figuring out what I saw and where to look to find rare creatures. Paul's splendid Reef Creature book (420 pages), covers sponges, nudibranchs, octopus, crustaceans, Christmas tree worms and plenty more. His Coral ID book (276 pages) helps you identify all the hard and soft corals, spawning, and even the growth on top of corals, as well as algae and other plant life. Beginners may want to ID only fish, but I'd recommend that all three books be part of every diver's library. And, if you have an old set, by all means replace it. You'll be delighted at the additions and improvements. Each book normally retails for $40, but are discounted when you order here. And the boxed 3-volume set is available now at a bigger discount, $81.60 (June, 2004). You'll get the best prices Amazon.com has to offer, speedy delivery, and the knowledge that a large hunk of our profit will go to preserve coral reefs. All are spiral bound, 6x9

• Reef Fish Identification: Florida Caribbean Bahamas ,
• Reef Creature Identification: Florida Caribbean Bahamas and
• Reef Coral Identification: Florida Caribbean Bahamas
• The Boxed Set of all three (now listed at $81.60 -- June, 2004)

Watching Fishes: Understanding Coral Reef Fish Behavior
by Roberta Wilson, James Q. Wilson.

Your buddies can probably name the reef fish, but read this volume and you can explain what those critters are actually doing -- and why. This fascinating book describes why and how fish change color, how they smell and socialize, the difference between day and night behavior, even how damsels cultivate algae patches -- which is why they attach you when you fin by. Watching Fishes, Understanding Coral and Reef Fish Behavior is written for divers, not scientists, by Roberta and James Q. Wilson. They describe in lively nonfiction prose the behavior of basslets to blennies, clownfish to crinoids, damsels to drumfish. Perfect for between-dive reference. Paperback, 6x9, 274 pages.

You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's Book Picks section.