Neptune Aquatics

Bonaire SCUBA pictures

Hi all,

I recently got back from a SCUBA vacation in Bonaire and thought that some of you may be interested in seeing the pictures I took while diving. I used a rented SeaLife camera so only had it for 3 of the dives we did.

The diving was great, I really enjoyed seeing a reef in real life and would love to go back and see it again. However, from a reef enthusiast's perspective, my impression was that the reefs around Bonaire aren't very healthy. There were many corals which were partially bleached (one of our dive leaders mentioned that last year water temps got unusually high) and also large areas which were dominated by algae rather than corals. I don't really have any other reef diving experience with which to compare so take my observations for what they're worth. On the whole trip I only recall seeing 1 stand of Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and 1 of Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) though I got a pamphlet stating that the Coral Restoration Foundation is trying to fix that.

Anyway, for those which came here for the pictures...

My boyfriend did some post-processing on a subset of the images in order to clean them up. If you'd like those: http://goo.gl/7lsES

If you want the raw images you can get them at:
Hilma Hooker: http://goo.gl/p92KZ
Buddy's Reef: http://goo.gl/fb0qM
Country Garden: http://goo.gl/h9teG

I hope you enjoy,
 
Very cool pics......wish some of those corals were available to the hobbiest.

Someday I'll need to do that....if I can get over looking like an Sea Lion in a wetsuit! :)

-Gregory
 
Great photos Justin! It is cool to see the giant favia in their natural environment. When we were in Bonaire in April, the naturalist boat captain mentioned problems with the lavender tube sponges. Some of them have recently begun developing coatings of purple (not cyanobacteria) that cause the sponge to become brittle and die off.
 
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