Bonaire Jan 2010

[Herman]

I have just returned from an emergency 10 day trip to Bonaire. A friend of mine on the island needed someone to water the plants and feed the cat while they went on vacation......tough job but it needed to be done. Returning to the snow, ice and canceled flights stinks. Here are a few photo for your enjoyment.

By the way, I still need a single male for an upcoming trip June 26- July 3

[Stickman]

Great pics...

[Scotttyd]

Great pics,
I love the lizard fish, so ugly their cool.
Getting a seahorse shot is my goal for June.

[Steve_Campbell]

Great pics.

Seeing a sea horse, much less shooting one is a goal.

There are some in the Keys but I have yet to see one.

[Herman]

Had I had not been told exactly where is one was....actually 3 of them- after 20 minutes of searching we found 2...I would of never found it. The difficulty in shooting them varies a lot, many are camera shy and will turn away from the camera and almost all of them are hidden deep in cover so a clear shot is often impossible without disturbing them, which I will not do. The flash has got to be enough of a disturbance as it is. On the bright side they rarely move far so the odds are this one will still be there in June so we can go looking for it.

[eastbayfe]

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing. Diving Bonaire is definitely on my short list.

[Steve_Campbell]

almost all of them are hidden deep in cover

Interesting. I have had a diver tell me that he found one in the grass along the edge of Jules in the Keys.

I may have been looking in the wrong places. Do you know if they have a preference for inshore or just lots of shelter?

[Herman]

almost all of them are hidden deep in cover

Interesting. I have had a diver tell me that he found one in the grass along the edge of Jules in the Keys.

I may have been looking in the wrong places. Do you know if they have a preference for inshore or just lots of shelter?

I have seen them everywhere from free swimming along the bottom to way back in cover but mostly you find them near the base of some vertical cover. I once saw one free swimming just under the dock in maybe 3 ft of water at Cocoview. We saw him from the dock and he was gone before I could get back with the camera.
Due to the optical effects of water on light, the photos are misleading. From the photo, one would wonder how something that is obviously so different in color could be so hard to see. Trouble is, at depth without artificial light that red seahorse looked exactly the same color as the coral he was on. I have photos of frogfish that you absolutely could not distinguish a color or texture difference between them and their surrounding to the naked eye that stand out like a neon light in the flash lit photos. In some of the photos, I found a second, different colored one that I looked for all week (I was told where they were). I looked hard for him, knowing within a few feet of where he was without ever seeing him but yet he was less than 6 inches away from the female that I was taking photos of. In the photos he almost glows. Here is a photo of the 2 frogfish .

[Charlie J]

Great shots (as usual) Herman!

[Scotttyd]

Steph just told me that she is not going back to Bonaire unless we find a seahorse, so I take it as if we find one, we get to go back again next year . So that is our challenge.

[Herman]

You should be in luck...these guys rarely move much and I am pretty sure I can find them again....and the site is a fairly easy entry and exit to boot. Besides, I can get the dive shop to draw me another map...they even offered to do it in meters or feet...your choice.


Oh, yea Sunday to Sunday (leaving Sat afternoon) so start watching.

[Scotttyd]

Cool, did you ever find someone to fill out the one empty spot?

[Herman]

Cool, did you ever find someone to fill out the one empty spot?

Not yet I still have a spot for a single male diver for a June Bonaire trip, got a couple of maybes but no one for certain. If you know of anyone have them contact me. (how's that for a cheap comercial ? )