1000 Steps
Dive site in the Bonaire National Marine Park, which covers all waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire from the high-tide mark to 60 m depth. Here's what has been recorded at this site month by month, how the region’s reefs have weathered ocean heat, and how to prepare.
.jpg){kind=link}
1000 Steps: dive site in the Bonaire National Marine Park, which covers all waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire from the high-tide mark to 60 m depth.
Entry
Shore and boat entries vary by site. We list only rules we can cite from official sources; entry points, depths and currents will be added once we can verify them.
- The Bonaire National Marine Park covers all waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire from the high-tide mark to 60 m (200 ft) depth. STINAPA Bonaire
- Strict no-anchoring policy inside the marine park. Shore sites are marked with yellow stones and boat moorings are yellow buoys. STINAPA Bonaire
- The STINAPA nature fee is mandatory for all users of the marine park and is valid per calendar year (Jan–Dec). STINAPA nature fee
- Stony coral tissue loss disease has been detected on Bonaire. STINAPA asks everyone to disinfect gear before the first and after the last dive of a trip, and to avoid touching, gloves and pointer sticks. STINAPA Bonaire
- STINAPA says Washington Slagbaai Park remains closed for diving. None of our Bonaire sites are inside that park. STINAPA Bonaire
At this sitegeotagged 274 m from the site coordinates Atlantic Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) · Jay Brasher · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
[video slot · coming soon]
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then 1000 Steps rises to meet you.
What lives here, by month
Pick a month. These are the species most often recorded within about a kilometre in that month, from open survey records.
Most-recorded species, all months
- Bluehead Wrasse (43)
- Stoplight Parrotfish (43)
- Queen Parrotfish (42)
- Lettuce Coral (34)
- Bicolor Damselfish (33)
- Mustard Hill Coral (33)
- Blue Chromis (33)
- Yellowtail Hamlet (28)
- Trumpetfish (27)
- Princess parrotfish (27)
- Brown Chromis (27)
- Graysby (26)
- Overgrowing Mat Tunicate (25)
- Yellow Goatfish (25)
- Threespot Damselfish (25)
- Schoolmaster Snapper (24)
- Great Star Coral (23)
- Redband Parrotfish (23)
- Blue Tang (23)
- Sergeant Major (22)
GBIF.org (2026-10-14), occurrence records within ~1 km, licensed CC0 or CC BY 4.0 only. Birds and land animals are excluded. Counts reflect survey effort, not abundance. 2,486 qualifying records. See them on GBIF. Common names: Wikidata (CC0) / GBIF. Species photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species.
Forty-one summers of heat
Each stripe is one year since 1985, colored by its peak heat stress across NOAA's “Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire” region. These are NOAA Coral Reef Watch satellite figures for the whole region, not for this one site.
Heat stress, measured from orbit.
NOAA CRW virtual station “Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire”. NOAA's alert thresholds are 4 °C-weeks (Alert Level 1) and 8 °C-weeks (Alert Level 2). Station page · Method. Credit: NOAA Coral Reef Watch.
Conditions
Average sea temperature through the year. Check the live readings before you go.
Average sea surface temperature by month: NOAA CRW “Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire” station climatology (monthly means).
Buoy readings are measurements; forecasts are models. Use them for planning only, and assess conditions on site. Depth and visibility data aren't listed until we can cite a source.
Plan & prepare
- Read the official marine forecast the night before.Offshore, wind and sea state decide the day.
- Check the cited local rules above and pay any park fee before you dive.[Placeholder: verified operator list to come]
- Study this month's species above.You'll recognise more when you know the names.
- Hands off, fins up, buoyancy dialled. Log what you see.Your sightings can become tomorrow's open data.
Photographs from 1000 Steps
Openly licensed photos, each checked for location against its title, description, category or geotag. Labels show how close each one is to the site.
Credits
- Coordinates
- OpenStreetMap way/1495901720 · source · ODbL. OpenStreetMap (ODbL) dive-site nodes, cross-checked by name against the STINAPA Bonaire National Marine Park dive-site list.
- Species records
- GBIF.org, CC0 & CC BY 4.0 records. By license: CC_BY_4_0: 2,345, CC0_1_0: 141
- Dataset
- iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (1,326 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (1,138 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Bonaire Estafette Expedition 2022/2023 - Mollusca · doi:10.15468/ymu2rn (15 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center (NL) - Mollusca · doi:10.15468/yefvnk (5 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- International Barcode of Life project (iBOL) · doi:10.15468/inygc6 (1 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Collection of symbiotic copepods associated with Caribbean invertebrates · doi:10.15468/7seoi4 (1 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=12.20087,12.22087&decimalLongitude=-68.33187000000001,-68.31187&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&taxonKey=44&taxonKey=206&taxonKey=229&taxonKey=136&taxonKey=225&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&limit=0
- Heat stress & SST
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch, 5 km Regional Virtual Station “Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire”
- Hero photo
- At this site Bonaire 1000 steps (cropped) · User:janderk · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
- Arrival photo
- At this sitegeotagged 274 m from the site coordinates Atlantic Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) · Jay Brasher · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 5 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources