Something Special
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.
Something Special: 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 18 m from the site coordinates Hairy Clinging Crab (Amphithrax pilosus) · Roger Rittmaster · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
[video slot · coming soon]
The surface noise falls away.
Reds go first. The world turns blue-green.
Then Something Special 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
- Stoplight Parrotfish (85)
- Bicolor Damselfish (75)
- Great Star Coral (72)
- Brown Chromis (69)
- Bluehead Wrasse (68)
- Blackbar Soldierfish (60)
- Trumpetfish (57)
- Mustard Hill Coral (56)
- Graysby (51)
- Queen Parrotfish (51)
- Yellowhead Wrasse (50)
- French Grunt (48)
- Princess parrotfish (48)
- Redband Parrotfish (46)
- Spinyhead blenny (45)
- Threespot Damselfish (45)
- Giant Caribbean anenone (42)
- Smallmouth Grunt (42)
- Schoolmaster Snapper (41)
- Smooth trunkfish (41)
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. 12,612 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 Something Special
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 node/635942336 · 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: 12,401, CC0_1_0: 211
- Dataset
- EOD – eBird Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/aomfnb (9,517 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- iNaturalist Research-grade Observations · doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (2,846 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- CAS Herpetology (HERP) · doi:10.15468/bvoyqy (60 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Birda - Global Observation Dataset · doi:10.15468/6kud7x (34 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- International Barcode of Life project (iBOL) · doi:10.15468/inygc6 (28 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- NMNH Extant Specimen Records (USNM, US) · doi:10.15468/hnhrg3 (24 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Nudi Pixel Nudibranch and Sea Slug Observations · doi:10.15468/q4syzw (23 records) · GBIF
- Dataset
- Nudi Pixel Nudibranch and Sea Slug Observations · doi:10.15468/r94ge6 (23 records) · GBIF
- Query
- https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=12.15138,12.17138&decimalLongitude=-68.29385,-68.27385&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 sitegeotagged 736 m from the site coordinates Ocellated Box Crab (Calappa ocellata) · Benjamin Mako Hill · CC BY-SA 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Arrival photo
- At this sitegeotagged 18 m from the site coordinates Hairy Clinging Crab (Amphithrax pilosus) · Roger Rittmaster · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist
- Gallery
- 5 photos, credited under each image
- Species photos
- Wikimedia Commons, credited with each species. Full list: Data & sources