Marine Life Blog » Bonaire, Coral Spawning » Bonaire – Always Something New
Bonaire – Always Something New
October 19th, 2012 | 8 Comments
Forty-two years now I have been going to Bonaire—an arid mountain tip of a southern Caribbean island with the best shore diving on the planet. The rocky 25-mile stretch of her protected western coastline grants us the rare freedom to access marine life on our own terms. And best yet, even after 30 extended visits spanning four decades Anna and I are only beginning to scratch the surface of what the island’s waters have to offer. Allow me to present a few images from this year’s annual September visit as testament to Bonaire’s unending capacity for underwater discovery.
Longhorn Blennies at Last
I have long thought of our series of marine life field guides as bountiful wish lists for incurably curious naturalists with an appreciation for weirdness. Flipping through the pages over the years my eyes have repeatedly been drawn to the image of a perky little blenny with cirri extending from its head like a pair of telephone communication towers. But search as we might over the decades, we never once laid eyes on the elusive Longhorn Blenny. That is until we were enticed to explore the island’s “wild side” with Bas Tol, premiere dive guide and king of Bonaire’s lionfish slayers, with a promise of finding our long-sought prize hiding in the surge-swept shallows lining a blustery bay.
It takes two weeks before the winds calm sufficiently for us to tackle the shore entry into the rocky cove where the blennies make their home. Burdened with air-heavy tanks and extra weights we stumble our way through the shallow minefield of ankle-twisting rocks until we can at last plunge into the relative safety of waist-deep waves. As the bubbles clear we find ourselves swimming over a field of algae stretching as far as our eyes can see. Within ten minutes we find our first blenny poking its head out of a rock hole half hidden among the billowing fronds. But such glimpses are brief as swell after swell lift us up and away kicking and tumbling and struggling for control. Fighting our way back to the holed-up blenny we cling to a nearby rock waiting for a snippet of calm to focus our lens before being wrenched away once again. We find the blennies semi-common at depths from three to ten feet. With three of us hunting we locate one about every ten minutes. An hour-and-a-half later we make it back to shore safe and sound and only slightly worst for wear. As things turn out, our blenny hunt is the perfect mission with conditions hovering at the edge of do-able, yet sufficiently daunting to make for a lively tale. Three days later we’re still a bit bruised, stiff, but happy—fond reminders of a calm day on the Bonaire’s wild east side.
Check out Anna’s video of the dive at the BlennyWatchers Channel:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RkRcUviZ_0?hd=1[/youtube]
New Camera, New Images
Hardware is not my long suit. What I know about photographic technology could fit comfortably inside a thimble. Patience, persistence and a bit of knowledge of animals are more my game. However, after years of satisfactorily using a Canon 5D camera sporting 12.8 megapixels, I made the switch to a Nikon D800 with 36 megapixels, providing almost twice the image area. I seldom need such capacity for enlargements; what I need is the ability to occasionally crop an image radically to show detail. So off I go to Bonaire with my new toy encased in a diamond-bright Ikelite housing outfitted with an indispensible Nauticam 180 degree viewfinder and my tried and true, ol’ faithful Sigma 50 mm macro lens (Almost the only lens I ever use underwater.) Let me share a few results from the switchover.
Only days after fertilization a Sergeant Major nest explodes with new life 30 minutes after sunset. The brood’s patriarch, exhausted from continually nursing and guarding the clutch of poppy seed-sized eggs from predators, will take a few days off before advertising for a new set of brides to refill his nest.
The release of gametes from sea rod, brain coral and star coral.
New Critters
For two months before jetting off to Bonaire I spent much of my time chained to a computer laying out an enlarged edition of Reef Creature Identification. I’m not complaining, it’s a joy piecing together an ID book, watching it grow animal-by-animal and word-by-word. Here are a few portraits of some new invertebrates taken this year in Bonaire that will appear in the pages next fall.

- Orange Marginella.
New Fish
A Chain Moray makes it home on the pilings supporting a small dock fronting a condo complex.
For some time now I’ve wanted to photograph a Viper Moray’s dramatic set of teeth.
Cherubfish, one of the world’s smallest members of the angelfish family, typically live below 60 feet. Occasionally the one-to-two inch beauties are found as shallow as 25 feet in Bonaire.
Juvenile Coney sea bass wear one of two wardrobes: either a solid gold suit or a white and brown coat patterned with bold back and white markings. Evidently this little fellow just couldn’t decide which look it liked best.
Cleaning gobies, immune from predation because of their beneficial parasite-picking habits, are about the only creatures that would dare dance around this set of teeth.
A pair of Sharpnose Puffers duke it out for the rights to romance a female watching the brawl from the wings.
Octopus Encounter
A pair of eyes catches my eye as they peer out from a sponge. After a brief wait the eyes attached to a Reef Octopus slip out and dash away across a rainbow encrusted pier piling.
Hermit Crab Revisited
Eighteen years ago, under the same cargo dock and almost at the exact spot where I’m presently kneeling among a jumble of abandoned truck tires, I photographed a hermit crab dragging a long-dead coral remnant. The elongate branch struck me as such an awkward choice for a home. I watched the hermit labor with its burden for some time until, out of the blue, it tilted the coral piece skyward and pranced away effortlessly. My photos of the innovative hermit, published in Ocean Realm magazine, elicited several amused comments. Yet here I am nearly two decades later at the same dive site watching the same curious event, which I have never seen elsewhere. Like I love to say, “The sea never ceases to amaze.”
Filed under: Bonaire, Coral Spawning · Tags: barracuda teeth, blennies, Blenny, bonaire, Coral Spawning, cowrie eggs, D800, dive, hermit crab, Ikelite, ned deloach, Nikon, scuba, Sergeant Major eggs
Categories
Archives
Archives
- July 2013
- March 2013
- October 2012
- August 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- February 2012
- December 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- October 2010
- September 2010
- July 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- January 2010
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
Links
- New World Publications – At fishid.com you can learn our history, take a fish quiz, browse more than 100 magazine articles and order books on our secure shopping cart.
- REEF – Non-profit group Reef Environmental Education Foundation, founded by Ned DeLoach and Paul Humann dedicated to protecting the marine environment.
Outside Links
- Marine Life Keywords Simplify your keywording workflow with this handy program. Compatible with Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture. Includes more than 12,000 species.
Recent Comments
- Bev Collins on Coral Spawning, Sponge Spawning and Fish Spawning… A night diving bonanza in Bonaire.
- Breeze on Frogfish and Abalone in Lembeh Strait
- George Losey on About Us
- Christa Holdt on Lembeh and Johan, a Winning Combination
Most commented
- Town Pier in Bonaire - The best night dive in the Caribbean, now closed, but hopefully not for long.
- The Blue Heron Bridge, Florida's exotic critter capital
- Bonaire - Always Something New
- About Us
- Spawning Christmas Tree Worms and a Gaudy Clown Crab top the list our first week in Bonaire
- Bali Revisited
Ned, Anna: always reading your blogs and njoying every one. I have a question that I think some diligent investigation just might answer. I truly believe that when a male Sargeant Major brings forth a clutch of youngsters, that he has totally spent himself, and does not want to even think about sex for a long time. The males literally guard the clutch of eggs 24/7 for the approximately 10 days it takes them to incubate. If we could only cat h and mark a male during his defense of the clutch, and see when that same individual had a clutch again, we would be surprised. But does any one know?
Great shots Ned. Thanks for sharing all you do, looks like the new camera is treating you well!
Outrageously cool pics and detail. I, for one, am really glad you got more pixels. It makes your wonderful work…well, even more full of wonder.
I particularly like the clutch of eggs with the cowrie..how rare is that. Hope you find another Tamoya too…
Hi Ned, Next time you talk to Paul, tell him Fred Finnegan said hello. I spoke with Fred, a lifelong friend of mine, for about two hours, and he talked quite a bit about diving with you all.
We were diving in Bonarie May 29th for a Night dive and we, my brother Kirk and I saw a most incredible sight. We entered the water at 7:15pm twilight time. After dark about 7:35 pm we turned off our lights and noticed a bioluminescent display. It appeared like strings for pearls about 7 in a string, all dimly lit with ascending sequence of a brighter lights then they would fade out. We saw a few then more and more and they appeared to be rising. We were at about 45 feet deep at the small wall (dive site) sight slightly north of the Black Durgon Inn. This was not just bioluminescence that is triggered by waving your hand around in the darkness, this was light emitting strings. They gradually numbered in the thousands appearing from the depths and all around. It was a breath taking incredible sight like something in outer-space / out of this world. We left the water at about 7:50pm and went and got my wife to join us but by the time we got back in the water it was over. I was not able to get a video or picture with my sea and sea 2 g camera. We went back the next night at the same time taking my wife with us also and noted the same phenomena. We also noted as it began to fade some if we would turn on a light then off it would re activate the incredible display. When we would turn on the light to see if we could visualize what was emitting the bioluminescence but could not see any organism. It tried to photograph with iso 1600, 4 sec exposure and was able to be a minimal picture of a few strands with a lot of noise artifact.
We wonder if anyone else has noted this phenomena. We don’t know if this occurs regularly or if it was a rare event. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Hi Johnny! What you witnessed are the bioluminescent courtship displays of male ostracods. Also known as seed shrimp, ostracods are tiny crustaceans that live in the sand and spawn after certain full moons. How wonderful that you were able to observe this incredibly beautiful event. I talked about it last year on our sister blog, Blennywatcher but like you, could not photograph it. It is in this post: http://blennywatcher.com/2012/09/30/bonaire-spawning-2012/ Thanks for sharing your observation ~ Anna DeLoach
Anna, thank you so much for your answer to our “mystery”. it was fantastic. my brother , being an artist , was able to put together a similarity to the display on the computer. looking up bioluminescense, edith widder has a TED talk 2011. she has managed to photograph and record a number of ev ents.. probably has the right equiptment .
The “light show” my brother and I witnessed was humbling, fascinating and more over profound. When i tell the story i reference James Cameron’s film “The Abyss” as a similar type of light show. Johnny has since returned to Bonaire and with some advanced setting and time exposure has captured some images. However the time lapse makes the pitch black background read blue. It is something we definitely hope to catch in video soon.