Bari Reef is an ordinary shore dive with an extraordinary reputation: nowhere else on the island have so many fish species been counted. That is not because the reef is special, but because it has been surveyed systematically for decades. For the diver it mainly means easy water, plenty of life, and a jetty as the way back.
Bari Reef is a beginner shore dive in Kralendijk: entry from the jetty, reef top at five to eight metres, slope to thirty metres and the highest counted species total on the island.
Under the jetty a sand flat with garden eels and stingrays, then a reef top at five to eight metres with finger coral and sponges. The slope runs gently to thirty metres. The point is in the detail: seahorses, scorpionfish and frogfish are reported here regularly.
Year-round, and above all at night: this is the most dived night dive in Kralendijk. By day the morning is quieter than after lunch.
It is busy, certainly around dive school hours. Boats come and go near the jetty, so keep to the flag and to the shore side. The reef top carries visible traces of use. Facilities belong to the resort, not to the public road.
Decisions on diveability, technique and health belong with STINAPA, a dive school or a doctor. This page only describes the conditions.
Species counts at Bari Reef have been kept by volunteers and researchers for years, partly through the REEF survey method. That puts this site at the top of comparisons — not because more lives here, but because the counting has been better.
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