Captain Don's Reef bears the name of the diving pioneer who pressed for protection of the reef from the 1960s and stood at the root of the ban on anchoring and touching coral. The dive itself is one of the most intact slopes on Klein Bonaire.
Captain Don's Reef is an advanced boat dive on Klein Bonaire: a top at five to seven metres and a steep, densely grown slope to thirty-eight metres.
A top at five to seven metres gives way to a steep slope to thirty-eight metres, densely covered with vase sponges, sea fans and black coral. Jacks and tarpon hang along the edge; lobster sit in the overhangs.
In calm sea and moderate current, when the boat visits the west side. Around midday for the light on the slope.
The slope drops away deep fast, which keeps dive time short. In swell the boats do not run to this side. Boat only, no facilities.
Decisions on diveability, technique and health belong with STINAPA, a dive school or a doctor. This page only describes the conditions.
The measures introduced on Bonaire from the 1970s — fixed moorings instead of anchors, a ban on touching coral and later the Nature Tag — are the reason the reef here is in better condition than on almost any other Caribbean island.
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