For many years, I would vacation in Bonaire. For years, I was captivated by, but failed to capture with my camera the rich blue hues that are turquoise in the shallow, sandy bottomed areas and a navy blue in deeper water. Photo after photo was rejected, as not showing the colors with anything approaching how I saw them.
I loved the clarity and warmth of the water, and I learned a lot about how the ecosystem worked. To illustrate, there is a type of fish called parrotfish. They feed using chisel-like teeth on dead coral, scraping the surface and ingesting a mixture of algae and coral remnants. They digest the algae and excrete the very fine particles of coral, which forms the fine white sand so treasured in Aruba. I wonder how the tourists would feel about the beaches if they knew they were stretched out on parrotfish poop?
Bonaire does have a few beaches. One, at the south end of the island, is known as Pink Beach. Its name is rumored to come from many sources, including claims of an effect produced by very fine white sand reflecting a pink color near sundown.
Years ago, as Hurricane Lennie moved through the northern Caribbean, it set up a series of unusually large waves. This wave system struck Bonaire, doing considerable damage to structures along the shore and to shallow reef structure. At Pink Beach, the fine white sand was washed away.
In an effort to restore the beach, construction equipment was used to try to dredge up offshore sand and replace the beach. It did not work. The result had many broken bits of coral, and the dredged-up sand disappeared either to the wind, to the waves or between the coarser pieces of coral. It is no longer a fine sand beach that glows with a faint pink hue near sunset, but it is still a picturesque spot. Not too long after Hurricane Lennie, I captured a shot at Pink Beach that I think shows the colors in the water fairly well.
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