Diving Hilma Hooker Bonaire | The Shore Dive Collection | TropicLens - 4K

Bonaire may not have as may wrecks as Curaçao or Aruba, but the Hilma Hooker is definitely one of the island’s highlights and there aren’t too many places where you can dive a big ship from shore. Although the wreck sits in 80 to 100 feet of water, some of the shallowest parts are reachable at 60 feet. It’s 240 feet long with a couple of cargo holds open from the deck…plus there are a few hallways you can swim through with access to open water on both ends. There is plenty to enjoy
Swimming around, you will see lots of sergeant majors and there was a resident green moray eel on each of our dives. We also had three first time encounters including a couple of leather-backed platydoris (nudibranchs), a western comb grouper and a spotted spoon-nose eel.
This is a very popular site both from the shore and by boat. We suggest considering early afternoon for both the best sunlight on the ship as well as avoiding the morning throngs of divers. The snorkeling is pretty good too. We saw barracuda, a large school of blue tang, bearded fireworms and lots of juveniles.
Shore entry can be tricky, though. Check out the video for some tips as well as highlights of the wreck…including swim throughs!
We want to encourage more shore diving, so this video provides some guidance where the site is, how to dive it and what you may see there. If you want to skip to or review specific topics, the section timings are as follows.
Please add a comment and let us know what you saw there.
FIRST TIME CAPTURE IDENTIFICATION
We primarily use two sources to validate our first time captures. The first is Florent's Guide To The Tropical Reefs which can be found at reefguide.org. Its free and has lots of pictures, but is not comprehensive. The second is “The Reef Set: Reef Fish, Reef Creature and Reef Coral (3 Volumes)”. The box set can be found on Amazon; however with all our travels, we also purchased the eBooks (fishid.com/store/product-categ...) so we don’t have to carry an extra five pounds of paper in our luggage. :-)
Here are the links to this video's first time captures.
* Leather-Backed Platydoris - www-reeflex-net.translate.goo...
* Western Comb Grouper - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myctero...
* Spotted Spoon-Nose Eel - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted...
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:22 Site Background/Description
4:01 Site Logistics
6:58 Dive Profile
10:58 Sea Life
13:42 Night Diving

[@pablogc2008]

Amazing video! Congrats!

[@TropicLens]

Thank you so much Pablo! :-)

[@whaleshark2625]

Excellent video! Headed to Curacao in July and watching your videos has been great inspiration!

[@shotsbyscott6243]

Great video!

[@TropicLens]

Thank you so much Scott!

[@TheNicintime]

Great video! Thanks. Quick editing comment - I love the "inserts" that pop in from the side with a list of relevant information! Can you make them about 2 or 3 seconds longer? They are a bit too fast for mevvto read. Thank you again!

[@TropicLens]

Thank you for the comment Tom. We didn't want to make them too long so as to bore people thinking that people could just put it on pause if they needed more time. That said, another second or two is doable. We just finished setting up the template for Grand Cayman (while in quarantine) and the informational sidebars are now 8 seconds as opposed to the 6 - 7 on the Bonaire template. Look for the Sunset House in a week or two and let us know what you think. :-)

[@user-tt9kb1oz6l]

Nice quality video. I've done this dive but honestly, the Hilma Hooker is a boring dive to me. The nearby reef is much more interesting! I don't know if this is true but someone on island said that a coating was put on the ship when it was "working" to discourage stuff from growing on it.

[@TropicLens]

Thank you X. There aren't many wrecks on Bonaire, so it does present a different dive type on the island. To be sure there are other wrecks throughout the ABC islands. We very much enjoyed the planes on Aruba. That said, we understand Hilma Hooker might not be everyone's cup of tea. :-) We also agree that the reefs on the island are spectacular. With respect to the coating, the hull is rather bland with most of the growth on the upper portions of the ship. Can you share where you heard about that? Would love to validate if true and include that in an update.

[@user-tt9kb1oz6l]

@@TropicLens My source was an American who had lived on Bonaire for decades. Unfortunately, he passed away. You might be able to validate the information at one of the older dive shops/establishments such as Cap'n Don's.

[@VictorBorghi]

Excelente vídeo! Estou assistindo toda a série na sequência! As pedras de entrada/saída já estavam aí? Ou vocês mesmos pintaram elas?

[@TropicLens]

Hola Víctor. Bonaire es muy bueno al tener marcadores de sitios de buceo en casi todos los sitios. En la mayoría, encontrará rocas amarillas similares... lo que hace que sea mucho más fácil encontrar el lugar correcto. Espero que esto ayude.

[@kristinaolson3963]

Great video - again. Any chance to provide links to your new finds? I can’t locate the leather backed ‘red’ thing online as an example. ❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@TropicLens]

What a great idea Kristina! While we are quarantining in Grand Cayman (2 days left), we have been updating the template and will add a small blurb in the background section highlighting additional links in the text description. Look for a shout out in the Sunset House video. :-)

[@TropicLens]

Also, just for you...well and anyone else reading these comments. Here are some links. :-) * Leather-Backed Platydoris - www-reeflex-net.translate.goog/tiere/8271_Platydoris_angustipes.htm?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc * Western Comb Grouper - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycteroperca_acutirostris * Spotted Spoon-Nose Eel - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_spoon-nose_eel

[@rogerkahn]

Very enjoyable video of a site we recently visited. One question...leather-backed hoosey whatsis?

[@TropicLens]

LOL. That was a leather-backed platydoris. There isn't all that much online except some pictures. We actually found it in the Reef Fish ID book.

[@rogerkahn]

@@TropicLens A nudibranch!

[@TropicLens]

@@rogerkahn Yes indeed! There are a ton of lettuce slugs here, but nudibranchs are pretty darned rare.

[@TropicLens]

I should have said "there", because we are on Grand Cayman now. :-)