Coral Reef Diagnostics

Bonaire - The Cliff

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Part of the regional summary: Bonaire

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05
Coral Reef Diagnostics
Coral Health Index: 1.00/5
Photo: Anderson Mayfield/Coral Reef Diagnostics
Country
Bonaire
Survey date(s)
2017-02-20
Coordinates
12.1734, -68.2894
Position from the published dive-site listing for The Cliff; an online dive-site atlas places it 20 m away; no GPS fix was logged on the dive.
Coral cover
31%
Claude computer vision (58 edited photos) · other methods below · median 28%
Observations
None tagged; see Stressors below
Heat stress
Most recent heat load record
28.8°C2.1°C-weeks
26 Oct 2026 · Bleaching Warning
5-year thermal stress load
5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)
17.3°C-weeksi
2021–2025
NOAA Coral Reef Watch — Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire virtual station
i 5-year mean max. DHW is the mean of the annual maximum DHWs over the five complete years named above, not conditions today.
More infoAruba, Curacao, and Bonaire (NOAA CRW virtual station)
Photographs
61
50 shown on this page
Site summary
Read this summary in:

The Cliff is one of Bonaire's steep drop-off walls, thickly layered with plate, brain, and star corals, fire coral, and sea rods, with living elkhorn coral in the sandy shallows above. Two enormous tarpon (about 2 m long, Anderson's log), spotted morays, parrotfish, and grunts work the reef, which carries substantial live tissue apart from some old scars on the big colonies.

Max. depth dived
31.7 m
Water temp. during survey
26.2°Cii
-1.6°C vs the 2017 mean sea temperature (27.8°C)
ii From 1 logged dive at this site.
Bottom time
48 min
in at 12:05

Fourteen independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.

Two other CRD dive sites with their own pages within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.

9 of the 50 photographs on this page are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.

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Photo credit & attribution

Site description

Setting

A steep drop-off wall thickly covered in brain, star, and boulder corals interspersed with fire coral, elkhorn coral, and sea rod gorgonians.

General benthic features

The photographs show a strongly zoned fringing-reef system. The shallowest views are sand- and rubble-dominated, with scattered blade/branching fire coral and at least one substantial live Acropora palmata colony (e.g., Image 1).

1Image 1

Patch-reef areas contain large lobate and massive star-coral forms, grooved brain corals, sea rods, soft corals, and tube sponges (e.g., Image 2, Image 4).

2Image 24Image 4

The defining deeper habitat is a steep cliff/drop-off carrying dense overlapping plate or lettuce corals, massive colonies, gorgonians, and sponges (e.g., Image 3).

3Image 3

This creates high three-dimensional relief and many crevices, while sand channels and older carbonate framework remain conspicuous between living colonies (e.g., Image 5).

5Image 5

Coral cover

Stressors

The image set does not show a widespread bleaching event, macroalgal takeover, or an unmistakable acute disease outbreak. Most photographed colonies retain normal brown, tan, or green pigmentation and substantial live tissue. Localized old partial mortality, small scars, and encrusted dead skeleton are present on several massive and brain corals—most clearly in one frame—and rubble/open substrate is extensive in the shallow transition. These observations indicate mixed condition rather than a uniformly pristine reef, but single photographs cannot establish whether any lesion is currently progressing. Dark sea rods should not be classified as dead from color alone because species pigmentation and polyp retraction can produce the same appearance. No corallivores were evident.

Fish and other fauna

Two enormous tarpon, about 2 m long, cruised past at 25–30 m (Anderson's log) (e.g., Image 27, Image 31), and spotted moray eels peered from crevices, with schooling parrotfish, grunts, and an orange whitespotted filefish working the reef (e.g., Image 16, Image 40).

27Image 2731Image 3116Image 1640Image 40

Comparisons with other data

Stokes et al. (2010) surveyed this site (Cliff) in 2008, 0.17 km from the pin. Within 5 km, fourteen independent stations recorded station-year means of 6.0–49% hard coral cover between 1982 and 2017; the nearest, Stokes et al. 2010 at Cliff [2008 - 10 m], 0.17 km away, read 27% in 2008.

CV model comparison

Mean 31%, median 28% across 58 photos.
More infoA few colony-focused photos raise the mean; the median is the typical photo. No computer-vision method yet estimates coral cover accurately on new images, so treat this as indicative rather than a measurement; it is revised as the methods improve.
Headline: Claude computer vision, a blind point count of this site's own photographs.
More infoOther rows are for comparison only and are never averaged. No diver transect exists for these photos, so agreement between rows is not accuracy.
MethodHard coral cover (%)Photos (n) ± SE
CoralSCOP edited27.8n = 61 · SE 2.3
Claude (edited photos)30.5n = 58 · SE 2.3

CoralSCOP (edited photos) reads 27.8%, within 2.7 pp of Claude's blind point count (30.5%).

See a more detailed, stand-alone version of this table.

Independent surveys nearby

Data availability near this site
Agency / programYear(s)Stations / distanceLink
Handschuh (pers. comm.) 1997, via Stokes et al. 201019971 station, 0.17 kmRecords ↓
Kobluk & Lysenko 198419821 station, 0.17 kmRecords ↓
Steneck et al. (2019)2004–20175 stations, 0.38–4.83 kmRecords ↓
Stokes et al. 201020082 stations, 0.17 kmRecords ↓
XL Catlin Seaview Survey20135 stations, 3.20–4.95 kmRecords ↓
Hard coral cover over time — this site and every independent station within 5 km. Programs are shown separately because they use different methods at different stations; the lines are not one comparable series.
0%12%24%36%48%198219992017Kobluk & Lysenko 1984 1982: 40%Handschuh (pers. comm.) 1997, via Stokes et al. 2010 1997: 32%Steneck et al. (2019) 2004: 38%Steneck et al. (2019) 2004: 46%Steneck et al. (2019) 2005: 40%Steneck et al. (2019) 2005: 41%Steneck et al. (2019) 2007: 43%Steneck et al. (2019) 2007: 45%Steneck et al. (2019) 2009: 32%Steneck et al. (2019) 2009: 36%Steneck et al. (2019) 2009: 45%Steneck et al. (2019) 2009: 47%Steneck et al. (2019) 2009: 49%Steneck et al. (2019) 2011: 24%Steneck et al. (2019) 2011: 36%Steneck et al. (2019) 2011: 37%Steneck et al. (2019) 2011: 38%Steneck et al. (2019) 2011: 42%Steneck et al. (2019) 2013: 17%Steneck et al. (2019) 2013: 26%Steneck et al. (2019) 2013: 30%Steneck et al. (2019) 2013: 34%Steneck et al. (2019) 2013: 49%Steneck et al. (2019) 2015: 30%Steneck et al. (2019) 2015: 32%Steneck et al. (2019) 2015: 36%Steneck et al. (2019) 2015: 39%Steneck et al. (2019) 2015: 41%Steneck et al. (2019) 2017: 35%Steneck et al. (2019) 2017: 38%Steneck et al. (2019) 2017: 45%Steneck et al. (2019) 2017: 47%Steneck et al. (2019) 2017: 48%Stokes et al. 2010 2008: 27%Stokes et al. 2010 2008: 36%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2013: 6.0%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2013: 15%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2013: 16%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2013: 18%XL Catlin Seaview Survey 2013: 20%Coral Reef Diagnostics 2017: 31%Year-averaged across all programs: illustrative only; the programs differ in stations and method, so no trend is claimed (11 years)
Kobluk & Lysenko 1984 Handschuh (pers. comm.) 1997, via Stokes et al. 2010 Steneck et al. (2019) Stokes et al. 2010 XL Catlin Seaview Survey Coral Reef DiagnosticsYear-average (illustrative only, programs differ)

Within 5 km, 14 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 143 records between 1982 and 2017. Of the 5 stations surveyed in more than one year, 2 declined (by 1.0–8.0 points), 2 increased (by 10–13 points), and 1 changed by less than 1 point between their first and latest surveys. Two stations share the longest span (2004–2017); one, Reef Scientifico (Steneck et al. 2019, 0.38 km away), went from 38% in 2004 (mean of 8 records) to 48% in 2017 (mean of 4 records). The most recent nearby survey is from 2017, so these values predate recent heat stress. This site's own estimate (31%) sits within the range of these station-year means up to 2 km away (27–49%); the methods differ, so the comparison is context, not a like-for-like test.

Collected by other programs using different methods (the XL Catlin Seaview Survey uses photo-transects with automated image annotation), so these are context for the figures above, not a like-for-like comparison. Where a station was surveyed more than once, the cell shows either the range of its values or, as a single value, the mean of surveys made in one year. Station names are not dive-site names.

Show all 143 independent survey records
Independent survey data near this site
AgencySite / locationDateHard coral cover (%)DistanceLink
Kobluk & Lysenko 1984Cliff (Aquahabitat photomosaic station) [19 m]198240%0.17 km—
Handschuh (pers. comm.) 1997, via Stokes et al. 2010Cliff [7.6 m]199732%0.17 km—
Steneck et al. (2019)Reef Scientifico2004–201736–49% (range of yearly means; 35 records)0.38 kmdoi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00265
Steneck et al. (2019)Barcadera2004–201730–49% (range of yearly means; 40 records)2.18 kmdoi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00265
Stokes et al. 2010Cliff [2008 - 10 m]200827%0.17 kmdoi:10.5479/si.00775630.582.1
Stokes et al. 2010Cliff [2008 - 20 m]200836%0.17 kmdoi:10.5479/si.00775630.582.1
Steneck et al. (2019)Oilslick leap2009–201730–47% (range of yearly means; 20 records)2.18 kmdoi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00265
Steneck et al. (2019)Front Porch2009–201717–45% (range of yearly means; 19 records)3.85 kmdoi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00265
Steneck et al. (2019)Calabas2009–201724–36% (range of yearly means; 20 records)4.83 kmdoi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00265
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 17045201316%3.20 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 17037201320%3.77 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 1704320136.0%4.29 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 17044201315%4.39 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930
XL Catlin Seaview Surveytransect 17034201318%4.95 kmdoi:10.14264/uql.2019.930

Data & links

All images from Coral Reef Diagnostics. Data are from Coral Reef Diagnostics and the organizations named in the data sources above.

© Coral Reef Diagnostics.

References

  1. Kobluk DR, Lysenko MA (1984). Carbonate rocks and coral reefs, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Geological Association of Canada, Field Trip 13 guidebook, Toronto. 67 pp.
  2. Stokes MD, Leichter JJ, Genovese SJ (2010). Long-term declines in coral cover at Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Atoll Research Bulletin 582:1-21. DOI
  3. Steneck RS, Arnold SN, Boenish R, de León R, Mumby PJ, Rasher DB, et al. (2019). Managing Recovery Resilience in Coral Reefs Against Climate-Induced Bleaching and Hurricanes: A 15 Year Case Study From Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean. Frontiers in Marine Science 6:265. PDF
  4. Gonzalez-Rivero M, et al. (2019). Seaview Survey photo-quadrat and image classification dataset. The University of Queensland (UQ eSpace) data collection. DOI