Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · sea · Bonaire National Marine Park

🇧🇶 Nukove

Bonaire, Bonaire

A narrow channel cut through the ironshore to give divers a way in — and behind it, some of the best elkhorn coral left on the island.

Dives here
1
Deepest
24.9 m
Water
salt
First · last
2012

Revision 1 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Coral plateau 3-12 mSand flat 12-18 mReef wall from 18 m↓30 m↓40 mUsual route · 554 mCut through the ironshoreMooringElkhorn and staghorn stands↓4 mN20 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Buoy
  • Point of interest
  • Shoreline
  • Depth contour
  • Dive path
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Coral / reef
  • Sand
  • Depth
Site map · 1 object · 1 path · max 40 m

The cut through the ironshore, a wide coral plateau at 3-12 m with elkhorn and staghorn, a sand flat at 12-18 m and the reef wall from about 18 m to 40 m (bonaire.com, divers-guide.com and infobonaire.com site descriptions). The mooring is placed at the OpenStreetMap dive-site marker, and the route is illustrative. Coastline and dive-site markers © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

The north-west coast here is ironshore: sharp, pitted, fossil limestone that is nearly impossible to walk over in fins. At Nukove a narrow cut has been made through it, just wide enough for one diver at a time, and that channel is the only reason the site is accessible at all.

Beyond it the reef is in excellent condition, with stands of elkhorn coral — a species that has been lost from most of the Caribbean — and a drop-off close inshore.

Dived 11 August 2012 to 24.9 m.

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

1 dive at Nukove

  1. 11 Aug 2012 with Kim date11 Aug 2012 depth24.9 m time60 min water—

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)