Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · sea · Bonaire National Marine Park

🇧🇶 Salt Pier

Kralendijk, Bonaire, Bonaire

The loading jetty of the Cargill solar salt works, divable only when no ship is alongside — and the pillars have become the richest structure on the island.

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

Revision 2 · changed 18 Oct 2026

History
  1. r2 18 Oct 2026 Photo size matches the file · Dennis Bakhuis
  2. 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

Sandy shallows 3-8 mPillar rows under the conveyorBerth and mooring dolphins↓30 mUsual route · 433 mEntry north of the pierPillar labyrinth 6-15 m↓10 mPier headNatural reef 20-30 m↓25 mNo diving while a ship is alongsideN50 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Hazard
  • Point of interest
  • Shoreline
  • Depth contour
  • Dive path
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Sand
  • Depth
Site map · 3 objects · 1 path · max 30 m

The Cargill salt-loading pier: the conveyor trestle on rows of sponge-covered concrete pillars from the shore to the pier head, the berth with its mooring dolphins, sandy shallows at 3-8 m and the natural reef sloping from about 15 m to 30 m beyond the pier (bonaire.com, scubadiving.com). Pier geometry from OpenStreetMap; the pillar rows are drawn as two lines either side of the conveyor because the individual pillar positions are not published, and the 30 m contour and the route are estimates. Diving is only allowed when no ship is loading. Coastline, pier and dive-site markers © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate.

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

Bonaire still makes salt the way it has since the seventeenth century: sea water into shallow pans, sun, wind, and a crop of crystals. The modern works are run by Cargill, and the salt leaves the island over a pier that runs out from the southern coast.

The pier has about two dozen concrete pillars standing in 6–15 m of water, and every one of them is completely encrusted — sponges, corals, gorgonians — with schools of fish holding station in the shade between them. The light comes down in blades between the pilings. It is the most photographed structure in Bonaire.

You can only dive it when no ship is loading, for obvious reasons, and permission is checked at the salt works. Tarpon and silversides use the shade.

Dived 12 August 2012, 11.5 m for 76 minutes — the longest Bonaire dive in the log, which is what happens when the whole site is this shallow.

Image: Bonaire Salt Pier-03.jpg — Utilisateur:Bel Adone, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Photos

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

1 dive at Salt Pier

  1. 12 Aug 2012 with Kim date12 Aug 2012 depth11.5 m time76 min water—

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)