Bonaire National Marine Park: STINAPA's rules for divers.

Who manages the park

The Bonaire National Marine Park is managed by STINAPA Bonaire (Stichting Nationale Parken Bonaire), which also manages Washington Slagbaai National Park. STINAPA's rules page, carrying a 2026 copyright, says its rules apply to everyone who uses the park and rest on the island decision on the underwater park (Island Decision: Underwater Park, Dutch regulation record CVDR696068). The page does not give the decision's year, and our research did not find it.

Wikipedia (secondary) gives 1979 as the year the park was established and 1999 as the year it received full national park status under the Netherlands Antilles, and says Klein Bonaire was added as a protected nature reserve in 2001. We did not find those dates on STINAPA's own pages.

How far the park extends

The two sources describe the park's extent differently:

• STINAPA describes the park as all the light blue waters around Bonaire, 75 m from shore.
• Wikipedia (secondary) says the park runs from the high-water line down to a depth of 60 m around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, covering about 27 square kilometres.

The two may be measuring different things, one a distance from shore and the other a depth. STINAPA's page gives no depth, so we cannot reconcile them.

The nature fee

STINAPA states that the nature fee is mandatory for everyone who uses the marine park or Washington Slagbaai National Park, and that it is valid for one calendar year, from January to December. The fee is named here; its amount is not given. When we checked STINAPA's page on 21 October 2026, it said the online nature fee payment system was temporarily offline for a security update.

The island's tourism board site describes the fee as a digital tag attached to dive gear after paying online, which shows rangers that the holder has paid. We could not confirm that description on STINAPA's own pages.

The sources also disagree on how the fee is structured. An undated older park brochure lists a separate rate for scuba divers and a lower rate for other water users, each valid for one calendar year. The tourism board's current guides list a single rate. Because the brochure is undated, we cannot say when its structure applied; STINAPA's own page is the place to check the current fee.

STINAPA's rules for divers

STINAPA's diving rules page (2026 copyright) sets out these rules:

• Orientation dive. A mandatory orientation dive is required on arrival.
• No gloves or knee pads. Gloves and knee pads are not allowed. Medical exceptions can be requested from STINAPA by email.
• Hands off. Divers must not touch, move or grab marine life, including to take photographs.
• Buoyancy. STINAPA requires good buoyancy control to protect the reef.
• Leave No Trace. Divers must not place or remove any object, living or dead, in the park.
• No feeding. Feeding animals is prohibited, and STINAPA warns it can be extremely dangerous.
• No light sticks or pointers. Disposable chemical light sticks and pointer sticks are prohibited.
• East coast. Diving on the east coast is for advanced divers only, and STINAPA recommends an experienced guide there.

Where diving is not allowed

STINAPA says diving is allowed throughout the park except in two reserves, the Queen Maxima Reserve and the King Willem-Alexander Reserve, and at sites closed temporarily because of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). Our research did not find the dates on which the two reserves were created.

For the SCTLD closures, we found only local news reports, seen through search summaries, and could not confirm them against a STINAPA notice. Those reports said STINAPA closed all sites from north of Karpata to Malmok, including Washington Slagbaai National Park, from 1 May 2023, and that by January 2024 all sites except those off Washington Slagbaai had reopened, with gear disinfection still mandatory. We found no 2026 closure notice from STINAPA beyond the line on its diving rules page, so check STINAPA's current notices for which sites are open.

Moorings

STINAPA's mooring page sets these rules for boats:

• Public moorings, marked by yellow or blue buoys, may be used for up to 2 consecutive hours, tied by the bow, on a first come, first served basis, by boats up to 13 m long. One boat over 4 m may use a mooring, or up to three boats under 4 m.
• Visitor overnight moorings, marked by bicoloured buoys, are managed by STINAPA, need registration with Customs and at the designated marina, may be used only for the period of the visitor's visa, and may not be used for commercial activity.
• Boaters should approach mooring buoys from the seaward side, in the dark blue water.

STINAPA's mooring page, as we read it, does not address anchoring. Sailing guides describe further boating restrictions in the park, but we could not confirm them on STINAPA's pages, so they are not repeated here.

Related reading

For the broader reef conduct guidance published by NOAA, Project AWARE and Green Fins, see protecting reefs and marine life. For how Bonaire's fee compares with permits and fees at other sites, see how dive sites are protected.