License For Diving And Snorkeling

STINAPA is the foundation that manages both the Bonaire National Marine Park — all the water around the island — and Washington Slagbaai National Park in the north. The fee funds the mooring buoys, the rangers and the reef monitoring. It applies to anyone going into the sea for any reason: diving, snorkelling, swimming, kitesurfing or windsurfing. Children under twelve do not need one.

It costs forty dollars a person and is valid for a calendar year, from the first of January to the thirty-first of December — so a tag bought in November expires six weeks later, while one bought in January covers the whole year. Pay online in advance; you receive QR codes by email and must be able to show yours if a ranger asks.

Two things to know. It is a different charge from the Visitor Entry Tax, which everyone pays on arrival, and paying one does not cover the other. And it is checked in practice — rangers patrol the dive sites and the park entrance, and the fines are considerably more than forty dollars.