Curacao Diving: A 10,000 Hectare Marine Park and 4 Unassessed Operators
by Yannick Schroth
Aug 15, 2026
4 min read
Photo: Matthew T Rader, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reefs, rules and operators all change. Confirm the current picture before you book.
Key takeaways
- None of the 4 register members have been assessed in person. All are Digital Members, so the tier tells you nothing beyond the fact of registration.
- The Curacao Marine Park is managed by the CARMABI Foundation, a non-profit founded in 1955, and covers over 10,000 hectares along the southern coast.
- CARMABI's own marine park page states no rules for divers or dive operators. The park protects the habitat; it is not a licensing scheme for the businesses.
- The register files the island under three separate districts. That is a filing convention, not three different diving areas.
The park is real. The check on the operators is not.
The CARMABI Foundation, established in 1955 and describing itself as “a non-profit foundation on the island of Curacao in the Dutch Caribbean”, manages the Curacao Marine Park, which its own page gives as “over 10,000 hectares of pristine marine habitats” stretching along the island's southern coast.
Reading that page for what it says about operators is instructive: it names diving and snorkelling as activities and sets out no requirements, no licence and no code that dive businesses must meet. That is not a criticism of CARMABI, whose job is the habitat. It does mean that if you were hoping the marine park designation implies somebody vets the dive shops, it does not.
What the register shows, which is little
On 2026-08-14 the Green Fins register carried 4 members in Curaçao, and every one held Digital Member status: registered, with no in-person assessment. Our Curacao operator list shows them with that stated plainly, because a page that let this look like the Puerto Galera list, where sixteen of sixteen were assessed within the year, would be misleading by layout alone.
What to ask instead of looking at a badge
What to ask instead. A Digital Member listing tells you a business filled in a form. These are better questions, and any decent operator will answer them without fuss: how many divers per guide; whether the guide is in the water with you or on the boat; what happens if you use air faster than the group; and whether they will show you the certificate for whatever they claim to hold. An operator that gets defensive about the fourth one has answered it.
What we did not verify
Park fees, shore-diving access, boat charges and the designation history of the park are hard facts under our rules and were not confirmed at a primary source, so they are not here. CARMABI is the place to ask about the park itself.
Questions
Are Curacao dive operators independently checked?
Not on the evidence we have. All 4 in the Green Fins register are Digital Members, meaning registered with no in-person assessment.
Who runs the Curacao Marine Park?
The CARMABI Foundation, a non-profit established in 1955. Its own page gives the park as over 10,000 hectares of marine habitat along the southern coast.
Does the marine park regulate dive shops?
Not that CARMABI's own marine park page states. It lists diving and snorkelling as activities and sets out no operator requirements.
Writes NOMADREEF and compiles its operator directory. This guide is desk research, not a trip report, and says so at the top. About the author
Sources
- CARMABI Foundation, Curacao Marine Park. Manager, founding year and park extent, read 2026-08-14. The page states no designation date and no operator rules.
- Green Fins member register, Reef-World Foundation with the UN Environment Programme, greenfins.net. Membership status for 4 operators, read 2026-08-14.
- Our own Curacao operator list, where each field carries its evidence and date.