December 06
Reefseekers wishes everyone a very Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007
First couple of weeks of December over and we're still waiting for rain;o(
Pair of Coleman shrimps found at a new site 'Mini Wall' they had carefully
snipped off the poisonous spines of a fire urchin and made a bare patch
to live on, nice dive for critter spotting, a huge solor nudibranch
+ many others, pipe fish, octopus, shrimps, crabs. A massive black blotched
ray was leading the dive in a channel, biggest nurse shark I've ever
seen + 6 mandarin fish at the end of one dive, Mantas at the Airstrip
again;o)) Ghost pipe fish at Critter heaven, 6 huge African pompanos
at Full moon, water temperature is 29-30c. Chillier water at Cannibal
25c but hosts of nudibranchs with a mating pair of Miamira magnifica
and the biggest giant moray I've ever seen, lots of baby white tip sharks
hiding in holes, one wee cave had 6 all piled on top of each other.
November 06
The start of November with the full moon saw us with very strong currents
at some sites and cool waters, but the Mantas are back in force for
the start of the upcoming rainy season, well fingers crossed we've had
only one shower so far! Lots of families of bumphead parrot fish around,
sea snakes and a new slasher mantis shrimp found at Sebayur, the beautiful,
but tiny nudibranch 'Sagaminopteron psychedelicum' not even 1cm, seen
at Tatawa Kecil. Whilst we were diving in the North we surfaced after
one dive to have the boys on the boat tell us we'd just missed 2 whales,
so off we goes in hot pursuit in the general direction they were last
seen heading, but alas we didn't get to see them, they were 2 killer
whales, maybe just as well we didn't get to see them underwater, think
that would have been too much of a shock!! More photos of diving with
Reefseekers by Iain Fraser http://community.webshots.com/user/bora_horza
October 06
Water has been chilly these last few weeks, with some very cool upwellings,
still having some nice Manta moments at a few of our northern dive sites,
teeny beige frog fish found as I turned back over an overturned table
coral at Lighthouse, very cute;o) 3 huge crocodile fish all lined up
to have their photos taken at Full moon. Big black blotched rays at
Siaba and Crystal rock. Scaring the boat crew, a huge whale was seen
heading out North from Sebayur island, breaching and blowing out massive
plumes of spray to our enthralled guests;o) Nurdin and guests getting
an underwater visit by dolphins at one of our northern sites;o) check
out some photos from Komodo taken by
Igo Verlinde
http://www.localize.nl/fotoalbum/albumindex.htm
September 06
Jacuzzi fish, never heard of them, then have we got a treat for you,
one of our dive sites has bignose unicorn fish which just love to take
a jacuzzi in your exhaled bubbles, it is so funny to see, the fish shuddering
with delight in the plumes of bubbles, but watch out they normally take
a dump at the same time;o) Big grey sharks circling Ernest on one dive
and as luck would have it, he had his video. We had our first shower
of rain in a good few months last week, but only the one, enough to
give the plants a good soaking, still a way off until the rainy season
arrives, water temp a cool 27c with some sites 25c good job we wear
5mm suits;o) Massive crocodile fish at Tatawa kecil, obviously well
fed and the same can be said for the lone Giant Barracuda that hangs
out at the orange grove. Ghost pipe fish at Sebayur and still lots of
leaf fish there, seems to be leaf fish Central. Big groups of Sailfin
snappers, all adults as no trailing fins. The numbers of Mantas are
increasing again at the dive sites;o) What a thrill when on the end
of my new reef hook, "Thank you Rose" in swooped a Manta to
have a good old stare, she then came so close I had to scootch over
to stop bumping into her, think she was confused how this diver was
hanging in the current with no effort and was trying to get in my space
to feed, she stayed a while then took off over my head and I had to
duck to keep her from bumping into me again;o)))) Divers braving the
cold waters at Cannibal Rock 22c brrrrrr;o)
August 2006
With the Manta Rays staying around at a few of our favourite sites,
it's been a great August, excellent visibility, water temp 27c a little
cool for my liking and we've had many of our Frequent flyer divers;o)))
returning to dive with us over the last months, Thanks guys it's been
great fun to see you all again;o)) Bottlenose dolphin dropping in to
say hello after we'd seen huge Grey sharks, white tip sharks, schools
of fusiliers, Giant trevallys, blue fin trevallys, Tunas, shark Mackerel
and Napoleon Wrasse, you could say we had very happy divers;o) Many
sightings of Eagle rays this month, sighting of a Lacy scorpionfish,
not by me unfortunately;o(
July 06
A fly by of around 40 Javanese Cow nose rays, what a sight to see;o))
2 African Pompanos (look like Giant Trevally, but much bigger!) hanging
at Crystal rock, definitely part of the 'Mafia' group on the reefs!
Huge Giant moray out on the forage with an entourage of young napoleon
wrasse, blue fin trevally, longnose emperors, goat fish, all lining
up to see what tries to escape from under the coral head he's just gone
under, poor wee things trying to escape the moray swim out into the
jaws of one of the hecklers, well no one said life on the reef was easy!
June 06
Octopus are out and about on the reefs this month, many sightings of
these wonderful creatures. We had a zebra moray out swimming around
which is nice to see, normally they are very shy during the day. Chevron
and yellowtail barracudas making easy work of hanging in the current,
black tip sharks scooting around the reefs always on the go, not like
their pals the white tips who give you a look of indignation if you
go too close and they have to move, Bamboo, nurse and cat sharks around.
May 06
Nice winged pipefish found at Coral Garden, huge black blotched ray
posing for the photographers, sea snakes everywhere. Found a teeny bug
eyed thing, white blue and red, so small even with the magnifying glass
I couldn't make out what it was, it was buzzing around so fast like
a wee bee which didn't help matters, so I'm totally mistified. Lots
of frog fish down south, tiny skeleton shrimps on some hydroids, magnifying
glass time again. Lots of Mantas and sharks.
April 06
Wow, we've been having some superb dives this month, weather
has been perfect and the visibility is back to normal, how about a 102
minute dive in 6mts watching 3 manta rays swoop around us feeding and
getting cleaned, then coming in so close they were almost touching us
to have a long stare at the strange bubble blowing humans, absolutely
fabulous, then we had the dolphins at one site herding the schools of
blue fusiliers along with the help of the Giant trevallys, what a sight.
A school of huge yellowtail barracuda swimming around us with the leader
of the pack a monster of around 1.5mts, lots of octopus and cuttlefish
about, Eagle Rays and Mantas at many of the sites and a javanese cownose
ray seen in the north with cowtail and porcupine rays also being seen
regularly, the Grey sharks seem to have taken up residence at one site
and a few bamboo sharks hiding under coral heads, then of course my
favourites the nudibranchs still finding ones we haven't seen before
and not forgetting the frog fish, 6 being spotted in a day, then a baby
painted frog fish black with red spots and white toenails, how cute
was that, pink hairy squat lobsters found on a huge barrel sponge. Dolphins
everyday showing off at the surface, bottlenose and spinners, sometimes
coming in to ride the bow wave at the front of the boat, always a thrill
to see. Pygmy seahorses have disappeared from one of their favourite
fans not sure what's happened to them.
March 06
Manta
watching this months speciality, on many dives just find a comfortable
spot and watch the show, moving on only to try to warm up a little with
the temp 26-27c. Huge beautiful nudibranch miramosa spotted by Magali
at Cannibal Rock photo kindly donated by Julien. Big grey reef shark
seen, along with schools of fish being chased by the Giant and Bluefin
trevally, with the white tip sharks sneaking in for a bite to eat. Dolphins
showing off at the surface;o) Napoleons seem to be in mating mode with
the big males flashing their wonderful green/blue plumage to impress
the smaller females. Many leaf fish, frog fish and pygmy seahorses found,
nurse sharks at Pillarsteen and very nice viz to see the beauty of the
site the 3 sisters and her soft coral.
February 06
Visibility
has cleared up tremendously in the North and the South has water temperatures
of 27-29 so nice for spending a long time with the critters at Cannibal
Rock, more frog fish found and the crazy nudibranchs never end, nice
wee winged pipefish spotted by Nurdin under a frog fish. Plenty of Mantas
at Manta alley, lovely visibility at 3 Sisters to show off her walls
of soft and hard coral. Lots of octopus around the reefs with one putting
on quite a show at Pengah in the shallows, as he searched around for
a snack. 2 new dive sites found as yet unnamed but we're thinking hard.
Batu Tiga slowed her raging currents to allow us to marvel at her unbelievable
rock formations, as though the earth has exploded with huge chunks of
rock forming roads and overhangs, one area you would swear was cut with
a huge knife forming a ledge with a perfect vertical wall running along
it's edge, the marine life is superb with lots of pelagics and white
tip reef sharks, a huge Green turtle rowing past us all, we normally
see Hawksbill turtles so it was nice to see a Green for a change, then
right down to the wee critters, how they hang on when the current runs
I'll never understand. Dolphins coming in to look at our divers in the
northern sites on a couple of occasions, with Grey reef sharks popping
up to see what all the fuss is about.
January 06
A lost fishing net was found floating near Rinca after the strong winds
we've had over a couple of days and a poor wee turtle was caught up
in it, Sissi was able to release the turtle from the net and it swam
of quickly into the depths, before pulling the net up out of the water
to save any further turtles getting trapped they found a few sargassum
frog fish, 2 seahorses and a host of other critters which were shooed
off gently before the net was hoisted aboard. The middle of January
brought us strong winds and lots of rain, visibility has been reduced
but we've still managed to have some great dives. The big school of
Golden trevally is back at the lighthouse and the Mantas are parading
at Tatawa, a huge Great Barracuda is hanging around in the shallows
there, with the barracudas still hanging at Full moon, Siaba and Nidhihang.
Januari 2006
MERRY
CHRISMAST 2005 & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006 FROM ALL STAFF AND REEFSEEKERS
MANAGEMENT
December 2005
We wish you all a very Merry Christmast and a Happy New Year.
A Nautilus shell floating at the surface was found to be the home of
two tiny sargassum frog fish, along with a host of other tiny critters
yet another good reason why shells should not be picked up and taken
home. The Mantas are queuing up to see our guests at a lot of the dive
sites, visibility reduced a little but still fantastic diving. Bull
shark spotted by Marco in 5 mts of water, quite a surprise for him and
plenty of bamboo sharks, Hawksbill turtles and Napoleons yesterday,
also with the usual white tip and black tips sneaking around. Beautiful
painted frog fish and giant frog fish seen down south, with a host of
crazy nudibranchs of all varieties. We've had some good downpours in
the last couple of weeks and Flores is green again, sun is still shining
though and very hot.
November 05
The
Mantas are moving up to the Northern sites again, with many of the beauties
seen around the Tatawa area, Sissi and her group had about 20 mantas
flying around, with 2 Eagle rays hovering in to catch the limelight.
The rains have started and the viz in some sites is reduced to 15mts,
but more food in the water means more fish and critters, some beautiful
nudibranchs found, with the Glossodoris Cruentus being one of the favourites,
but many still remain unidentified!! Pengah stunning the guests with
her beautiful coral and amazing visibility for this time of year.
October 05
All of the marine life has been in mating mode, the poor female sharks
with their mating wounds hiding under coral heads for a bit of peace
and quiet, around 50 rays of different varieties seen in the first 5
mins of a dive at the Lighthouse and huge Trigger fish guarding their
nests all over the park. Nice visits to Cannibal rock for the critter
spotters, 2 Giant frog fish and a host of Nudibranchs with schools of
fusiliers in the shallows. Ornate ghost pipefish at Sabolon and a group
of huge bumphead parrotfish patrolling the reef.
September 05
Still no sign of any rain it's getting really very dry, we had a couple
of showers in Labuanbajo but the ground just soaked it up straight away,
hopefully the rain will arrive soon to cool everything down a little.
Lovely dives in September with Marco spotting a huge Nurse shark in
the cauldron, the dolphins still hanging around at Gili Lawa laut with
a couple of Mantas still popping up there also, lots of Mantas back
at Manta alley, we've had some lovely trips down there with huge giant
trevallys, black tips and schools of fusiliers, we've even spotted some
lovely nudibranchs which is unusual as everyone is normally always too
interested in the Manta Rays;0) Longtailed Ghostpipefish and some lovely
Ornate ghostpipe fish seen. 2 big schools of barracudas at Full moon.
Leaf scorpion fish popping up all over.
August 05
Whale shark 6mt seen at Rinca 2 days running, a friendly dolphin swimming
in to take a look at Tonnie and his divers at Crystal Rock, mimic octopus
found by Sissi and a new dive site "Nurdins Spirit" with frog
fish, lots of new nudibranchs , ghost pipefish etc., just some of the
highlights we've had this month, we've also seen a pod of pilot whales
on the journey back to Labuanbajo from Gili Lawa and many times had
Dolphins jumping and swimming with the boat, one memorable day saw a
group of dolphins at Cannibal rock popping up their heads for minutes
at a time and watching us on the boat, not sure who was more interested
in who? Then we had a crazy sole that attacked Kath as she was taking
it's picture. Nice weather for down South and diving at Manta alley
with the girls. Bamboo sharks and what was thought to be family of the
Port Jackson shark spotted by Marco and we must mention Yolanda from
Spain and her sighting of a Manta in the last minute of her last dive
with us, Well Done!!! And also Hannas recovered watch, which was lost
one week on a dive and found by Ernest the next week.
July 05
Short visit to Komodo from Jeremy the owner of Rainbow Divers in Vietnam
and his brother Peter, we had some great dives together, if you are
planning on diving in Vietnam check out his web site www.divevietnam.com
Our new Instructor Tonnie has just arrived from Holland and is busy
getting to know the sites, another passionate diver for our team.
Brilliant dives up at Gili Lawa Laut, Full moon and Crystal Rock with
Eagle rays and the whole reef pulsating with schooling fusiliers, plenty
of sharks around and huge crocodile fish hiding under the table corals.
Lighthouse reef thrilling our guests with her bumphead parrot fish,
schools of snappers, batfish, trevally, fusiliers and red tooth trigger
fish and a couple of manta rays up in the shallows getting cleaned and
of course the leaf fish and blue ribbon eels. Nhihdang with her many
Napoleons and schooling fish everywhere, huge yellowtail Barracudas
with a small nursery of babies being shepherded around between them.
June 05
We are happy to welcome our new Instructors Sissi and Marco, both from
Italy, they are already in love with the diving here and are as passionate
about the marine life as we are:0)) Blue ringed octopus found in the
shallows of Siaba. Great visibility at 3 Sisters, with Napoleons patrolling
the corners of the pinnacles, fantastic soft coral with plenty of Nudibranchs
and life everywhere.
Lots of Mantas at the airstrip, Cannibal Rock still thrilling us with
her soft coral and huge Nudibranchs, 2 Eagle rays spotted last week
there with schools of fusiliers being herded together by the Giant Trevallys,
the sea apples all out and feeding, this really is a strange sight.
May 05
2 tiny Seamoths found at Bidadari and the resident black frog fish has
moved further up the reef, the rains seem to have left us now, calm
seas and good visibility, Tetawa kecil hosting a few mantas this month
and the usual troop of Batfish still hanging out, with the huge bamboo
shark being spotted. Siaba has her yellowtail Barracudas still swooping
in to take a look at us, lots of Hawksbill turtles and Black tip sharks
and the mandarin fish still there. Desalination plant now up and running
on Bidadari, wow fresh water at last.
April 05
The weather was a bit rough at the beginning of the month and we got
the full amount of rainy seasons rain in a couple of days, great for
the farmers and the divers still braved the weather, once you're underwater
it doesn't matter, just 2 days we couldn't get out because of strong
wind and big waves and after a week, it had calmed down and we were
back to Sun and more Sun, with very nice visibility, the Mantas seem
to be making their way back down to Manta Alley, lots of them seen on
dives there now. Staff and crew on the boat thought they'd come across
2 turtles caught in fishing net, but low and behold they were mating,
2 huge green turtles, so the poor things were watched for a while and
then left to get on with their business. Mandarin fish spotted at Sebayur,
sneaking about in the coral, if you haven't already seen one, they look
so unreal with their beautiful coloured skin.
March 05
We're still having beautiful weather, not sure what's happened to the
rainy season, with not much rain at all this year, the guests are certainly
not complaining:o) but the farmers are. The Airstrip is still full of
Mantas a very nice place for lunch, with mantas everywhere just cruising
in the strong currents, some of them must be 5-6 mts across, they are
huge and when they seem to be coming straight for you feeding it's a
bit daunting. A beautiful clown frog fish found and a Shaggy frog fish,
which we went back to see and haven't as yet found again, but even when
he was pointed out the first time, he was so hard to distinguish, but
this is what makes diving here so great, you just never know what you
will find.
1st February 2005
Today we released a Loggerhead Turtle, which Anki, Debbie and Brian
found floating tangled in fishing net, his back flipper was bitten off
and he had deep wounds in his front flippers, after a lot of care and
attention we were able to release him back to the ocean, he swam off
gracefully into the depths surrounding Bidadari Island. Turtles quickly
adapt to the loss of a limb, especially a back fin which they mostly
use for steering. Lots of Mantas being seen at Tetawa and Gili Lawa
Laut, visibility down and the water 27c, but so much plankton in the
water bringing in lots of fish.
January 2005
We are happy to welcome our new Instructors to Labuanbajo, Kathryn,
Padi OWSI who has transferred from Gili Air and has worked for us already
for 6 months, Debbie, OWSI + EFR from England and Paddy from Ireland
who is our resident Marine Biologist and OWSI. The weather and visibility
are still good, even with the start of the rainy season.
December 27th 2004
Reefseekers sends its heartfelt wishes to the people of Aceh and the
other countries affected by the Tsunami. Please donate generously to
any of the Aid agencies below.
http://www.unicef.org/
http://www.ifrc.org/
http://www.care.org/
December 04
Ernest, Kath and all staff of Reefseekers would like to wish everyone
a very Merry Christmas.
The end of the year is still bringing special dives, a small group of
Dolphins playing at Gili Lawa laut, on one dive a group of 7 dolphins
being closely followed by some big sharks, not sure of the type of sharks,
or what they were up to. Mandarin fish still putting on a show.
November 04
The rains have started at last and everything is becoming green again
after the long dry season. 50-60 Mantas in one area with a pure white
one and one completely black , ghostpipe fish and pygmy seahorses popping
up at unexpected places. Sighting of a whale breaching, but nobody got
a good enough look to identify it. Tiny clown anglerfish spotted by
guests at Cannibal Rock.
October 2004
Flores man
What occurred in that "great gap", several million years ago,
is anybody's guess - and guesses there have been aplenty.
But the new discovery of a tiny, one-metre-tall, flat-faced, bipedal
"ape-man" on the Indonesian island of Flores is rather different.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3964579.stm
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200411/06/eng20041106_163016.html
http://pharyngula.org/index/science/comments/flores_man_controversy/
August 2004
This month was full of wonderful surprises for our guests. Mola Mola
seen in a pocket of very chilly water 19c, but who notices the cold
when you spot something like that, at least 2mts, swimming on his side,
Julian thought at first it was a Manta, but then as they got closer
found it to be the elusive Sun fish. Lots of Mantas down at the Alley,
a huge group of 1mt cow nose rays flying overhead like a cloud at Batu
bolong. Some of the Mantas are starting to move up North and have been
seen at Sebayur, Tetawa and Gili Lawa laut.
July
2004
2 Dugongs gracefully swam past us at Pillarsteen at the end of a beautiful
dive, Michaela, Robin, Stephan, Friedeman and of course me, were well
happy. Holly our new Divemaster also spotted a Dugong at the Cauldron
with her very happy guests a week later. The girls down at Manta Alley
were out in force on all of our recent visits, with some of them reaching
4 mts they are certainly the most amazing creatures to watch. Black
frog fish spotted at Sobolon also. Batu Bolong has been hosting 4 huge
Dog tooth tuna who loom in from the blue to frighten the life out of
you.
June2004
Reefseekers were very proud to receive an award from the Government
of Lombok for our work in Marine conservation and our Turtle Nursery
project in Gili Air.
April
2004
Batu Bolong is doing us proud, with schools of fusiliers of every kind
and about 30 monster Giant Trevallys patrolling the outer edges, these
guys make the sharks look small. Water temperature up to 29 in the north,
still 26 in the south, but so full of fish life down there, one dive
at Manta alley had the guests complaining about the schooling fusiliers,
as they couldn't get good shots of the Mantas for them getting in the
way.
March 2004
The
visibility is getting back to normal with calm and warmer water. Well
spotted by 2 of our divers a black frog fish, the reefs in this area
are so amazing you never know what you will come across, some very weird
nudibranchs around at the moment and the ever beautiful Mandarin fish.
February 2004
The weather this Feb has not been as windy as in previous years and
we've managed to have some great diving, visibility has been reduced
at some sites during the last week, but plenty sightings of Mantas,
pretty chilly as well, down to 25c some days.
January 2004
Plenty
of Mantas around, Eagle rays a plenty at the Cauldron and the pygmy
seahorses are cute as ever, we've had some very nice weather and good
visibility during this month.
December 2003
From the Staff and of course the animals of Reefseekers we wish you
all a Very merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year.
15 pygmy seahorses on one Gorgonian fan north of Komodo, they were leaping
around performing some amazing acrobatics.
October 2003
Nurdin our divemaster radioed in to report illegal fishermen in Gili
Lawa laut, the floating ranger station was there within no time to arrest
the fishermen from Sulawesi, they said they'd drifted with the current
and hadn't been fishing in the park, but on pulling up some buoys near
them, Nurdin found a dead black tip reef shark hooked on their line,
on entering the water Nurdin came across a huge grey shark which at
first also looked dead, but on closer inspection was found to be clinging
to life, Nurdin cut the line close to the mouth of the shark and miraculously
it gave a flick of it's tail to swim off into the blue. The fishermen
were taken to Labuanbajo where they were transferred to Ruteng to await
trial.
Please never be tempted to eat Shark fin soup or baby shark, sharks
are a vital part of our oceans and without them our world will change
forever in ways that we can not even conceive.
September 2003
We've now started a new service using a traditional wooden boat, it
is a lot slower, but if you are in no hurry then it's just the thing
for a relaxing day with 2 or 3 dives in the Komodo National park. The
manta rays seem to be visiting a few different sites in the Park, but
also seen a few times at Sebayur kecil
July 2003
Nice
flat seas for some excellent days diving, the visibility is great.
June 2003
We haven't found the new tiny creature yet (story below), but we do
have the other Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti)
May 2003
Smallest Seahorse discovered
Biologists find tiny animal in Indonesian waters
Project Seahorse VANCOUVER,
May
8, 2003
While exploring the delicate corals of the Flores Sea off the coast of
Indonesia, a Project Seahorse marine biologist has identified a new species
of seahorse, the smallest on record and a rival to the world’s smallest
fishes.
Adults of the new species, a pygmy seahorse to be known as Hippocampus
denise, family Syngnathidae are typically just 16mm long, smaller than
most fingernails. In the past they have been mistaken for the offspring
of another of the 32 known species of seahorses. The size and other distinguishing
traits of H. denise could help scientists understand the constraints of
being a small fish. Compared with other small seahorses, they’re
active little creatures.
Because it lives among the deeper corals and is a master of camouflage,
the diminutive new fish is probably safe from the over-exploitation threatening
other seahorse species. But with only a handful of sightings on record,
it’s hard to know what risks they face, heavy-duty trawling gear
that can flatten reefs is one potential threat, underwater tourism is
another. Divers and photographers could possibly love these animals to
death,
April
2003
Professional photographer Ian Cartwright and his wife Sheila recently
spent 2 weeks with us exploring the sites of the National Park, many dives
had Ian surfacing to change the films of his 2 cameras and go back down,
they have dived all over the world and were stunned to find the reefs
still in such pristine condition.
March 2003
Peter and Fiona Molloy on their London to Sydney overland expedition in
aid of CARE International, took a few days out to try some of the diving
in Komodo National Park, read about their trip at http://www.londontosydney.com
March
2003
Very lucky guests from Sweden Lars and Anders got to see a Dugong with
us whilst diving at Nidihang (east of Komodo island) during a dive with
a strong current, near the end of the dive in the shallows we came upon
a dugong who promptly got into gear and swam past us all against the
current, he was around 2 mts long, we were all stunned and couldn't
wait to surface to check out if it was real and that Ernest and Anders
had got video footage of it, the thinking of 'don't open your housing
until you have to' went straight out of the window, both got excellent
shots of it. What a brilliant day and so unexpected. The whole 14 days
of diving with guests from Sweden, USA, France and Germany was superb,
we had wonderful weather, calm seas, good visibility and wall to wall
mantas on many dives, including Manta Alley (of course) Lighthouse,
Full Moon (certainly missed Michelle on this one when I had to surface
with the boys ha ha), Tetawa besar and Kecil. We discovered another
new site and named it the Shark bunker. Hope to see some nice photos
on lasse's web site!
1st December 2002
Our friends Anke and Mike from Watercolours
Dive Centre in the Perhentians, Malaysia have just visited us and enjoyed
some very memorable dives with Ernest, they made it down to Manta Alley
which is the very south of Komodo Island, the comment was 'You couldn't
see the fish for the Mantas', from small 1.5 mt to huge stealth bombers
of 4 mts and over, they decided to do both dives at the same spot and
had wall to wall mantas the whole 2 hours of dive time, over 20 was the
estimation of numbers, viz was a measly 5 - 10 mts, which is normal there,
but that's where all the food is and that's why the Mantas are always
there. For anyone who has dived with us and knows the Cauldron, the comment
there was WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13th
Jan, 2002 Flores
Batu Bolong, a mountain
of granite rock which rises out of the depths to create a most beautiful
dive site, getting ready on the boat to dive, Ernest and his divers were
all overjoyed to see a huge Manta Ray jump up out of the water about 4mts
in front of the boat to look them all in the eye, you can imagine how
quick they all got in the water to have Mantas with them for most of the
dive, also spotted a 3mt shark on the edge of the visibility, a huge Napoleon
Wrasse, Giant Trevally, Splendid nudibranchs, too much to list, was how
the story went.
9th January
2002 Flores
My last 2 dives in
Flores before I headed back to Gili Air after my 10 days in Labuan Bajo,
it was also my birthday and what a surprise was in store for me, 2 dives
at Sabolo, the visibility was amazing and we had a slow current just
barely moving us along the tiers of coral which line the slopes of Sabolo
besar, after about 5 mins into the dive, I looked up to the surface
and saw a huge Manta Ray circling above us, by the time all of the divers
had spotted her, I now saw that she was entangled in a buoy and was
struggling to swim and get free, I surfaced below her and went gently
to her mouth where she had the line twisted around the front right hand
lobe of her mouth, she was easy 5 mts I felt like an ant beside her,
she stayed so still while I cut away the buoy to the surface using a
line cutter (an excellent tool to keep handy, much better than a knife
and quicker too) I had to dig my fingers into her wound to get the twisted
line free and after the final 40 mts of line and anchor fell away from
her, she gave a graceful sweep of her wings and disappeared into the
distance, free again to roam the sea mounds and delight future divers
who spot her. The staff on our boat said they saw the buoy coming
in from a distance and couldn't believe what they were seeing, it was
as if she had come to us to get help, myself, Ernest and the divers
will never forget our experience. Our second dive to Sabolo Kecil
was just as nice without the trauma of the Manta Ray, we had a huge
school of batfish and barracuda swimming over the sea mound above our
heads, the end of a lovely day.
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