It’s amazing what you see in the mangroves and eel grass in front of Two Fish Divers, even at low tide, if you keep your eyes peeled! This week, amongst other critters, there was a Long Spine Porcupine Fish seen hunting in Bunaken.
The Longspined Porcupine Fish (Diodon holocanthus) can often be found hunting on the eel-grass between the reef wall and Two Fish Divers Resort in Bunaken. It has brown blotches and black freckles on its body and can be identified from the long spines all over its body. When the tide is rising, they come from where they were waiting on the top of the reef and move towards the mangroves to feed. They are hunting for crabs, shrimp, slugs and snails that live in the eel grass and between the mangrove roots. As the tide is dropping they slowly move back to the wall and find somewhere to hide again.
Sometimes the tide-times mean we have to walk through the beautiful mangroves to get to and from the boat and this is when you might spot some of the species that rely on healthy mangroves to survive. Unfortunately around the world, mangroves have been degraded or destroyed to make way for human development and this has a huge effect directly on the mangrove ecosystem and neighboring ecosystems that overlap. We are happy to walk to and from the boat on low tide and lucky to spot some of these amazing creatures. Check out a sweet video of our mangroves by Maia Brooke:
Normally we whizz out of the mangroves to explore deeper water and that’s what Anders, Jay and Jen have done last week before heading to Two Fish Divers Lembeh to enjoy the muck diving on offer there. They spent their time here exploring the walls and coral covered reefs, literally bumping into the odd turtle too! Anna has been here with us too practicing her photography, getting some pretty nice pictures with an inexpensive camera, there are some good ones on the market these days for not that much money.
Samuel has just left and like Ari who is still here, did a PADI Scuba Review to refresh his skills in our custom built swimming pool, before exploring the walls of Bunaken. Not a bad place to get back in the water hey guys!
The upcoming week is a surprise yet but our new guests are looking forward to seeing as much as they can. Whether it be sharks, turtles and the spectacular walls, or the pretty little Long Spine Porcupine Fish seen hunting in Bunaken, it is sure to be a treat! Don’t forget to visit and like our facebook page @two.fish.divers.bunaken to get regular update about diving in Bunaken!
