Can you spot the fish? Look closer and you can see the crocodile fish hiding in the rubble on one of our local dive sites, Lekuan 3. These relatives of the scorpionfish are masters of disguise in Bunaken National Park and a treat to see if you can!
The Crocodilefish, (Cymbacephalus beauforti), sometimes know as the Giant flathead or De Beaufort’s flathead, is in the same order as scorpionfishes and stonefishes so no wonder they are hard to find. We saw the subject in the picture on a search and recovery dive which was being conducted on the dive site Lekuan 3 by PADI Instructor Colin as part of Nicholas and Markus’ Divemaster training. With a keen eye looking for lost objects, the DMT’s proved they were able to spot more than a lost snorkel or weight belt when they managed to see this sneeky little fella.
As well as spotting objects underwater part of search and recovery is bringing an object to the surface safely, using a lift bag. The Divemaster trainees did an excellent job completing this workshop and were happy to tick off another portion of their extensive training here at Two Fish Divers. With swimming tests, assisting instructors with Open Water courses and Advanced Open Water courses and much more, the trainees are well on their way to being great PADI Divemasters.
Nicholas has been helping Maia this week with Kate who has been doing her Open Water course training whilst Markus assisted on her boyfriend Joshua’s Advanced Open Water course with Colin. Well done both of them for achieving their diving goals while they were here and managing to get some fun-diving in here and in Lembeh too. But it’s all fun-diving right? It has been for Jane, Vincent, Frida, Inho and our snorkeling guests who have all traveled to Indonesia to see the beautiful healthy coral reefs of North Sulawesi for themselves. Meera has also been here to do some snorkeling but that wasn’t enough for her so she took the plunge and did first a Discover Scuba Diving program before continuing easily into a PADI Scuba Diver course, well done Meera!
We often get differing levels of divers and guests with different interests or time frames, but we usually manage to schedule courses and diving around everybody’s needs, all you have to do is ask!
Some of the other Masters of disguise in Bunaken National Park that we have seen this week have been scorpionfish, frogfish, cuttlefish and more, but the crocodile-fish in this photo is the star of the show for now.
Photo Credit- Maia Brooke
