Mawali Wreck re-discovered!

This week in Lembeh we are happy to say that the Mawali Wreck has been re-discovered! The Mawali has been enjoyed by many divers in the past but a recent event caused it’s mooring line to be severed and despite numerous attempts we were unable to find the wreck…. Until now!

The Japanese WW2 cargo ship is, in fact our closest dive site. It lies in 30m of water less than five minutes from our resort with a perfect depth range of 16-30m we regularly grab some Nitrox tanks and head out to explore the cargo holds, masts and propellor. We were rather disappointed however when a huge barge parked itself seemingly right on top of the ship and we were worried that there would be anchor damage to the ship itself and the coral coverage on it’s exterior. With the mooring line missing thanks to the barge we tried to re-locate it to check the ship’s condition, but our attempts were not successful, even with the help of GPS!

So, this week we were very happy indeed when we found the wreck again and were even happier to report very minimal damage. As usual we found several Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorses, huge Batfish, schooling snappers, sweetlips and fusiliers as well as a host of Scorpionfish, Nudibranchs, Cuttlefish and some Barramundi.

On other sites this week we were also not disappointed as we found Blue Ringed Octopus on two sites, lots of Mimic Octopus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish and and Coconut Octopus. Night dives have revealed Bobtail Squid, Bobbit Worms and Stargazers and other sites during the day were hiding Harlequin Shrimp, Pontohi and Denise Pygmy Seahorses, Lembeh Sea Dragons, Zebra Batfish, Lembeh Velvet Fish, Frogfish and Hairy Shrimp!