This Week in Bunaken…. Spoting Porcelain crabs during a dive. These brightly coloured and patternated elusive crustaceans measuring upto 2cm can usually be found seeking shelter between the tentacles or the underside of sea anemones. Like the clown fish that live among the anemones the porcelain crab employs the same method to avoid being stung, coating itself in the anemone mucus tricking it into thinking its is part of itself.
Congratulations to Holger for completing his Deep dive speciality with Sandy, he can now plan a dive to 40m taking into account all the different variables this entails. During these dives he was able to fully understand the affects of being narced (Nitrogen narcosis) as he completed an underwater navigation excercise he did not use the compass as he normaly would. Upon surfacing he realised what he did and that it was incorrect, such is the danger of being under the influence of Nitrogen at depth.
This week our Divemaster, Holger has been very busy organising a cleanup of a dive site in front of the village by the jetty. A big thank you to all the guests and staff who participated in the clean up. After the unglamorous chore of cataloging and weighing the debris we collected over 200kg of rubbish from the sea floor in 40 minutes.The most unusual item was a baby bouncer along with the usual debris of clothes and discarded cans and bottles. During the clean up we had an impromptu audience and band from the village watching, hopefully this will encourage further participation.
