Weekly Summary #6, Jan 2014
Welcome to our weekly round-up, first one of 2014! Good luck with all your new year resolutions, lets hope one of them is to do more diving.
Highlights:
* In the Critter Corner, if you saw this red lip batfish, it would definitely make you want to kiss it!
* In the Tec Corner, Gerard visited us for some tec diving, and we finished the year with a dive to 100m
Weekly diving round-up: silky and thresher sharks were seen in Bunaken, we found mating Hairy Octopus (octopi?) in Lembeh, and it’s definitely the season for Triggerfish in Lembongan!
This week in Lembongan, Bali
After the very special Christmas gift of mola-mola along the North Shore of Nusa Penida, the last week of 2013 has had some of the regular manta sightings, but as the ocean temperature starts to rise and stabilise after the cold high season, there have been a few notable sightings of creatures that are not strangers to the reefs, but aren’t always seen in such numbers.
It’s definitely the season for Triggerfish – there were so many of the common Red Tooth at SD that it was difficult to see other fish and the Titans are busy nesting again – one of them made a bold attempt to eat both Crowley and Yayan!
We’ve also seen a number of new Nuibranchs – strange enough that we can’t find them in the ID book, although the photo is of a Kuryana’s Nembrotha.
On our last dive of 2013 at Mangrove we were treated to the sight of a large Bamboo shark chilling out on top of the reef – a great way to end the year!
Happy New Year to everybody, and January sees the start of our Buddy Promo special offer, check out this page and the website for more details….
View our website about Diving Lembongan
This week in Lembeh
The New Year brought us some exciting critter encounters with mating Hairy Octopus yesterday, Halimeda Ghost Pipefish on two dive sites and Mimic Octopus encountered feeding!
Plus our usual critters have made an appearance such as Wunderpus, Paddleflap Rhinopias, Lembeh Sea Dragons, Hairy Frogfish, Blue Ringed Octopus, Ambon Scorpionfish, Pygmy Seahorses and Tiger Shrimps.
Plus our junior divers encountered muck diving for the first time – Caio and Freya loved the Lembeh muck diving experience.
Thanks to Mike to for the cool pic of the Halimeda.
View our website about Diving Lembeh
This week in Bunaken
The end of the year has bought some special visitors, with a Silky Shark yesterday, a 1.5 metre Brown Sting Ray swimming off the reef , a Thresher Shark and a Bamboo Shark. Ben and his family had a great experience when some Dogtooth Tuna dropped by, circled them and then hung out for a while.
The last day diving of the year has seen the extremes with Sandy & Gerald doing a 100 metre technical dive this morning and four new divers taking their first plunge in the ocean. Cool!
We have also seen Black & White Tip Sharks, Turtles, Napoleon Wrasse, Barracuda, Eagle Rays, Leaf Scorpion fish,Slipper Lobsters, White mouth & Yellow Margined Morays, Halimeda Ghost Pipefish, Boxer, Spider & Candy Crabs, Tiger & Marble Shrimp, Pontohi Pygmy Seahorse.
Thanks to Jessica for this amazing photo of a Boxer Crab.
Happy New Year to Everyone and hopefully we will see you in the New Year!
View our website about Diving Bunaken
Special Offers
Here are our current special offers for next year.
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HALF PRICE BUDDY DISCOUNT Bring your buddy for only 50% of published prices when you book a 5N or more dive package in Lembeh, Bunaken or Bali. |
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SOLO DIVER PROMO Get a 10% discount from our package prices when you book a 5 nights or more dive package in Bunaken, Lembeh or Bali. |
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TEC COURSES DISCOUNT Get a 20% discount on TEC courses in Bunaken, Lembeh or Bali. |
More details about our Special Offers
Critter Corner – Want kiss a Red Lip Batfish?
f you thought that the frogfish in Lembeh were weird, then this ranks in the same league. The red-lipped batfish or Galapagos batfish is found around the Galapagos Islands at depths of 30m or more. It is mainly known for its bright red lips, and they look just right for a kiss!
TEC Corner – Finishing the year with a 100m tec dive
We finished the New Year proper here on Bunaken with a mixed gas dive to 100m on Negeri reef around Manado Tua. A very experienced Advanced Trimix Diver Gerard joined Sandy for some amazing deep dives where they ventured into the twilight zone. Lots of helium got blended for the two for their deep journey underwater.
Meanwhile, Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures diver Ric was accompanied by Hiro for a couple nice deco dives to 45m. The two encountered some bigger creatures of the deep including white tip sharks and Napolean wrasse.
Now let’s see if we can find the ancient Coelacanth in 2014!
