This week in Lembongan… Turtles have been cruising by our divers and giving them a little wave. There are a lot of divers that have the turtle at the top of there list of things to see under the water and Lembongan is a great location to spot them. While teaching open water courses, here in Lembongan, instructors often ask their student what they want to see under the water, normally at the start of their diving experience, it is all about the big things. Manta rays are often a reply we get from our students but a close second is, turtles. We try our best to take student divers to the manta ray dive sites to give them the chance to spot a manta ray but the full north coast of Nusa Pendia offers a high chance to spot some turtles as well.
Melissa and Justine, who finished their open water course recently, really wanted to spot a turtle during one of their dives. Unfortunately during their 4 open water dives for the course, the turtles were a little shy or hanging back to let Melissa and Justine finish the skills they needed to do, but they did get to see one! Once finished their course, they continued for another day of fun diving, while out diving with divemaster Yayan, they got the chance to spend a good amount of time with a green turtle, who was cruising along with the current.
Green and Hawks-bill turtles are the two types turtles we commonly see on the north coast of Nusa Pendia. Both these turtles are of a similar size in our waters but the green turtle can grow to a bigger size. The key feature that separates the two, is the beak like mouth the hawks-bill turtle has.
Besides seeing turtles and manta rays this week, some divers were lucky to also spot a mola! This is very late in the season for them, so the divers surely had a lot of luck on their side.