We love nudis in North Sulawesi, be it in Bunaken or in Lembeh. Nudibranches are not the only interesting sea slugs we can find, we have also come across the Pleurobranch. Pleurobranches (Pleurobranchidae) are the cousins of nudibranchs as both are gastropods with external gills (opisthobranchs). However, contrary to the nudibranchs, pleurobranches don’t have their gills on the back. Instead, they have it on the right side, hidden between the mantle and the foot. There are not as many species of pleurobranchs as there are for nudibranchs but there is still more than 60 of them. Their sizes range from a few centimeters up to 30 centimeters for the bigger ones.

This week we went on a night dive on Lekuan III, we saw two Pleurobranchus Grandis: these were two impressive specimens measuring more than 20 cm. It’s not the first time than we meet them but this time, we had a camera which made it possible to identify them correctly – thanks, Richard!

The diving this week has been quite exceptional as we had a bit of current on some dive sites which meant there were more reef sharks around. At some point, we would have one white tip shark and 5 blacktip sharks in our field of view. Udo was excited by the number of turtles we have in Bunaken and set about making a Turtle montage that we can’t wait to share with you when it is finished. Eva and Willi have been diving every day with Geraldo finding many Pontohi Seahorses as well as plenty of other creatures.

On the 20th of July we celebrated PADI Women’s Dive Day which was a blast! Hermionie completed Rescue with  Instructor Maia and Divemaster Trainee Heidi. In the afternoon Tina started teaching Yuli her Open Water Course followed by a try diving session with all girls in the reception/office and guest Ute

Our instructors have been busy this week with many courses so lots of Congratulations. Bart and Hurbert who completed the Scuba Diver Certification. Filip who is now a Open Water Diver. Kegan, Kalle, Silvan, and Bas have become Advanced  Open Water Divers. Hermionie is now an Emergency First Responder and Rescue Diver. Heidi has been accomplishing more of her Divemaster skills as well as getting lots of experience in a busy dive center.

Blog and Photo Credit: Wilfried Kirschenmann