On the third day of diving we set out on a day trip to some of the more northerly, more remote islands within the Bunaken Marine Park, including Mantehage Island.
First dive: Barracuda Point
We were promised bigger fish at the current-y Barracuda Point, and promises were delivered.
True to its name, within a few minutes of dropping down we saw a large school of sleek, silvery barracuda just off the edge of the reef (and we saw them again at the end of the dive, too, prompting several post-dive renditions of Barracuda on
the boat). You can see the shimmering cloud barracuda in the beginning
of the video just to the left of our divemaster and again at the end of
the video at the 2:00 mark. Looked more impressive in real life... the camera doesn't do justice to far away things.
Other cool, big stuff spotted on this dive: a school of big (and kinda ugly, honestly) bumphead parrot fish
(I sense Tim was trying to film them just off the reef at the 0:43
minute mark, but they are just out of the camera's reach, see previously statement re: justice, far away) and a bunch of
big-eyed trevally (yes, their eyes are big and bright yellow and a little creepy).
Small but awesome stuff seen on this dive: a blue ribbon eel (1:52- sticking up out of the sand and waving his head around, including his giant nostrils), a big old cuttlefish, schooling banner fish, red fire gobies hanging out and then darting back into their hole in unison (1:14), doofy-looking puffers (0:29 and 2:14), blue-headed tilefish, anemone fish (1:34), clown trigger fish (0:34).
Second dive:
I don't remember the name of this dive site, but do remember that we saw some nice stuff, including:
- some beautiful crinoids/feather stars at 0:30 and 1:33
- yet another blurry orangutan crab at 1:07
- a super cool (and big) green, black and orange nudibranch at 1:23
- a lobster: you can see his long white antennae sticking out of the rocks at 1:35
- a banded snake eel (or was it a highly poisonous sea snake?), which you maaaaay catch it for a hot second at minute mark 1:38, but only if you have good eyes and know where to look... that sucker was fast and my batteries were low
By the time we got to the third dive (at Banga), our camera batteries were shot, so no photo or videos, sadly. But we did see some cool stuff:
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