I don't know why it's taken me so long to post these last few diving photos and videos from our trip to the Gili islands back in November, but better late than never! This is the last dive I did, another one that Chuck could not join in on because of her stomach bug, which is really unfortunate because it was amazeballs. The dive was at Marlin Point, which I strangely can't find any info about on the internet (it must mean I dreamed it, right?).
Highlights of the video below:
- an octopus that you can see hidden in the coral (white body, dark eye) after I fend past my nice but completely oblivious dive buddy (she didn't seem to have any sense of personal space- at any given point during the dive I would find her directly below me, blowing her bubbles straight into my face, totally clueless)
But what really made this dive special is the crazy schools of fish hanging out by the reef. This video below is long, but worth watching (in HD! full screen!) if you can... so pretty. At some point we realized we were completely surrounded by large schools of fish- all different kinds- swimming and generally hanging out near us.
From what I could tell there were schools of yellow fusiliers, stripey sargeant major damselfishes, and some other fish that I haven't been able to ID (Steve? Do you know what the larger, silver ones are? They have some yellow around their eyeballs?). The schools of fish didn't seem to have any particular agenda- just hanging out! So cool! Plus, add a turtle casually swimming through and pulling up a piece of coral to nap on? Priceless.
At one point I looked over at the divemaster and she was making grand gestures with her arms. She later told me she felt like a mermaid... I concur! It was pretty magical.
Sleeping turtle.
You can barely see the other divers through the wall of fish!
Our first dive was at Mirko's Reef, which has some lovely coral. We had a bit of a short dive because someone (ahem) ran low on air, but it was quite beautiful. Highlights include: a couple beautiful anemone fish (Nemo), nice table coral, a blink and you'll miss it lionfish inside of the table coral (you can see Hell pointing it out to us with his trusty butter knife at 1:02), Chuck perfecting her double hand wave... not pictured: a bright yellow trumpetfish:
Dive #2: Hann's Reef
This dive, one I had done before with Tim, was awesome. We coached Chuck through breathing a little slower and more deliberately to save air, so the dive was much longer than our first. Plus, Hell informed us that we would be able to see the turtles only if we were able to stretch our dive out to at least 45 minutes... a good incentive to conserve air. And turtles we saw!
Highlights from the first part of our dive at Hann's reef include:
- a blue spotted stingray in the sand that I caught sight of and then carefully maneuvered over, lest I go the way of Steve Irwin
- a giant giant clam!
- lots of fish and pretty coral
- the near invisible stonefish... or maybe it's a scorpionfish? (Hell points it out at 1:17)
- some moorish idols
- some pretty yellow-tailed fusiliers (1:37)
- Chuck double hand waving
- a cool, tiny, basically transparent anemone shrimp (at least that's what I think it is) at 2:30
And then, the turtles!!! We were able to make it to turtle town, and, as promised, there were lots of turtles hanging out. The first one was so sound asleep that he kinda looked dead, with his head hanging down. The second and third were congregated around a large barrel sponge, one sitting in it and one next to it. I am pretty sure they were in the same exact position when Tim and I dove that site in April. Check out the remorae on the back of the one that swims away. And, of course, Chuck double hand waves behind the turtles before we depart:
Post-turtle we did some swimming across a large patch of sandy bottom, punctuated by mini-reefs covered in fish. Highlights:
- scuba selfie at 0:08!
- super aggressive Nemo guarding his lonely anemone at 0:23... check out how he lunges at me!
- a fat, gross sea cucumber (found by Chuck) at 1:53
- double and single hand waves from Chuck
Another awesome find on this dive: two blue ribbon eels sticking their heads out of the sand, waving their flared nostrils to and fro (they're a little hard to spot in the first part of my video, but be patient, I get closer.):
One of the draws of diving at Bunaken is not only the amazing coral, huge schools of fish and crazy steep wall dives, but the ability to see the fascinating and beautiful mandarin fish in action... Mandarin fish are crazily patterned and brightly colored (blue, orange, green, turquoise!), although really quite small (about 2 inches long at their largest). They are named for their resemblance to the robes of the Imperial Chinese bureaucrats, the Mandarins.
Photo courtesy of Luc Viatour at www.Lucnix.be
Mandarin fish have an interesting mating ritual, described in oddly graphic detail in this National Geographic article and with pretty photos in this article, summed up as such: everyday, just before sunset, small groups of lady mandarin fish gather in one spot while the male fish swim by and try to impress them. Once a pair is made, they latch onto each other, float up and away from the coral a few feet and then release a cloud of eggs and sperm.
Bunaken has a least one dive site where mandarin fish are plentiful and
quite active, particularly around dusk, when they go into mating mode, so we signed up for a mandarin fish dive on our second day at Two Fish Divers. We hopped on the boat, motored over to the designated spot, suited up, jumped out and sank down only about 5 meters (quite shallow), right on top of a pile of coral rubble (perhaps rubble-ized by dynamite fishing, now outlawed in the Bunaken areas?). From there we hovered just a few feet above the ground, staring intently at the rubble in hopes of seeing the elusive (and tiny!) mandarin fish do their thang (like really do it... heh heh), while the light faded all around us, necessitating flashlights (see Scuba Steve and Colleen flashing the reef below, har har):
While waiting on the mating (no more rhymes now, I mean it!), I noticed that I was hovering just above a nice anemone whose residents were none too happy that I was loitering in their 'hood... check out their defensive posturing:
Aaaaand finally, we saw some mandarin fish action. Basically we watched tens of these pretty but tiny fish troll the reef for a while, darting in and out of the coral rubble. Eventually, when two of them crossed paths enough and the mood was right, they latch on to one another and float away from the reef, doing it. When they're done they jet away from each other and back down to the rubble, lightening fast.
Thanks to our divemaster, Sandy, for filming. His buoyancy is much
better controlled than mine, so his hand was steadier for filming this
tiny sex act. The lighting is not ideal since it's dusk, but you get the picture. This makes me feel like those guys in Knocked Up who run a website that identifies, down to the second, nudity in movies, but here goes: mandarin fish sex at approximately 0:30, 0:42, 1:55 and 2:05. That should help those people with short attention spans get to the good stuff quickly.
