Bunaken Diving: Day 3

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:

• trumpetfish
•  school of fusiliers
• schooling banner fish
• big porcupine fish
• giant clams
• blue spotted fantail stingray
• more red tooth trigger fish
• tomato anemone fish
• regal angelfish
• tons of pyramid butterfly fish
• longnose butterfly fish
• nudibranch

Bunaken Diving: Day 2

Second day in Bunaken, first dive of the day: Alban

Another day, another wall dive, folks.  

I love the eerie/romantic/Instagram-y feeling of this photo of Colleen and Scuba Steve:

Highlights from the video on this dive include:

1. Some crazy overhangs in the wall that we dove under/through:

2. Lots of purty coral and stuff:

3. Colleen flapping. If I weren't holding the camera, you'd see me flapping, too, but instead you get this lovely back-lit selfie:

4. Lots of funky sea sponges and stuff, including the purple and yellow ones that Steve doesn't like (Steve, I still want an explanation about why these particular undersea creatures are so offensive to you):

5. Tim + underwater peace signs (at minute mark 1:56) = comical.  Almost as comical as Tim + magic wand:

6. Me failing yet again to capture a clear shot of an orangutan crab pointed out by our divemaster (minute mark 2:00-2:04)

7. Some moorish idols (or maybe they're bannerfish?) and long nose butterfly fish (3:18)

8. Yellow fish (which I can't ID) all up in my business, repeatedly (3:16, 4:03, 4:52, etc.)

9. Some jerk snorkelers standing on the top of the reef (the guys from our boat yelled at them) (5:34)

10. A curious crew of black fish towards the end of the dive (6:01):

Second dive of the day: Muka 2

Fewer photos and videos since our backup camera battery failed to charge correctly due to the island's intermittent power.  However, video highlights include us dropping down on some beautiful and fish-tastic reef, Tim gracing us with shots of his own face and knees, and a very pretty anemone:

Stuff seen but not captured on camera:

1. harlequin snake eel (super cool!!)

2. a moray eel

3. puffer fish

4. big schools of blue striped fusiliers

5. long nose butterfly fish

6. Christmas tree worms

Tim says that barely visible yellow stick in the middle of the fan is a trumpet fish:

Moody:

Bunaken Diving: Day 1

Aiiiight, here we go: underwater footage!! Woot!

Please excuse the shaky-cam, occasional hand-in-shot, and the general blurriness of the photos.  Some of that is due to inexperience filming underwater, and some (at least on the first day) is due to quickly changing currents (up! down! hard left!  no, no, no, hard right!), low visibility (lots of floaties, as you'll see) and whatnot.  The photos and video get better as the days go on, I promise, due to both experience and improved conditions!

Also chalk some of the camera shake up to my flappy scuba hands... while diving I have trouble preventing my arms from moving as if I am treading water.  When I saw that Colleen did the same thing, I decided it was an ex-competitive swimmer thing and felt a little less silly about my bad habit.  We could both use a lesson from Scuba Steve, who always has his hands clasped calmly in front of him.

Steep walls are what Bunaken is known for... walls of coral that start at 3 meters deep and dramatically go straight down, up to 600 meters (see how steep they are above).  They're pretty crazy. When you're floating 20 meters down and you look down at your feet floating above the blue abyss, it gives you a weird feeling like you might fall in it, but you continue to hover, neutrally buoyant. 

Our first dive was at Lekuan 3, a steep wall with lots of crevices and ledges.  The currents on this dive were a little erratic... not too too strong, but ever-changing, which was confusing at times.  Back and forth, up and down.  But we did see lots of fish... big schools red-tooth triggerfish (beautiful teal fish with funky propeller-like fins and large, pointy vampire fangs), lionfish, beautiful coral, schools of pyramid butterfly fish, sea turtles...

Our second dive was at Muka Kampung (in front of the village, literally), and was lovely.  Again, schools of triggerfish and butterfly fish, more turtles, teeny little (smaller than a quarter) orange, hairy orangutan crabs (blurry photo above), a squat lobster, regal angelfish, moorish idols, stonefish, anemone shrimp, nudibranches...

Check out the video below from our first two dives.  Highlights include: me awkwardly putting the red filter cap on halfway through (it's supposed to help show true colors underwater where the red in the color spectrum is absorbed), turtles!, me and Colleen peace sign posing, flapping triggerfish, a bannerfish in a big sponge...:

The third dive of the day was just Tim and Scuba Steve...  Colleen and I took the afternoon off to chill out (regretting it a bit I would have hit the 50 dive milestone if I joined!). They tell me the dive was pretty amazing, and the video backs up their story... it looked like an aquarium.  Massive schools of shiny blue-striped fusiliers, more triggerfish and pyramid butterfly fish, more turtles, batfish, trumpetfish, puffers, sea cucumbers...  you name it.  Video and pics below...

Video highlights include Tim torn between pointing the camera at a turtle and following two big batfish that swam into frame.  Also, the cool shot with different schools of fish (fusiliers in the background, pyramid butterfly fish and others in the foreground) swimming past each other just off the edge of the reef and then simultaneously getting freaked:

 

 

Mr. Turtle says, "More to come!"