Mucking around
John and I have just returned from a very unique trip. We went to Indonesia for ten days to scuba dive – that was it, nothing else just dive, dive, dive. It was sooooo great. Two days of travel left eight full days for diving. We were able to dive three times a day, a different dive site each time. Not only that, the first four days were a completely different environment, ecologically speaking, from the second four days. We went with a dive company which has resorts in two different locations in North Sulawesi: Bunaken Island which is in the middle of Bunaken National Marine Park off the NW tip of Sulawesi and Lembeh Island where we dove in the Lembeh Straits off of the NE coast of Sulawesi. Two Fish Divers is a small company by choice, each resort taking a maximum of 20 divers. Both resorts are self contained and fairly isolated so being there was a little like going to summer camp. We dived together, ate together, and talked diving nonstop for the whole time we were there. Heaven.
Bunaken offers incredible wall diving while Lembeh is famous for its muck diving. Yes, I said “muck”. The diving takes place on flattish sandy, mucky, muddy surfaces and in all that muck is . . . well, garbage which has become the homes for many of the amazing creatures found here. Most muck diving takes place here in SE Asia where there are more marine species than anywhere else in the world; amazing animals rarely seen and virtually unknown to non divers and most avid divers too. Wall diving is amazingly beautiful but muck diving is utterly fascinating. The photos you are about to see were all taken during our muck dives because the water was usually calm. I didn’t bother taking my camera with me for the wall dives because we were usually drifting with the currents and though I’m now up to 80 dives, I didn’t have the confidence to coordinate the camera with my diving skills while moving along at a good clip.
I hope you enjoy the photographs but keep in mind this is a very small sampling of what’s out there and not the weirdest by a long shot.
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- fourth biggest island of Indonesia
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- Two Fish Divers resort on Lembeh Straits
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- banded pipefish (same family as seahorses)
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- blue ribbon eel coloration is amazing
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- clown anemonefish a.k.a. Nemo
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- cockatoo waspfish – at first I thought it was a piece of palm frond
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- cuttlefish are masters of disguise – can you find this large one?
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- flamboyant cuttlefish – changes colors and patterns instantaneously when irritated
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- the black critter is a feather seastar – there were lots of them in many different colors
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- fingerprint toby – one of my favorites from mucking
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- giant frogfish – the gray puff ball above the eye is a lure to catch unsuspecting fish
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- painted frog fish – it uses those front “fins” like feet
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- sorry this is only the back end but I had to show you the juvenile sweet lips
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- leaf scorpionfish
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- two yellow leaf scorpionfish makes for a pretty scene but don’t touch
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- lionfish come in many varieties but all are highly poisoness
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- a rather large lion fish
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- lionfish “sitting” on coral
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- two nudibranchs,the “antenna” are actually for smelling and the other appendenges are the gills
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- notice the blue on this one
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- these are two nudibranchs, one “trailing” the other
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- love the colors of this nudibranch
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- nudibranch, remindes me of a squaredancer’s skirt
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- this mimic-octopus is trying to look like a flounder
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- wunderpus octopus
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- ornate ghost pipefish and a little porcupine pufferfish
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- you may have trouble finding this ornate ghost pipefish
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- ordinarily an ornate ghostfish like this would be hard to see but I caught him out in the open
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- a pipefish, notice the seahorse like head
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- you may have to look close to see this deadly poisonous scorpianfish
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- really large shrimp, must have been 8 inches
Jane Estes
John and Jane in Thailand 
Hi Jane, Great article and photos. You are smart to leave you camera behind until you are comfortable taking it on dives, it can be a distraction. Indonesia is high on my go to dive list. Won’t be anytime too soon. I am off to Boston for 5 days in Oct. Looking forward to it. I have only ever been to Vermont and that was to ski. Looking forward to seeing some of that part of the States. We have a car for 3 days, then 3 days in the city. I’m off to Cozumel to dive in Nov. I will want some sun again by then. Generally there are no redeeming qualities to Nov. in Ont. It’s cold nand dreary and too mild to ski. Saw Corrie tonight at a dinner for Sally Armstong, a well known Canadian journalist. She has written a lot about the experiences of women and girls in Afghanistan. It was a great event. Lots of good/short speeches and a decent dinner too. Enjoy your trips and travels. Greetings to John. Cheers, Kathy
Kathy
October 1, 2011 at 10:47 am