miracle on the full moon

   On August 24, 2010, Guillaume Simmonet, Bryan Rivard, John Russel and myself went on our normal Tuesday night dive, except this night turned out to be anything but ordinary. Our typical route of late has been to descend along the boundary line separating the dive site from the ferry dock, and continue down to about 100'. From about 90" to roughly 120', there are three big log bundles; one parallel to the boundary line, and the other two slightly deeper and perpendicular to the line. After leaving those logs bundles, we cut across the cove to the south, making our way back over a loop towards the Honeybear wreck, and then out of the water. The trip across the cove often yields lots of red octopus, stubby squid and grunt sculpins, however on this night the highlight of the dive was back at the log piles.
     Under these logs, several Giant Pacific Octopus have taken up residence, one of which has been sitting on eggs for well over six months. The life cycle of the Giant Pacific Octopus is a short and solitary one; octopuses live alone except to mate, and then only once before they die. Once fertilized the female returns to her den and attaches several long strands of rice shaped eggs to the ceiling and tends to them until she dies. She never leaves, never eats, her only focus is to guard her nest as long as she can in hopes that her eggs survive long enough to hatch. Depending on water temperature, she will stay with her brood anywhere from four to six months, aerating them by blowing water on them with her syphon and guarding them against would-be snackers. Once the eggs are about to hatch, she, now deathly white in color, will leave the den and die, as a final sacrifice she uses her body to draw predators away from her now vulnerable offspring.
     It was on that very night that she finally died, and we arrived just in time to watch hundreds of thousands of baby octopuses stream away into the night. Even with part of the egg sack still attached, these baby octos were scarcely the size of your pinky nail, and already had fully functioning chromataphores. (specialized skin cells capable of changing color) To see such a miracle of nature was truly humbling. I was filled with bittersweet excitement as I watched the babies stream away; fully conscious that perhaps only one or two of them might make it to adulthood.
   We finally bade the babies and dutiful mother goodbye, had it not been a limiting factor of gas and a rising decompression obligation I would have stayed until the last baby swam away. The dive ended just as beautifully as it began, we surfaced just in time to watch the full moon rise above the Seattle skyline. It was a fateful night indeed; as I got out of the water, I ran into my friend Koos Du Preez who coincidentally had his HD video camera. I tipped him off as to where to go, and he got some absolutely amazing footage of the octo babies in action.
here's the link to Koos' video

The End of One Chapter Marks the Start of Another...

Well, my adventures in Indonesia have come to a close. I have made a wealth of friends, and many underwater adventures. I fell so easily into the comfortable Indonesian lifestyle that when the time came for me to embark on my next journey, I felt a little bit like I was being wrenched out of one life and thrown back into another.

Coming home has been most aptly described as bittersweet. I'm glad to see my family and friends, but at the same time I miss my new family in Indonesia. A big thanks to Lembeh Resort for making me feel like one of your own! I'm thankful to all the great friends I made and I hope to see you all again soon! I will come back to Indonesia, I promise...

The following photos and stories are from a few of my most memorable dives here at Lembeh resort.

The famous blue ring octopus, found at Serena Besar by Paulus. Such a beautiful animal... and quick!! A little too fast for me to catch in focus but at least I have proof!

 I found this Reef Octopus hanging out one day on the newest artificial structure (that I helped build) on the house reef. For once I can thank my forgetfulness, because if I hadn't forgotten my scissors down there I wouldn't have found him at all.

On this particular dive I had asked Oksin (one of the great dive guides) to come help me move around some particularly large sponges, all of which were in much shallower water. I brought my bailout bottle like I always do when diving on the house reef, but I confess I maybe broke one or two of dive safety rules on this one..(shh, don't tell anyone:) ) I left Oksin up in 30' to keep working on tying up the sponges while I bounced down to get my scissors. When I saw the octopus, I bounced back up to grab Oksin and bounced down again to show him. The octo disappeared, but Oksin quickly found two Pegasus Sea Moths and two Robust Ghost Pipefish in the same area! I tell you, the guides at Lembeh all have amazing eyes.

One of my most favorite dives and one of the most fun, TK3 is a modest divesite of black sand. However, in my opinion it is the best place to find Hairy Frogfish, if you are so inclined.
During my stay, I met a wonderful couple from Switzerland. Jose and his wife were in the middle of an amazing five week vacation throughout Indonesia. During his stay at Lembeh, he and Ronald (another trustworthy guide with eagle eyes) would head out everyday on the private boat so Jose could get footage for the documentary he was working on. Jose's wife often came, but on that particular day she decided to stay behind. That day was also the annual dive staff picnic, so Nofry, a guide from one of the adjacent resorts came along as a freelance guide for the afternoon portion. On that gorgeous Friday morning, Ronald, Jose, Nofry, and myself rolled out out to TK3. Ronald and Jose jumped in by themselves to do their thing, which left Nofry and me to do ours. What followed was the coolest and my number one favorite dive at Lembeh. It wasn't extreme in time or depth by any means, but without the presence of guests we were free to roam around and find what there was to find. I have a suspicion that animals are less likely to be out when there are more divers around, but whatever the case may be, we found tons of animals. Not one, but two hairy frogfish, one of which seemed to be fruitlessly chasing around a much larger flatfish.. and by chasing I mean slowly walking in circles. The flatfish seemed only slightly annoyed by the frogfish rather than threatened, and when the frogfish got too close to his face he'd simply turn away. We saw snake eels, and garden eels, flying gurnards and mantis shrimp. On two particularly close clumps of sponge, a pregnant seahorse was hanging out, and on the other was a tiger shrimp. By a big clump of anemones, Nofry pointed out several Bangai Cardinalfish with mouths full of babies, and a big orange frogfish hanging out by a log nearby. For a finishing touch, when we got back to the boat, there were several squid hanging out all along the mooring line. What an amazing dive!


To my Indonesian family in Lembeh, I'd like to thank Dimpy, Paulus, Andy, Oksin, Bertho, Ronald, Jerry, Ramly, Opo, Novi, Fandy, Abner, Jamal, Tommy, Steny, Yori, Benya, Joni, Wella, Ona, Rafly, Nixon, Dedi, Deky P, Deky W, Helen, Julz, Achid, Andre, Arifin, Dewa, Roy, Lovi, Jacksil, Diane, Johannes, Maspri, Vanda, Fitri, Denai, Linda, Alvian, Amy, Olive, Nofry, Onjong, and everyone else who made my stay so special and memorable. Special thanks to Glen, Widya, Hergen and Kerri for making this amazing journey possible! I hope to come back and see you all in the near future.
Much Love,
Madison Bromel

mapping the house reef

A few days ago I went out with Oksin to do some more mapping of the house reef, and while I was fussing around, he took some candid shots!
Mapping is pretty straightforward and easy to do. First, you take a finger spool and mark it out (it helps if the line is dry enough to to mark with a pen.. this part takes a little bit of pre-planning) I marked my reel in ten foot increments, with the first 20 feet having one foot increment markings as well.
The next part is easier to do with two people, but still feasible by yourself. Have one person stay stationary at one object and have the other swim with the line in hand to the next object. That person can take a compass bearing from the first object to the second, while the second person counts the tick marks on the spool as they reel it back up. For objects that are farther apart, or even just past visibility range, its best if the stationary person keeps the reel, to avoid tangling the line. If the object is farther away than you can see, the swimmer can give a couple of tugs on the line to let the other person know when to start reeling in. For these situations its beneficial to have a preliminary idea of the layout so you have a basic idea where to find everything. :)
As you go along mapping, take a slate and sketch out each object, writing down the compass bearing, length of reel used and a line following the course of the reel. It also helps to take note of the depth at each object as well.
Then, when you get back onto dry land, redraw your underwater map on a piece of paper with a pencil, ruler, and your compass. To make things easier, orient the paper to follow the course of the map ( for example, the house reef generally runs at 30 degrees parallel to land, so I oriented the paper to 30 degrees and drew the map around that).

There you have it, a finished map!

wonderful octopus!

Yesterday I found a Wonderpus Octopus on the house reef! ZOMG! I was in the process of transplanting some sponges onto one of the newer structures in about 75' of water, and, arms full of sponges, I pass right by a little wonderpus! (okay, spoiler alert, this wonderpus picture is from a different dive site.. I didn't bring my camera on this dive, since I figured I'd be busy transplanting- and of course all the best critters come out when you can't take their picture.) Sadly, I only saw him in passing, I swam back to the structure to drop off the sponges and grab Dimpy who was there working with me. By the time I returned, the little guy must've ducked back into his hole.


Wonderpusses look a lot like Mimic Octopuses, but you can tell them apart by two main distinctions. One, Wonderpusses are a lot smaller than Mimics, and two, their gate is easily distinguishable. The Wonderpus has a more curly and billowing/flowing walk, whereas the Mimic Octopus, as its name suggests, mimics other poisonous animal shapes as it moves.


A little Devil Scorpionfish I found out on the house reef, right next to a bright blue ribbon eel. (I actually didn't see him until I moved the piece of rock next to me, which bumped him.) If you can't tell, they're masters of camouflage. Maybe even better than our own sculpins!


Juvenile Yellow Boxfish I found by the biorock structure on the house reef. Cute little guy! Even if he wasn't too interested in me taking his picture..


At the end of one of the afternoon boat dives, we surfaced by the boat to find these boys that had come out to investigate. They're sitting in a very typical style of fishing boat, with pontoons on either side of the hull for stability. For Indonesian kids, they were pretty shy (apa kabar?? baik? eh? apa?? baik baik?) I think I finally got a quiet baik (good) from one of them :)

Say 'ello to my leettle friend!

I don't know when this little guy started following me around, but I first caught sight of him about a quarter of the way through the dive. Every now and again I would see a little flash of yellow as he darted across my eyes, and it made me smile to know my little dive buddy was still hanging in there. He was still there even to the end, I'm sure even until I left the water. These photos were taken during the safety stop by Yves Toth, a very nice guest here at Lembeh. The last photo was taken by my good friend and dive guide Paulus.
After consulting the Indonesian fish bible, I think I've concluded that this little guy is a juvenile Golden Trevaly. Maybe not though, this guy was pretty cute and harmless, and when I think of the 'slightly' more aggressive grown-up version in the Pacific Coral Reef tank at the Seattle Aquarium, I can't help but have my doubts:)









Whaddya know that after thinking about my little dive buddy all day, and wanting to write this post, I go for a dive on the house reef in the afternoon and what do I see flashing in the corner of my eye? My little dive buddy came to join me again! Stayed right through the end of the dive. :)

Even more pictures from the house reef!

Here's a better picture of one of the squid I saw last night. They were flashing gorgeous yellow and green colors!


A close-up of my Black-tipped catfish.. Such a good little dive buddy..


These last two pictures were also taken on the house reef, but they were taken during the day. Nice photo of a group of Pink Anemone fish and a great little Dorid nudibranch. The nudibranchs here are so colorful! I'm sure I could easily fill several albums just of these little guys.

More night diving on the House Reef

Night diving is starting to get more comfortable for me now, still seeing tons of cool creatures. Its funny, the two times I've gone out at night with other people I saw much fewer animals than the times I've gone by myself. Last night I found my black-tipped catfish again, but I was also surprised by this Starry Night Octopus!Named for all the little white dots all over their skin. Not sure what this guys was going after, but when he caught something his skin would flash bright blue.


Squid! I saw the first pair sitting next to one of the trail markers, unfortunately I couldnt get my strobe tuned in time before they took off. Luckily for me I spotted another one by this crinoid. I even saw a a third set of squid hanging out in the shallows by the resort's dive boats! You dont have to go very far in Indonesia to see cool animals :)


This moray was hanging out underneath a big coral head by the bio rock dome. Seen a couple of these guy  already on the house reef.
In just the week that I've been diving the house reef at night, I've seen so many amazing critters. I've seen octopuses out hunting on almost every dive, squid, scorpionfish, waspfish, morays, catfish, even a pygmy pipefish. Most of these critters can be found in 40' or less, a perfect way to end a day full of boat diving. Not to say there isnt plenty to see at depth, the wreck and reef balls hold many surprises too.