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.

Night diving on the house reef

Recently I started my night diving project on the house reef here at Lembeh. The reef fish are almost completely absent, with the exeption of a few stragglers. Most of the animals I've found so far have been in the shallows- 20 feet or less. They tend to be benthic feeders, meaning they live and search for food on the sea floor.
A couple nights ago I found a black-tipped catfish, which for me was a pretty unusual find! Like most catfish, this guy searches out his food using sensory barbels around his mouth, but unlike most catfish, he was impressively large, at least 2-3 feet in length. I first caught sight of him rooting around in his den, cleaning it out and sending up a silt cloud in the process.



Also commonly found at night are many colorful nudibranchs and tube dwelling anemones. If you catch the anemones with a slight current, their tentacles look quite beautiful swaying in the 'breeze'.
More pictures to follow as I log more dives!

sharpen those eyes..

I found another mimic octopus today! My eyes are getting better at finding things here in Lembeh. This little guy was poking his head 0ut of his burrow when I spotted him. I called Tommy over and he did his magic 'get the octopus out of the hole' trick, but unfortunately no one else was around. I'm pretty sure this is the same little guy we found the other day, because if you look closely part of his front tentacle is missing. He must've had enough pestering from the other day as he wasnt too keen on sticking around.

more pictures from around Lembeh

This first picture is of a nice little blenny I found down by the wreck on the house reef. They seem to prefer hanging out in pipe openings. great place to check out the world! Notice the little nudie in the middle of the pipe? I didn't, until I looked at the photo later!



I don't know the name of this octo, but we found him at a site called Aer Bajos 3. Got a few photos of him before he took of down slope. Not so paparazzi friendly, i guess.


These are striped catfish! they are always swimming in a tight pack, sniffing out edibles on the sea floor. Theres at least one if not two resident packs on the house reef, and I just spotted a swarm of juvenile catfish there also. So far I've only seen this on the house reef, but alongside the pack of catfish is often a solitary doublebanded soapfish.


Here's a cute little coconut octopus, found at the same site at the previous picture of catfish, which I think might be Jahir 2. We found him hiding out in a coke bottle, and then moved into the clam shell later.


I'm also learning Indonesian! All the dive guides and resort staff have become my friends and teachers. Just starting with phrases and keywords, like apa kabar (how're you) and baik (fine), trying to move onto constructing sentences too, a little bit harder though! Sampai jumpa besok! (see you tomorrow!)

house reef update

So I realized I haven't given a recent update on the house reef.. needless to say Ive been keeping busy!First,
Dimpy and I reworked the trails a little bit, to make them more streamlined and easier to follow at intersections. Next, we mapped all the artificial structures, using compass bearings and a reel measured in 10 foot increments (I'll convert to meters later). I just completed the whole drawing, and it looks pretty good! The folks at the resort would like it to be computerized as well, but I'm not entirely sure how or which program to use. Eventually I'd like to expand the map to the surrounding natural reef structures as well, or at least the major ones. Its a pretty cool site, actually. My next project, aside from the continuous transplanting and invasive sponge scrubbing, is to survey the area at night.
Since I've been staying here most of my dives on the house reef have been by myself. I made a stage kit that I have rigged on one of their extra Aluminum 80 tanks, so when I dive alone I always have a redundant air supply. Double air, double mask, double light, double everything (only one camera though) I've gotten pretty used to diving it and the camera during the day, but night is proving to be a horse of a different color. For one, its frickin dark. You never really realize how much ambient light other dive lights make until there not there anymore. :) Then there's the matter of the model light (that's the spot light photographers use to focus on a subject in low light conditions, for all you non-photo geeks) Since i don't have one, my primary dive light doubles as the model light, which I have to juggle while holding the camera. The real fun begins if I need to change the strobe or camera settings, while maintaining the spot light, while holding the camera. It'd be nice if i had a third arm. Or maybe a dive buddy..
So even though my first solo night dive was a little spooky, it was incredibly rewarding. Not one minute into the dive do I find two Fingered Dragonets mating. (holy cow!) They're similar to mandarin fish, in that when they mate the male and female hug cheek to cheek, swim up a couple of feet into the water column and release the sperm and eggs. Unfortunately by the time I could get my camera up and running they zipped back down into the sand. I caught a quick pic of the male as he tore off into the night.




As soon as I turned around I saw a banded sea snake! He just sat there while I took some pictures. Granted, I decided not to venture too close:)
As I was finishing the dive, I spotted this little guy. He was moving like a bullet and was changing colors just as quickly. I think its a long armed octopus. Adequate name for such a nimble fellow!

What a tiring couple of days its been! Watched the world cup final, very exciting, but the game started at 230 am, so i didnt get to sleep until about 530...ouch! I've gotten a little behind on updating my dive log, and as such I know have 12 some odd nameless dives to try and fill. Lately I've been having a bit of camera troubles, first the strobe wouldnt fire, then the shutter button got stuck, then the strobe quit again. Right now everything seems to be working well, (knock on wood) i got some good nudibrach photos, and hopefully some good turnouts of the coconut octopus we found the other day. Gotta go transfer photos, then I'll throw some new ones up later.
Started messing around doing a couple small deco dives, nothing big, like 5 minutes. Even though I bring my stage I still come back with at least 500 psi.  Good practice, and its kinda fun. Did three dives today, two on the house reef, one at a site called Jahir 1. Right now I'm contemplating a night dive, or a beer. hmmm...

Mimic this!

Check out these bad boys.. a mammoth yellow frogfish and a mimic octopus! I found the octo all by myself! Needless to say that earned me major props with the dive guides :)

night out in Bitung and world cup semi finals!

Last night one of my new dive guide buddies took me out for a tour around Bitung, the closest port city on the 'mainland'. I caught a ride on the evening staff shuttle from the resort and met my friend Andi at the pier. We went for a ride on his motorbike- the transportation method of choice in Indonesia- out through the suburbs and back into town. On the way back we stopped for some grub at an Indonesian restaurant, I think it served traditional style from Jakarta, and met up with some friends from the resort. After food and drinks we went to a nearby karaoke bar and enjoyed a riotous infusion of badly sung english, indonesian and japanese songs.
After karaoke Andi took me to meet a family he stays with from his village in south Sulawesi. (He's got his own place, but the family's perspective is that it's nicer to live with friends than alone:)
We probably get to our friend Dimpy's house around midnight, but the game doesnt even start until 2am.. so what do we do but sit around and bullshit, smoke (they do) and laugh. Indonesians loove to laugh! Everyone's always smiling, always nice, especially around town, seeing a foreigner is sometimes somewhat of a spectacle, so extra smiles all around. Anyways, back to the game. Someone goes out for snacks and comes back with a sweet treat that is basically two thick pancakes stacked between a layer of yummy cheese and/or chocolate, and drenched in maple syrup and butter, yuuuuuum!
Finally the game starts, but first the important issues: pre-determining the games winner.
Indonesians use a highly sophisticated method of predicting winning teams by placing two connected boxes into an octopus tank. Each tank has an identical piece of food, and which ever the octo chooses is the winner. And whaddya know, octo got it right! I knew they were smart little buggers, I think I'll try this method of decision making in the future...

After all is said and done, I think finally passed out for a short hour on Dimpy's floor before getting up for the 7am shuttle back to the resort this morning. Needles to say I'm a little tired!

for a full list of photos..

go here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbromel/BestOfIndonesia

house reef brainstorming session!

week one is over and done with. I'm pretty familiar with the main part of the house reef now, and now I have to decide on a main project to direct my focus. After talking things over with one of the guides, here's what I'm thinking:
1) create a detailed map of existing artificial and natural reef structures.

2) relocate trail markers into clearer paths, including deep line and shallow line.

3) survey night life population/ change in species.

4?) scout out potential places for new structures at neighboring reef site.

 I think this will keep me busy for quite a while!

malawi wreck

Made pretty good friends with a group of divers from the east coast, and for their last dive, I joined them for a great dive on the malawi wreck. The wreck was sunk forty years ago and has a lot of beautiful coral growth on it already. Sitting in the middle of the channel, it rests in 90' of water and her deck sits in about 50'. There were pygmy seahorses sighted there but by the time I got there (and looked at the photo op que) I had only a few minutes remaining of ndl time, so i skipped it. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll get another chance to get out there. In any case, I discovered I love shooting wide angle soft coral shots. I think I've gotten a lot better with this camera, already I've got several pics that I've sorted into the good pile. They're slowly but surely uploading to picasa web, but for now here's a teaser photo.

These first two photos are taken from a night dive on the boat. Night dives are pretty neat here, I'm sure I'll be doing plenty more throughout my stay. So far I've been averaging three dives a day, my max so far has been five. Not as bad as doing five class dives back home, but still pretty tiring! The next two photos were taken on the house reef here at Lembeh. The first is of a juvenile batfish, the second of a hermit crab with a lazy eye. :) I'm slowly but surely starting to get the names of the animals I see, and I'm also starting to feel my way around the house reef. Good thing too, since I will most likely be doing a lot more night dives here! BTW, speaking of feel, I discovered (by accident) that there's a black encrusting sponge with white hairs that stings like a b*tch when you touch it..