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..

some neat critters!

the juvenile batfish/spadefish. aw, so cute!

Muck diving, as it might sound, makes you think that you'd be diving in alki-esque waters. In reality its not that far off, but what they mean by muck, is usually just rubble or sand. There are still coral reefs in the shallower regions, but primarily its an expansive flat sandy bottom. Occasionally random oases will crop up, like this anemone, being fiercely guarded by its damsel fish inhabitants, as well as the lesser seen crab.

pictures from the house reef

so its taking way too long to even load one picture.... i might just have to link up picassa instead..but these are a couple of my first attempts at underwater photography!