We started this special 5 day Manta Ray Research trip on the 10th of August. On board we welcomed Linda and Steve and Tanya from the UK, Tamas and Erika from Hungary, Mauro and Juha from Finland, Baiba and Martins from Estonia, Isabella from Singapore and Justin from Australia and Coco and Timo from China. Tanya, Coco and Timo actually ‘rejoined’ us after having done a three day liveaboard ….I guess they liked it;-).Dive crew were Martyn, Valentino, Marsel and Pit and the awesome Jaya boat crew of Captain Nass, Marwan, Unas, Suleman, Ahmed, Mala and Rambo were on board to take us safely on our journey.
A special manta education trip means that we are trying to educate our guests about manta rays. With this multiple purposes are met: we learn more about mantas and at the same time we collect information on the mantas within the Komodo National Park. Topics that we talked about were the basic biology of mantas, mating and feeding habits, diving with mantas and threats and conservation. Armed with a simple slate and a pencil we record data on the dive site conditions (tides, currents, weather and so on), how many mantas were seen at which time, the frequency of males to females and if possible take ID shots of individual mantas. This helps us together with The Manta Trust to identify and hopefully protect the manta population in Komodo. After watching the presentations as well as collecting some Manta data as citizen scientists, our guests got a SSI Manta Diver speciality issued after the trip. Great job guys!
After a check dive on Sebayor to get everybody sorted out for the trip we stayed in the centre of the national park the next day. A brilliantly, stunning dive on Batu Bolong was what we started with. Sharks, turtles, schooling banner fish, ‘rave nudibranchs’ (nembrotha purpureolineata), crystal clear visibility and the ever friendly looking Napoleons made this an epic dive. After that we headed for Karang Makassar, also known as Manta Point. After seeing a manta from the surface we could almost not wait to jump in. After a special Manta pray lead by Martyn, we went in with our fingers crossed. We did see brown banded bamboo sharks and an eagle ray, but unfortunately our gentle giants did not respond to our prayers. The next dive was planned for Mauan, another special site where manta rays can be encountered. This time there was no time to lose, as the current check had revealed a single manta cruising the reef. We jumped in on the sandy slope and had an hour of awesome manta encounters. At least 4 individuals kept on coming in to the reef to get cleaned and feed. Even though the water was a shockingly cold 26 degrees, everybody came up with a big happy smile after that. Beside that we managed to get some awesome videos to help to identify them later on.
After this pleasant start we went to one of the Big 4 in the National Park. Castle Rock always has lots to offer. A very pretty reef, white tip reef sharks, Napoleons, tons of bannerfish, damselfish, anthias and fusiliers. There is just action everywhere you look! The golden Passage was the next stop, a very mild current gave us plenty of opportunity to go nudibranch hunting. Beside that a school of batfish, scribbled filefish, pufferfish, cornet fish and some of us even saw sharks again on this dive.
The night dive was done in the far North. A 5 day trip makes it possible to go further North West to Batu Monco Bay. On the night dive crabs, lobsters, tiny juvenile lionfish, huge cuttlefish and lucky Juha even spotted a harlequin shrimp!
Next day started with a crazy current dive on Batu Monco. After checking the current and coming up with a good solid plan, Komodo had a little surprise for us and changed our direction, so to say. Of course there was lots of life on the reef, but the drift was not easy. After this adventure we headed off to Crystal. Crystal is like a big diamond. White tip reef sharks in the split but also baby white tips under a table coral on the lee side. Beside that there were so many reef fish, and an escort of Napoleon wrasses hunting together with goatfish and trevallys.The day ended very pleasantly, an absolutely lush dive on Lighthouse. The current died down, so it was easy and the pinnacles at the corner are stunning. Not only are the corals on the pinnacles absolutely mind blowing and the dramatic drop off on the other side totally overwhelming. The visibility was to put it simply: awesome. We found a big squashy black frogfish, some white tip reef sharks sleeping on the sandy bottom and a little hawksbill turtle that was very bold and dived right under two of our divers.
An enthusiastic afternoon 10 minute beach clean up resulted in a draw. We have come up with a tradition where we split into two teams and see who can clean up the most rubbish and who can do this fastest. The winning team earns the title ‘Extreme beach clean champions’, a very prestigious title indeed! This time it was Scandinavia and Eastern Europe versus the rest of the world! Everybody made a big effort in cleaning the beach and as a reward a sunset beer on top of the hill was gained.After dinner it was time to watch the BBC documentary, "Andrea Queen of the Mantas" (which we strongly recommend purchasing and watching!). Now the only question that remained after that is, will the gentle giants come and say hello tomorrow?!
The next day we went back into the central part of Komodo. Tatawa Besar is one of the most special and beautiful coral gardens. All colours of the rainbow are present and the diversity of soft and hard corals outstanding. The drift was a fast one which made the dive even more spectacular. But no gentle giants just yet…..Also Makassar didn’t bring us any luck. Sharks galore and plenty of turtles showed up but the gentle giants remained elusive.Last chance of the day….Mauan, we were lucky once, would we be again?! We were!!!! At least 2 mantas, possibly 3, came to visit us again on the sandy slope. Getting cleaned and fed we had the pleasure of them for the whole hour. In between we found a crocodilefish, lionfish, cuttlefish and plenty of other critters. All the while being pleasantly ‘disturbed’ every 5 minutes by our giant friends……so happy!
On the last day in the early morning at Rinca Island, everybody got to meet the famous Komodo Dragons. After that we still had time for a nice bit of snorkeling at Kelor Island. Just before we jumped in the water there were dolphins around the boat! We didn’t get to snorkel with them, since they are very shy, but it was a very nice sighting from the boat anyway. All good things must come to an end, with the sails up we sailed back to the harbor of Labuan Bajo. Thanks to everyone for an amazing trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment