A 5 day manta education trip was planned for this trip. The check dive was done at Sabolan Kecil. A school of about 60 batfish were found on the outer reef, nudibranchs, lionfish, a yellow edged moray eel, big pufferfishes, an eagle ray and the ever amazing big and beautiful sea fans. Slightly rocking we headed up North after the dive. The first manta presentation that evening was about manta biology and ecology. The fact that our lovely guests came to a manta education trip is already a success. It gives us data to show that mantas alive are a lot more valuable then when they are being fished out. Which is very important data considering the threats they are facing. Beside that everybody was enthusiastic about becoming a SSI Manta Diver.
The next day we started with a possible manta dive. No mantas were seen, but Lighthouse is a stunning reef nonetheless. Turtles, white tip reef sharks, nudibranchs, giant trevallys, moray eels, four eagle rays and lots of batfish were seen. The current dropped so the dive was finished on the pinnacles on the corner. They are just stunning; the variety of the colours of the corals, the light and the bright blue visibility were amazing. The second dive at Castle Rock had a little surprise for us. Now, before you get excited it wasn’t a manta;-). The current was fairly strong and all groups therefore jumped in the split on the current side. We hit the reef and parked ourselves in the split. There were white tip reef sharks everywhere, a possible 9 different sharks were seen. But beside that after about 5 minutes 2 grey reef sharks appeared! One was a nice big stocky female, the other one a smaller female. They kept on returning to the reef and basically together with the white tip reef sharks stayed with us for about 25 minutes when it was time to get to the lee side. Giant trevallys passed and a Napoleon came to visit as well. There was just action everywhere!We finished the day with the Cauldron. As almost always, people are not only having lots of fun going through the cauldron via the shot gun, they also are stunned by the wonderful and stunning topography. The wall at the start of the dive, the sand with the garden eels and white tips cruising and resting, the cauldron with the fishbowl, the shotgun to get out and then the beautiful soft coral garden at the end. Some groups saw turtles already before the cauldron, others on the coral reef afterwards. And beside that the last group actually saw a little manta just after the shotgun. Estimation so far is that he or she was not much bigger than 1,50m (mantas when they are born are about 1,10m-1,30m). It was playing in the current and by the looks of it with a cheeky smile on its face!
After dinner it was time to learn more about Manta identification. What is important data, how do you identify males and females, different species (manta birostris and manta alfredi), how to dive with mantas and how do you take an ID shot for the Komodo Manta Database were the subjects covered. Over the past year Wicked Diving has collected data on dozens of different Manta Rays and certified more than 150 of our guests as Manta Ray specialists. This data and the popularity of our trips has helped make Komodo the newest Manta Ray sanctuary in the world! More then 7000 square Km is set aside as protected (also for sharks and several reef species as well!!!)
Day two started with a dive on Crystal Rock. At least 6 white tip reef sharks were seen resting and swimming and a small baby one resting under one of the table corals, a big school of surgeonfish, several types of trevallys (big eye, blue fin and giant trevallys), whip coral shrimp and a leaf scorpion fish. There were also lots of moray eels poking their heads out, lionfish and scorpionfish.
In the Golden Passage several white tip reef sharks were seen, bumphead parrotfish and 3 devil rays! Turtles everywhere and for some of the groups a strong down current in the end ;-). Karang Makassar had all kinds of surprises for us. Black tip reef sharks and white tip reef sharks were seen. A massive sting ray, a ‘hobbing’ scorpionfish (I mean you can’t tell me that was swimming really;-)) and an amazing Spanish Dancer for one of the groups. Dancing in the blue as if it was night time! From the surface before the dive we had already spotted a rather huge turtle head coming up to breath and one of the groups actually ran in to her on the dive…..our new friend the loggerhead turtle. Her head is enormous! And it must be more than 150 years old…..well we don’t know that really but it looks old and wise;-)!We moored up at Siaba Besar for the night dive. A big sandy slope, with lots of pulsing polyp coral that hides all kinds of creatures; flatworms, nudibranchs, crabs, blue spotted sting rays, lionfish and beautiful soft corals. No more manta talking for that night, it was time to warm up, enjoy the yummy dinner and go to bed. Of course only after watching all the great video and photo footage of the day!
Day three arise, with Tatawa Besar as our first dive. We hang out in the split with the twin spot snappers, red tooth triggerfish and damsel fish. We found a beautiful blue ribbon eel, and beautiful sea fans. Lots of orange and green hydroids colour the reef beautifully and that together with the thousands of fish everywhere makes it one of the most beautiful coral slopes that Komodo has to offer. It was a fast drift, that has to be said, so turtles were flying by, together with big pufferfishes, and batfishes. At the end towards the safety stop, a black tip reef shark passed by at the edge of the reef and more turtles came to play.Mauan is one of the Manta hot spots we visited after that. We dropped on the sandy slope, where we know are several cleaning stations. We did see a cuttlefish, a snowflake moray eel, white tip reef shark, flatworm and a black leafy scorpionfish in the end. Everything agreed the reef was in fantastic condition, but unfortunately the mantas didn’t come to play. The last dive of the day was at Batu Bolong. A strong rising tide brought us lots of action even on the lee side. Trevally’s hunting, Napoleons feeding, white tip reef sharks resting and cruising, and several very big hawksbill turtles. The map puffer fishes are probably the fattest ones we have in the park! Lots of scorpionfish were found as well and a dramatic wall side going down deep. It is one of the top 4 most famous dives in the park and it rightfully deserves it’s fame.
A few stayed relaxing on the boat afterwards whilst others went to the beach at Siaba Kecil. Another successful clean up and lots of chatting, photographing and enjoying the sunset from the stunning beach of Siaba Kecil.
In the evening it was time for the last manta presentation about threats and conservation. Why mantas are so vulnerable and need our help and how we can do so were some of the topics covered. Afterwards we watched Andrea Marshalls “Queen of mantas”, the BBC documentary from 2009.
The next morning we flew on the first 10 minutes of Siaba Kecil. Enjoy the ride and the turtles flying by. But after 10 minutes of craziness, we got to the easy coral slope to enjoy the rest of the dive just swimming slowly. We saw scorpionfish, lionfish and a brown banded bamboo shark that was resting on the coral slope. It let us get very close! But the big relief and happiness came after breakfast. We had an awesome plan, we would dive Karang Makassar, if we wouldn’t find mantas we would go and snorkel the back and the front until we did and then dive again. But from the surface the boat crew spotted mantas just before Steve was about to go and check the current. So everybody jumped in with him to do the current check……well not really, everybody jumped to see the mantas! Five mantas were seen including one black morph. The dive briefing was done on the dive deck and we all jumped in afterwards to see if we could find them diving as well. And we did!!! Most of them were cleaning on the cleaning stations. Females, males, big and small gave us quality time with them. It was awesome! One big female had at least 25 butterfly fish on her. But also a big free swimming moray eel, a baby moray eel, turtle and a peacock mantis shrimp were spotted.
So we asked everybody what to do next, do another dive here, or leave one for the last day. All agreed that we wanted to take another chance, do another dive at Makassar and see what it would bring us. Would they still be around? They were!!!The tide was rising. And mantas were having a good clean both on the deeper and shallower cleaning stations. A brown banded bamboo shark passed by Steve’s head and a black tip reef shark later came to say hello as well. In the rubble a peacock mantis shrimp was trying to hide. Both mantas seen were male and both stayed for at least 25 minutes on the station getting a good clean. What a happy flappy day! And thanks a lot for the ID footage! Incredibly helpful and important for the Komodo National Park and mantas in general!It was time to go to Wainilu, an absolute awesome muck dive during the day and a fantastic night dive. Spanish Dancers, decorated crabs, ornate ghost pipefish, several types of moray eels, nudibranchs, cuttlefish, squid, mandarin fish and all kinds of other creatures that were amazingly weird! Afterwards there was lots of talking about what we had seen, and the general consensus was that it had be an awesome diving day! Mantas, critters and lots of fun!
That was our diving done but not yet the end of the trip. We went dragon trekking in the morning. A medium length trek, with lots of big and baby dragons. A beautiful view from the top of the hill, bush turkeys, monkeys and even from the Scotchy we were pretty sure we saw the crocodile! Off for a last bit of snorkeling and then it was time to put up the sails and sail into the harbor of Labuan Bajo. At five we met again in the shop to see some traditional dancing and have a drink together. Thanks to all of you for an amazing trip!
-Wicked Diving Komodo
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