Diving? Oh yes…

So now that we are officially open it time to talk a little about the diving…the problem is I haven’t been able to do as much as I would like. I’ve only made it out about 3 times since we’ve opened. It seems that owning a dive centre is a little different to just managing one! There is so much to do, it can be very difficult to go diving for the day…the lovely thing is, when we do get out, we have nothing to worry about except diving!

So critters…so far we’ve (myself, Barb or the guests) seen Rhinopias, Harlequin Shrimp, Coleman Shrimp, Bumblebee Shrimp, Wonderpus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Ambon Scorpionfish (phew, I was very glad that we saw that!), Spiny Devilfish, Bobtail Squid, Pygmy Cuttlefish, Giant Cuttlefish, Day Octopus, Mandarinfish, Sea Snake, Giant Frogfish, Warty Frogfish (including a lovely juvenile), Painted Frogfish, Ornate, Robust, Rough Snout and Halimeda Ghost Pipefish, Honshu Pipefish, Modest Snapping Shrimp, solar Powered Nudis, Spanish Dancers, many eels (Giant, White-Eye, Fimbrilated etc), Lionfish, many Soles, Dragonets, Scorpionfish, Waspfish, Pinnate Batfish, many Flatworms, many Nudis, many different crustaceans,many Pipefish, Seahorses and much more..and that’s mostly on the ‘muck’ side, though we’ve also seen great small stuff on the south side too, as well as finding a couple of new muck sites.

The south side is proving really fantastic. As well as fun stuff, like boiling an egg underwater, there is some truly beautiful coral and walls. A few guests have already said that some of the walls and coral sites are better than the coral they saw in Raja Ampat. Amazing colourful corals, hard and soft, some beautiful swim-throughs and all without another dive boat in site.

Barb and I did, of course, dive. The highlights for me were the Mandarinfish. All the Mandarin’s I’ve seen before have been very shy. The ones in Ambon were crazy! They just wanted to put on a show..lights?..no problems! They were completely unconcerned..one even kept just swimming towards my lights, following me around…and another went and sat on top of our guest Sev’s Nauticam housing….crazy!!

And it’s great for Barb to be back in the water. I love her photos, so I’m very happy she is back and taking wonderful pictures again. Enjoy the full gallery below (and you can click on any photo to see it bigger)….particularly exciting for her was witnessing some cuttlefish eggs hatching!!

and a short video from me of the stuff I saw in my few dives…