A very wonderful day for critters.
First we found the “Lembeh” Sea Dragon (Kyonemichthys rumengan). This was, of course, one of our favourite critters from Lembeh, where it was discovered in 2006. Though it has been found in a few other locations around Indonesia and the Philippines, we believe this is the first time it has been found in Ambon.
Like all good discoveries, it was by lucky chance. We had a guest with us for 15 days. As the weather has made it impossible to dive our south side sites for most of his time here, we had been diving pretty much exclusively in Ambon Bay. He wanted to do some wide angle photography, so I suggested we should dive some of the Ambon Bay sites to the south east end of the bay, where we get some nice coral and walls. We don’t often go that far, but we thought it would be a good place for some nice wider shots.
And on the first dive our guides found the Sea Dragons!! Not good for the guests and his wide angle setup, but we went back today and found them again. This time Barb was there and managed to get these great photos.
We are pretty familiar with these critters, as we saw many explamles when we were working in Lembeh. The very interesting thing about these ones is they have a red line that runs along their back, something we had never seen in Lembeh.
And we also found the Ox Heart Ascidian Shrimp, another critter we had been looking for. The beautiful little shrimp live inside Blue Ascidians (also know as Tunicates or Sea Squirts). If you are lucky, and Barb was, they do spend some time on the outside of the Ascidians, so you can see them in their full glory.
If you look closely, you can see one has either a parasite or eggs on it’s side, I’m not sure which.
Below are the rest of Barb’s fabulous photos from today.
So a great day’s diving in Ambon. Super exciting to have found the Sea Dragons!!
