I’ve been very lucky, as a macro videographer, to have lived and worked in Lembeh and Ambon over the last six years or so. It has given me the opportunity to film some of the rarest and most unusual critters in the underwater world. My critter checklist has been getting smaller over the years, but there is still plenty of creatures to go.
One thing I realized pretty early on, is that for the ultra-rare stuff, you can never go and look for them. They always appear by chance when you’re not expecting them. It doesn’t matter if you dive five times a day or once a year…sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time. This week was a perfect example…
I don’t get out diving as much as I would like any more. This season it’s only been a couple of times I’ve manage to go diving. We had a lovely group from Thailand here and they had done a night dive at one of our Baguala Bay muck sites, Frangky’s Corner. They had had an amazing dive, with Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Blue Ring Octopus and many many Bobtail Squid. I love Bobtail Squid, so when they said they wanted to go back two nights later I was determined to go along.
It was also a good chance to try out a new small video dive light I bought earlier this year, but hadn’t had a chance to try. The dive was great….I actually lost count of how many Bobtail Squid I found, really amazing. Then, about 40 minutes into the dive, I found a very special Octopus, one I never expected to see.
(Apologies if you are in Indonesia, Vimeo is blocked. You have to use a VPN to view)
This Octopus is still undetermined. It’s a Macrotritopus Sp. Cepholpod and is the planktonic paralarvae of the genus Macrotritopus. They spend a long time floating around in the water before deciding to settle. They very rare, very rarely photographed and this may even the first time one has been filmed.
So keep your eyes open!! You never know when you will find something very special.
