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September 06
Jacuzzi fish, never heard of them, then have we got
a treat for you, one of our dive sites has bignose unicorn
fish which just love to take a jacuzzi in your exhaled
bubbles, it is so funny to see, the fish shuddering
with delight in the plumes of bubbles, but watch out
they normally take a dump at the same time;o) Big grey
sharks circling Ernest on one dive and as luck would
have it, he had his video. We had our first shower of
rain in a good few months last week, but only the one,
enough to give the plants a good soaking, still a way
off until the rainy season arrives, water temp a cool
27c with some sites 25c good job we wear 5mm suits;o)
Massive crocodile fish at Tatawa kecil, obviously well
fed and the same can be said for the lone Giant Barracuda
that hangs out at the orange grove. Ghost pipe fish
at Sebayur and still lots of leaf fish there, seems
to be leaf fish Central. Big groups of Sailfin snappers,
all adults as no trailing fins. The numbers of Mantas
are increasing again at the dive sites;o) What a thrill
when on the end of my new reef hook, "Thank you
Rose" in swooped a Manta to have a good old stare,
she then came so close I had to scootch over to stop
bumping into her, think she was confused how this diver
was hanging in the current with no effort and was trying
to get in my space to feed, she stayed a while then
took off over my head and I had to duck to keep her
from bumping into me again;o)))) Divers braving the
cold waters at Cannibal Rock 22c brrrrrr;o)
August 2006
With the Manta Rays staying around at a few of our favourite
sites, it's been a great August, excellent visibility,
water temp 27c a little cool for my liking and we've
had many of our Frequent flyer divers;o))) returning
to dive with us over the last months, Thanks guys it's
been great fun to see you all again;o)) Bottlenose dolphin
dropping in to say hello after we'd seen huge Grey sharks,
white tip sharks, schools of fusiliers, Giant trevallys,
blue fin trevallys, Tunas, shark Mackerel and Napoleon
Wrasse, you could say we had very happy divers;o) Many
sightings of Eagle rays this month, sighting of a Lacy
scorpionfish, not by me unfortunately;o(
July 06
A fly by of around 40 Javanese Cow nose rays, what a
sight to see;o)) 2 African Pompanos (look like Giant
Trevally, but much bigger!) hanging at Crystal rock,
definitely part of the 'Mafia' group on the reefs! Huge
Giant moray out on the forage with an entourage of young
napoleon wrasse, blue fin trevally, longnose emperors,
goat fish, all lining up to see what tries to escape
from under the coral head he's just gone under, poor
wee things trying to escape the moray swim out into
the jaws of one of the hecklers, well no one said life
on the reef was easy!
June 06
Octopus are out and about on the reefs this month, many
sightings of these wonderful creatures. We had a zebra
moray out swimming around which is nice to see, normally
they are very shy during the day. Chevron and yellowtail
barracudas making easy work of hanging in the current,
black tip sharks scooting around the reefs always on
the go, not like their pals the white tips who give
you a look of indignation if you go too close and they
have to move, Bamboo, nurse and cat sharks around.
May 06
Nice winged pipefish found at Coral Garden, huge black
blotched ray posing for the photographers, sea snakes
everywhere. Found a teeny bug eyed thing, white blue
and red, so small even with the magnifying glass I couldn't
make out what it was, it was buzzing around so fast
like a wee bee which didn't help matters, so I'm totally
mistified. Lots of frog fish down south, tiny skeleton
shrimps on some hydroids, magnifying glass time again.
Lots of Mantas and sharks.
April 06
Wow, we've been having some superb dives this month,
weather has been perfect and the visibility is back
to normal, how about a 102 minute dive in 6mts watching
3 manta rays swoop around us feeding and getting cleaned,
then coming in so close they were almost touching us
to have a long stare at the strange bubble blowing humans,
absolutely fabulous, then we had the dolphins at one
site herding the schools of blue fusiliers along with
the help of the Giant trevallys, what a sight;o))).
A school of huge yellowtail barracuda swimming around
us with the leader of the pack a monster of around 1.5mts,
lots of octopus and cuttlefish about, Eagle Rays and
Mantas at many of the sites and a javanese cownose ray
seen in the north with cowtail and porcupine rays also
being seen regularly, the Grey sharks seem to have taken
up residence at one site and a few bamboo sharks hiding
under coral heads, then of course my favourites the
nudibranchs still finding ones we haven't seen before
and not forgetting the frog fish, 6 being spotted in
a day, then a baby painted frog fish black with red
spots and white toenails;o)) how cute was that, pink
hairy squat lobsters found on a huge barrel sponge.
Dolphins everyday showing off at the surface, bottlenose
and spinners, sometimes coming in to ride the bow wave
at the front of the boat, always a thrill to see. Pygmy
seahorses have disappeared from one of their favourite
fans not sure what's happened to them;o(
March 06
 Manta
watching this months speciality, on many dives just
find a comfortable spot and watch the show, moving on
only to try to warm up a little with the temp 26-27c.
Huge beautiful nudibranch miramosa spotted by Magali
at Cannibal Rock photo kindly donated by Julien;o))
Big grey reef shark seen, along with schools of fish
being chased by the Giant and Bluefin trevally, with
the white tip sharks sneaking in for a bite to eat.
Dolphins showing off at the surface;o) Napoleons seem
to be in mating mode with the big males flashing their
wonderful green/blue plumage to impress the smaller
females. Many leaf fish, frog fish and pygmy seahorses
found, nurse sharks at Pillarsteen and very nice viz
to see the beauty of the site the 3 sisters and her
soft coral.
February
06
 Visibility
has cleared up tremendously in the North and the South
has water temperatures of 27-29 so nice for spending
a long time with the critters at Cannibal Rock, more
frog fish found and the crazy nudibranchs never end,
nice wee winged pipefish spotted by Nurdin under a frog
fish. Plenty of Mantas at Manta alley, lovely visibility
at 3 Sisters to show off her walls of soft and hard
coral. Lots of octopus around the reefs with one putting
on quite a show at Pengah in the shallows, as he searched
around for a snack. 2 new dive sites found as yet unnamed
but we're thinking hard. Batu Tiga slowed her raging
currents to allow us to marvel at her unbelievable rock
formations, as though the earth has exploded with huge
chunks of rock forming roads and overhangs, one area
you would swear was cut with a huge knife forming a
ledge with a perfect vertical wall running along it's
edge, the marine life is superb with lots of pelagics
and white tip reef sharks, a huge Green turtle rowing
past us all, we normally see Hawksbill turtles so it
was nice to see a Green for a change, then right down
to the wee critters, how they hang on when the current
runs I'll never understand. Dolphins coming in to look
at our divers in the northern sites on a couple of occasions,
with Grey reef sharks popping up to see what all the
fuss is about.
January
06
A lost fishing net was found floating near Rinca after
the strong winds we've had over a couple of days and
a poor wee turtle was caught up in it, Sissi was able
to release the turtle from the net and it swam of quickly
into the depths, before pulling the net up out of the
water to save any further turtles getting trapped they
found a few sargassum frog fish, 2 seahorses and a host
of other critters which were shooed off gently before
the net was hoisted aboard. The middle of January brought
us strong winds and lots of rain, visibility has been
reduced but we've still managed to have some great dives.
The big school of Golden trevally is back at the lighthouse
and the Mantas are parading at Tatawa, a huge Great
Barracuda is hanging around in the shallows there, with
the barracudas still hanging at Full moon, Siaba and
Nidhihang.
Januari
2006
 MERRY
CHRISMAST 2005 & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006 FROM ALL STAFF
AND REEFSEEKERS MANAGEMENT
December 2005
We wish you all a very Merry Christmast and a Happy
New Year.
A Nautilus shell floating at the surface was found to
be the home of two tiny sargassum frog fish, along with
a host of other tiny critters yet another good reason
why shells should not be picked up and taken home. The
Mantas are queuing up to see our guests at a lot of
the dive sites, visibility reduced a little but still
fantastic diving. Bull shark spotted by Marco in 5 mts
of water, quite a surprise for him and plenty of bamboo
sharks, Hawksbill turtles and Napoleons yesterday, also
with the usual white tip and black tips sneaking around.
Beautiful painted frog fish and giant frog fish seen
down south, with a host of crazy nudibranchs of all
varieties. We've had some good downpours in the last
couple of weeks and Flores is green again, sun is still
shining though and very hot.
November
05
 The
Mantas are moving up to the Northern sites again, with
many of the beauties seen around the Tatawa area, Sissi
and her group had about 20 mantas flying around, with
2 Eagle rays hovering in to catch the limelight. The
rains have started and the viz in some sites is reduced
to 15mts, but more food in the water means more fish
and critters, some beautiful nudibranchs found, with
the Glossodoris Cruentus being one of the favourites,
but many still remain unidentified!! Pengah stunning
the guests with her beautiful coral and amazing visibility
for this time of year.
October
05
All of the marine life has been in mating mode, the
poor female sharks with their mating wounds hiding under
coral heads for a bit of peace and quiet, around 50
rays of different varieties seen in the first 5 mins
of a dive at the Lighthouse and huge Trigger fish guarding
their nests all over the park. Nice visits to Cannibal
rock for the critter spotters, 2 Giant frog fish and
a host of Nudibranchs with schools of fusiliers in the
shallows. Ornate ghost pipefish at Sabolon and a group
of huge bumphead parrotfish patrolling the reef.
September 05
Still no sign of any rain it's getting really very dry,
we had a couple of showers in Labuanbajo but the ground
just soaked it up straight away, hopefully the rain
will arrive soon to cool everything down a little. Lovely
dives in September with Marco spotting a huge Nurse
shark in the cauldron, the dolphins still hanging around
at Gili Lawa laut with a couple of Mantas still popping
up there also, lots of Mantas back at Manta alley, we've
had some lovely trips down there with huge giant trevallys,
black tips and schools of fusiliers, we've even spotted
some lovely nudibranchs which is unusual as everyone
is normally always too interested in the Manta Rays;0)
Longtailed Ghostpipefish and some lovely Ornate ghostpipe
fish seen. 2 big schools of barracudas at Full moon.
Leaf scorpion fish popping up all over.
August 05
Whale shark 6mt seen at Rinca 2 days running, a friendly
dolphin swimming in to take a look at Tonnie and his
divers at Crystal Rock, mimic octopus found by Sissi
and a new dive site "Nurdins Spirit" with
frog fish, lots of new nudibranchs , ghost pipefish
etc., just some of the highlights we've had this month,
we've also seen a pod of pilot whales on the journey
back to Labuanbajo from Gili Lawa and many times had
Dolphins jumping and swimming with the boat, one memorable
day saw a group of dolphins at Cannibal rock popping
up their heads for minutes at a time and watching us
on the boat, not sure who was more interested in who?
Then we had a crazy sole that attacked Kath as she was
taking it's picture. Nice weather for down South and
diving at Manta alley with the girls. Bamboo sharks
and what was thought to be family of the Port Jackson
shark spotted by Marco and we must mention Yolanda from
Spain and her sighting of a Manta in the last minute
of her last dive with us, Well Done!!! And also Hannas
recovered watch, which was lost one week on a dive and
found by Ernest the next week.
July 05
Short visit to Komodo from Jeremy the owner of Rainbow
Divers in Vietnam and his brother Peter, we had some
great dives together, if you are planning on diving
in Vietnam check out his web site www.divevietnam.com
Our new Instructor Tonnie has just arrived from Holland
and is busy getting to know the sites, another passionate
diver for our team.
Brilliant dives up at Gili Lawa Laut, Full moon and
Crystal Rock with Eagle rays and the whole reef pulsating
with schooling fusiliers, plenty of sharks around and
huge crocodile fish hiding under the table corals. Lighthouse
reef thrilling our guests with her bumphead parrot fish,
schools of snappers, batfish, trevally, fusiliers and
red tooth trigger fish and a couple of manta rays up
in the shallows getting cleaned and of course the leaf
fish and blue ribbon eels. Nhihdang with her many Napoleons
and schooling fish everywhere, huge yellowtail Barracudas
with a small nursery of babies being shepherded around
between them.
June 05
We are happy to welcome our new Instructors Sissi and
Marco, both from Italy, they are already in love with
the diving here and are as passionate about the marine
life as we are:0)) Blue ringed octopus found in the
shallows of Siaba. Great visibility at 3 Sisters, with
Napoleons patrolling the corners of the pinnacles, fantastic
soft coral with plenty of Nudibranchs and life everywhere.
Lots of Mantas at the airstrip, Cannibal Rock still
thrilling us with her soft coral and huge Nudibranchs,
2 Eagle rays spotted last week there with schools of
fusiliers being herded together by the Giant Trevallys,
the sea apples all out and feeding, this really is a
strange sight.
May 05
2 tiny Seamoths found at Bidadari and the resident black
frog fish has moved further up the reef, the rains seem
to have left us now, calm seas and good visibility,
Tetawa kecil hosting a few mantas this month and the
usual troop of Batfish still hanging out, with the huge
bamboo shark being spotted. Siaba has her yellowtail
Barracudas still swooping in to take a look at us, lots
of Hawksbill turtles and Black tip sharks and the mandarin
fish still there. Desalination plant now up and running
on Bidadari, wow fresh water at last.
April 05
The weather was a bit rough at the beginning of the
month and we got the full amount of rainy seasons rain
in a couple of days, great for the farmers and the divers
still braved the weather, once you're underwater it
doesn't matter, just 2 days we couldn't get out because
of strong wind and big waves and after a week, it had
calmed down and we were back to Sun and more Sun, with
very nice visibility, the Mantas seem to be making their
way back down to Manta Alley, lots of them seen on dives
there now. Staff and crew on the boat thought they'd
come across 2 turtles caught in fishing net, but low
and behold they were mating, 2 huge green turtles, so
the poor things were watched for a while and then left
to get on with their business. Mandarin fish spotted
at Sebayur, sneaking about in the coral, if you haven't
already seen one, they look so unreal with their beautiful
coloured skin.
March 05
We're still having beautiful weather, not sure what's
happened to the rainy season, with not much rain at
all this year, the guests are certainly not complaining:o)
but the farmers are. The Airstrip is still full of Mantas
a very nice place for lunch, with mantas everywhere
just cruising in the strong currents, some of them must
be 5-6 mts across, they are huge and when they seem
to be coming straight for you feeding it's a bit daunting.
A beautiful clown frog fish found and a Shaggy frog
fish, which we went back to see and haven't as yet found
again, but even when he was pointed out the first time,
he was so hard to distinguish, but this is what makes
diving here so great, you just never know what you will
find.
1st
February 2005
 Today
we released a Loggerhead Turtle, which Anki, Debbie
and Brian found floating tangled in fishing net, his
back flipper was bitten off and he had deep wounds in
his front flippers, after a lot of care and attention
we were able to release him back to the ocean, he swam
off gracefully into the depths surrounding Bidadari
Island. Turtles quickly adapt to the loss of a limb,
especially a back fin which they mostly use for steering.
Lots of Mantas being seen at Tetawa and Gili Lawa Laut,
visibility down and the water 27c, but so much plankton
in the water bringing in lots of fish.
January 2005
We are happy to welcome our new Instructors to Labuanbajo,
Kathryn, Padi OWSI who has transferred from Gili Air
and has worked for us already for 6 months, Debbie,
OWSI + EFR from England and Paddy from Ireland who is
our resident Marine Biologist and OWSI. The weather
and visibility are still good, even with the start of
the rainy season.
December
27th 2004
Reefseekers sends its heartfelt wishes to the people
of Aceh and the other countries affected by the Tsunami.
Please donate generously to any of the Aid agencies
below.
http://www.unicef.org/
http://www.ifrc.org/
http://www.care.org/
December 04
Ernest, Kath and all staff of Reefseekers would like
to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
The end of the year is still bringing special dives,
a small group of Dolphins playing at Gili Lawa laut,
on one dive a group of 7 dolphins being closely followed
by some big sharks, not sure of the type of sharks,
or what they were up to. Mandarin fish still putting
on a show.
November 04
The rains have started at last and everything is becoming
green again after the long dry season. 50-60 Mantas
in one area with a pure white one and one completely
black , ghostpipe fish and pygmy seahorses popping up
at unexpected places. Sighting of a whale breaching,
but nobody got a good enough look to identify it. Tiny
clown anglerfish spotted by guests at Cannibal Rock.
October 2004
Flores man
What occurred in that "great gap", several
million years ago, is anybody's guess - and guesses
there have been aplenty.
But the new discovery of a tiny, one-metre-tall, flat-faced,
bipedal "ape-man" on the Indonesian island
of Flores is rather different.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3964579.stm
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200411/06/eng20041106_163016.html
http://pharyngula.org/index/science/comments/flores_man_controversy/
August 2004
This month was full of wonderful surprises for our guests.
Mola Mola seen in a pocket of very chilly water 19c,
but who notices the cold when you spot something like
that, at least 2mts, swimming on his side, Julian thought
at first it was a Manta, but then as they got closer
found it to be the elusive Sun fish. Lots of Mantas
down at the Alley, a huge group of 1mt cow nose rays
flying overhead like a cloud at Batu bolong. Some of
the Mantas are starting to move up North and have been
seen at Sebayur, Tetawa and Gili Lawa laut.
July
2004
2 Dugongs gracefully swam past us at Pillarsteen at
the end of a beautiful dive, Michaela, Robin, Stephan,
Friedeman and of course me, were well happy. Holly our
new Divemaster also spotted a Dugong at the Cauldron
with her very happy guests a week later. The girls down
at Manta Alley were out in force on all of our recent
visits, with some of them reaching 4 mts they are certainly
the most amazing creatures to watch. Black frog fish
spotted at Sobolon also. Batu Bolong has been hosting
4 huge Dog tooth tuna who loom in from the blue to frighten
the life out of you.
June2004
Reefseekers were very proud to receive an award from
the Government of Lombok for our work in Marine conservation
and our Turtle Nursery project in Gili Air.
April
2004
Batu Bolong is doing us proud, with schools of fusiliers
of every kind and about 30 monster Giant Trevallys patrolling
the outer edges, these guys make the sharks look small.
Water temperature up to 29 in the north, still 26 in
the south, but so full of fish life down there, one
dive at Manta alley had the guests complaining about
the schooling fusiliers, as they couldn't get good shots
of the Mantas for them getting in the way.
March
2004
 The
visibility is getting back to normal with calm and warmer
water. Well spotted by 2 of our divers a black frog
fish, the reefs in this area are so amazing you never
know what you will come across, some very weird nudibranchs
around at the moment and the ever beautiful Mandarin
fish.
February
2004
The weather this Feb has not been as windy as in previous
years and we've managed to have some great diving, visibility
has been reduced at some sites during the last week,
but plenty sightings of Mantas, pretty chilly as well,
down to 25c some days.
January
2004
 Plenty
of Mantas around, Eagle rays a plenty at the Cauldron
and the pygmy seahorses are cute as ever, we've had
some very nice weather and good visibility during this
month
December
2003
From the Staff and of course the animals of Reefseekers
we wish you all a Very merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year.
15 pygmy seahorses on one Gorgonian fan north of Komodo,
they were leaping around performing some amazing acrobatics.
October
2003
Nurdin our divemaster radioed in to report illegal fishermen
in Gili Lawa laut, the floating ranger station was there
within no time to arrest the fishermen from Sulawesi,
they said they'd drifted with the current and hadn't
been fishing in the park, but on pulling up some buoys
near them, Nurdin found a dead black tip reef shark
hooked on their line, on entering the water Nurdin came
across a huge grey shark which at first also looked
dead, but on closer inspection was found to be clinging
to life, Nurdin cut the line close to the mouth of the
shark and miraculously it gave a flick of it's tail
to swim off into the blue. The fishermen were taken
to Labuanbajo where they were transferred to Ruteng
to await trial.
Please never be tempted to eat Shark fin soup or baby
shark, sharks are a vital part of our oceans and without
them our world will change forever in ways that we can
not even conceive.
September
2003
We've now started a new service using a traditional
wooden boat, it is a lot slower, but if you are in no
hurry then it's just the thing for a relaxing day with
2 or 3 dives in the Komodo National park. The manta
rays seem to be visiting a few different sites in the
Park, but also seen a few times at Sebayur kecil
July
2003
Nice flat seas for some excellent days diving, the
visibility is great.
June
2003
 We
haven't found the new tiny creature yet (story below),
but we do have the other Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus
bargibanti)
May 2003
Smallest Seahorse discovered
Biologists find tiny animal in Indonesian waters
Project Seahorse VANCOUVER, May 8,
2003
While exploring the delicate corals of the Flores Sea
off the coast of Indonesia, a Project Seahorse marine
biologist has identified a new species of seahorse,
the smallest on record and a rival to the world’s
smallest fishes.
Adults of the new species, a pygmy seahorse to be known
as Hippocampus denise, family Syngnathidae are typically
just 16mm long, smaller than most fingernails. In the
past they have been mistaken for the offspring of another
of the 32 known species of seahorses. The size and other
distinguishing traits of H. denise could help scientists
understand the constraints of being a small fish. Compared
with other small seahorses, they’re active little
creatures.
Because it lives among the deeper corals and is a master
of camouflage, the diminutive new fish is probably safe
from the over-exploitation threatening other seahorse
species. But with only a handful of sightings on record,
it’s hard to know what risks they face, heavy-duty
trawling gear that can flatten reefs is one potential
threat, underwater tourism is another. Divers and photographers
could possibly love these animals to death,
April
2003
Professional photographer Ian Cartwright and his wife
Sheila recently spent 2 weeks with us exploring the
sites of the National Park, many dives had Ian surfacing
to change the films of his 2 cameras and go back down,
they have dived all over the world and were stunned
to find the reefs still in such pristine condition.
March 2003
 Peter
and Fiona Molloy on their London to Sydney overland
expedition in aid of CARE International, took a few
days out to try some of the diving in Komodo National
Park, read about their trip at http://www.londontosydney.com
March 2003
Very lucky guests from Sweden Lars and Anders got to
see a Dugong with us whilst diving at Nidihang (east
of Komodo island) during a dive with a strong current,
near the end of the dive in the shallows we came upon
a dugong who promptly got into gear and swam past us
all against the current, he was around 2 mts long, we
were all stunned and couldn't wait to surface to check
out if it was real and that Ernest and Anders had got
video footage of it, the thinking of 'don't open your
housing until you have to' went straight out of the
window, both got excellent shots of it. What a brilliant
day and so unexpected. The whole 14 days of diving with
guests from Sweden, USA, France and Germany was superb,
we had wonderful weather, calm seas, good visibility
and wall to wall mantas on many dives, including Manta
Alley (of course) Lighthouse, Full Moon (certainly missed
Michelle on this one when I had to surface with the
boys ha ha), Tetawa besar and Kecil. We discovered another
new site and named it the Shark bunker. Hope to see
some nice photos on lasse's web site!
1st
December 2002
Our friends Anke and Mike from Watercolours Dive Centre
in the Perhentians, Malaysia have just visited us and
enjoyed some very memorable dives with Ernest, they
made it down to Manta Alley which is the very south
of Komodo Island, the comment was 'You couldn't see
the fish for the Mantas', from small 1.5 mt to huge
stealth bombers of 4 mts and over, they decided to do
both dives at the same spot and had wall to wall mantas
the whole 2 hours of dive time, over 20 was the estimation
of numbers, viz was a measly 5 - 10 mts, which is normal
there, but that's where all the food is and that's why
the Mantas are always there. For anyone who has dived
with us and knows the Cauldron, the comment there was
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13th
Jan, 2002 Flores
Batu Bolong, a mountain of granite rock which rises
out of the depths to create a most beautiful dive site,
getting ready on the boat to dive, Ernest and his divers
were all overjoyed to see a huge Manta Ray jump up out
of the water about 4mts in front of the boat to look
them all in the eye, you can imagine how quick they
all got in the water to have Mantas with them for most
of the dive, also spotted a 3mt shark on the edge of
the visibility, a huge Napoleon Wrasse, Giant Trevally,
Splendid nudibranchs, too much to list, was how the
story went.
9th January 2002 Flores
My last 2 dives in Flores before I headed back to Gili
Air after my 10 days in Labuan Bajo, it was also my
birthday and what a surprise was in store for me, 2
dives at Sabolo, the visibility was amazing and we had
a slow current just barely moving us along the tiers
of coral which line the slopes of Sabolo besar, after
about 5 mins into the dive, I looked up to the surface
and saw a huge Manta Ray circling above us, by the time
all of the divers had spotted her, I now saw that she
was entangled in a buoy and was struggling to swim and
get free, I surfaced below her and went gently to her
mouth where she had the line twisted around the front
right hand lobe of her mouth, she was easy 5 mts I felt
like an ant beside her, she stayed so still while I
cut away the buoy to the surface using a line cutter
(an excellent tool to keep handy, much better than a
knife and quicker too) I had to dig my fingers into
her wound to get the twisted line free and after the
final 40 mts of line and anchor fell away from her,
she gave a graceful sweep of her wings and disappeared
into the distance, free again to roam the sea mounds
and delight future divers who spot her. The staff
on our boat said they saw the buoy coming in from a
distance and couldn't believe what they were seeing,
it was as if she had come to us to get help, myself,
Ernest and the divers will never forget our experience.
Our second dive to Sabolo Kecil was just as nice without
the trauma of the Manta Ray, we had a huge school of
batfish and barracuda swimming over the sea mound above
our heads, the end of a lovely day.
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