This morning we set out for our first dive. I had decided on a dive site called Goby A Crab, as I’d only been there once before and really enjoyed it. It has good sand, good rubble and good soft corals and sponges, with a lot of reef life. It’s down towards the south tip of Lembeh Island and needs to be high or low tide to dive it, otherwise there is a big current.

The dive started as normal..lots of squid eggs on the mooring (you could just about make out the unborn squid in their translucent eggs sacks), a couple of small beautiful Fingered Dragonets, a Zebra Spearing Mantis Shrimp….the divers were spread out and I was idly cruising above the sand/rubble in front of everyone except Liberty (one of my Dive Supervisors). Liberty was, as always, peering at something very tiny on the bottom, when I happened to glance up and look around. Now we were down at about 24 meters, with normal Lembeh visibility, about 10 meters (30 feet) or so. Suddenly I saw a very large Spotted Eagle Ray swim above Liberty’s head…I start banging my tank frantically, trying to get his attention (I was only about 5 meters away from him). He, as usual, ignores me, and keeps peering at whatever tiny critter he’s found. Bang bang bang bang I go, pointing towards the ray and waving my arms….after what seemed like an eternity Liberty looked up and towards me and then I saw his eyes go wide…he started pointing above me and waving his arms!! I looked up and there was a huge Devil Ray, about 8 or 9 feet (3 meters or so) wing-tip to wing-tip!!!!! And then there was another!! And two Spotted Eagle Rays!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I don’t think Liberty could either!! It was the first (and second) Devil Ray I have ever seen, and Lembeh would have been the last place I would ever have guessed that that would have happened…..

The above two shots were some stills I lifted from the video I took, but I was about 30 meters deep, the light wasn’t great and a Devil Ray can swim a lot faster than me!!!!!!

The rest of the dive was great too. Pink Pygmy Seahorse, a juvenile Pacific Sailfin Tang, super aggressive and very lovely colored Spinecheek Anemonefish, Raggy Scorpionfish being grazed on by a school of juvenile Catfish….the glazed eyes and big Lembeh smile was definitely plastered over mine and Liberty’s faces at the end of the dive…

The rest of the week’s diving and been fantastic too. We saw three Blue Ring Octopus this week, including two in one day and two different sites!! We also saw Coconut, Mimic and Wonderpuses too. Particularly special was seeing two tiny juvenile Wonderpuses which, from the tip of one tentacle to the tip of the other, was only about 4 cms (one and a half inches) across…incredibly sweet..

Been a good week for Zebras, with Zebra Crabs, Zebra Seahorses and Zebra Mantis Shrimp. We seen a fair amount of Tiger Shrimps again. Bumble Bee shrimp are still there and we’ve found some nice big Xeno Crabs and right next to them a Pink Bargibanti Pygmy, both only 18 meters deep. We also saw the Lembeh Pygmy Pipe Dragons.

We’ve had a good week for Ghost Pipefish, with Ornates, Robust, Velvet, Halimeda and Rough Snout all being seen. Frogfish have been well represented, with Hairy, Giant, Painted and Warty all making appearances. Other notable sightings are more Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Ribbon Eels, Dragon Sea Moths, Crinoid Shrimps, Electric (disco) Clam, Stargazers, Pontohi Pygmy Seahorses, Pink Hairy Squat Lobsters, Crocodilefish, Snake Eels and two Bobbitt Worms on one night dive!!!

Dive Guide Rony had a good week..last week he found a Phantom Velvetfish, which was very exciting..this week he found what he had really been looking for, the Lembeh Velvetfish, a unique Lembeh critter, so well done Rony!!!

This week’s video is of a very bizarre nudibranch. The Solar Powered Nudi is one of the largest nudis we get, with two in this video over 20cms long. The graze on soft coral, usually a leathery soft coral called Sarcophyton. The nudis extract the zooanthellae from the soft coral then store it in their fleshly lobes that come out of their body. The use the zooanthellae to photosynthesis and harvest the energy produced, hence their name!! An amazing symbiotic relationship and another truly weird and wonderful critter from Lembeh.

Click here to watch in HD in a new windows

Thanks to another great bunch of people from all over the world for coming to visit. We’ve had guests from Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Turkey, Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Malaysia, Italy and France. Nice meeting all of you…and hope to see you again.

Barb’s bronchitis finally cleared up and so she managed to get back in the water yesterday. Enjoy her photos…

Barb’s Fab Week 15 Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW

Not that I had thought a lot about it, but why are Urchins called Urchins? Well it turns out that Urchin is the old Middle English word for ‘hedgehog’. Suddenly it all becomes clear…….

We get many different types of urchin here, and one of the most striking is the Fire Urchin (Asthenosoma varium). It has bulb-tipped venomous spines, capable of inflicting intensely painful wounds on the unwary diver…it also has, occasionally, uninvited, though harmless, guests. This week’s video shows two of the most interesting, the Zebra Urchin Crab (Zebrida adamsii) and the Coleman Shrimp (Periclimenes colemanii). Both of these crustacean were seen on the same dive, on urchins about 3 meters apart.

The Zebra Urchin Crab is a little more common to see than the Coleman, and can be found on several different types of urchin. They are great little guys to see and photograph or film as they tend to stay pretty much still. They can be on urchins only a couple of meters deep, to well over 25 meters.

The Coleman Shrimp is pretty rare. The are often seen is pairs, as in the clip, with the female being the larger of the two. They too make great photographic subjects, with their banded legs and large circles on their bodies. They are usually only seen on deeper urchins, from 18 meters down to 30 meters…..it was wonderful to find them and the Zebra crab so close together…both the Zebra and the Coleman are only about 2cms long (less than an inch).

Click here to view in High Def in a separate window

We have had guests from all over the world this week, with divers from the States, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, France, Turkey, Japan and a honeymoon couple from the UK.

Tom and Dawn (the honeymooners) had a fantastic Mandarin dive, where as well as lots of Mandarin rumpy-pumpy they also had a Blue Ring octopus sitting on piece of coral for over 10 minutes!! Great dive!!!

Other cephalopods sightings this week have included several Mimic and Wonderpuses, more Hairy and Long Arm Octopuses and some big Veined Octopuses. We seen a lot of Flamboyant Cuttlefish and even some large mating Reef Squid…

As well as the Zebra Crab and Coleman Shrimp. we’ve had more Tiger Shrimp, Candy Crabs, Porcelain Crabs, Mantis Shrimp, Tozeuma Shrimp, Orangutan Crabs, Boxing Crabs and Xeno Crabs

Many different Ghost Pipefish again, with Velvets, Halimeda, Ornate, Robust and Rough Snouts all putting in appearances…some divers were incredibly lucky to see a Velvet Ghost Pipefish give birth!!!! Neither Barb or I were there..oh well, can’t be everywhere….

Lots of Spiny Devilfish, Devil Scorpionfish, Raggy Scorpionfish, Flasher Scorpionfish, Waspfish and a few Ambom Scorpionfish. We also saw a Stonefish early in the week. We’ve seen several different Soles, with the Margined, Carpet and Peacock Soles all being seen. We’ve seen Crocodile and Japanese Flatheads, Fingered Dragonets and Dragon (Pegasus) Sea Moths, always one of my favorites…Frogfish, as always are around, with Hairy’s, Painted, Giant and Warty. We even saw a bald Hairy Frogfish on the House Reef!! Hairy Frogfish are really a variation of the Striped Frogfish, which doesn’t have hairs. Most unusual for us. There have been lots of eels, with Ribbon Eels in all stages (juvenile, male and female), Snowflake Eels, White-eye Morays and Fimbriated…..we also saw some more Lembeh Pygmy Pipedragons…..and, last but not least, many different types of Nudibranch…

Not too many photos this week as Barb has unfortunately had bronchitis and hasn’t been able to dive…hopefully she’ll be better soon and back in the water…

See you next week…..

Barb’s Weekly Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW

After a week away it was lovely to be back in the Strait again. Away from the hustle and bustle of Singapore City life and back to the beauty of Kungkungan Bay and the wonderful diving of Lembeh…

Had anything changed in the week we spent away? It did seem that some little things had altered. Jahir, the dive site that had been continuously throwing up Hairy Frogfish no longer seems to have any (it still has plenty of other stuff though)…but another dive site seems to have gained two new ones, so that evened itself out. We had a couple of days where the visibility was incredible!! The dive sites at the north end of Lembeh were getting 30m plus vis!!! Dive sites like Batu Merah and Aw Shucks were amazing, with the coral reefs teaming with life, butterflyfish, unicornfish, triggerfish..really lovely…

There were many critters to be seen, as always. We saw many different types of crustaceans….we saw, in no particular order, Boxer (Pom Pom) Crab, seend here on the right,Tiger Shrimp, Xeno Crabs, Zebra Crabs, Hairy Squat Lobster, Spiny Lobster, Bumblebee Shrimp, Emperor Shrimp, Skeleton Shrimp, Orangutan Crabs, Candy Crab as well as many Smashing and Spearing Mantis Shrimps and tons of Commensual Shrimp.

On the vertebrate side of things we saw several Mimic Octopus, a few Wonderpus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, a giant Reef Cuttlefish, big Coconut Octopus and little ones too, Long Arm Octopus, four huge Reef Octopus on one dive at Jicoyance and even a Hairy Octopus…and all these octopus sightings were in the daytime..

Bargibanti’s Pygmy Seahorses seem to be on practically every sea fan we look at and there seem to be many Pontohi Pygmy Seahorses too.

Other notable sightings included several Stargazers, Ambon Scorpionfish, Velvetfish, Cockatoo Flounders, juvenile Souls, Dragon (or Pegasus) Sea moths and the bizarre Winged Pipefish…so all in all a great weeks diving on our return…

Cool photos of the week is this picture taken at California Dreaming of the small Yellow Sea Cucumber.

They are very striking cucumbers, with slightly knobby bodies and feed by extending their branch-like feeding arms into the current, then curling them into their central mouths. They are all over California Dreaming but absent from nearly all the other dive sites.

My video of the week is of one of the more illusive critters here, the Rhinopias frondosa or Weedy Scorpionfish. They tend to hang out in the same area but seem to move around a lot within that area. We will find it on one dive, then go back again a day or so later and there is no sign at all. Then, when diving at the site a week or so later, you find it again. They can come in a variety of colors, ranging from dark red and purple to yellow and lavender..this one is a lovely light red color. This one has lots of frilly appendages and a wonderful pattern. They do not move too much, and when they do, tend to flop around. A special critter to find…

Click here for to watch full screen in a new window

We had great guests this week, with one group from the States and another form Russia, and we had guests from South Korea, the UK, New Zealand and Switzerland. It was a pleasure diving with you all and we hope to see you again.

Click on the photos at the top and bottom of the blog to view the slideshow of Barb’s Weekly Photos.

This Week’s Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW

As Barb and I spent last week in Singapore, resting our weary fins, cameras and other equipment, I thought I would write this week about are time so far at KBR and to give a quick recap of Barb’s beautiful photos and show my full length macro film.

It is a wonderful experience working at KBR. First and foremost, thanks to all the incredibly friendly and delightful staff at the resort, from the Dive Team to the Restaurant Staff, the Management to the Spa Girls, the Gardeners to the Construction Guys, the Laundry staff to the Security guards..all of them are helpful, polite, hardworking and always with a smile on their faces. Thank you for making KBR a special place, not just for the guests, but for us too. The KBR BBQ nights are quickly becoming a legend with all the staff playing the music and singing the songs…

The diving really has exceeded our expectations. The variation and abundance of so many different critters on so many dive sites is phenomenal. You want to go on every dive, as you never know what you might see. I love seeing our guests come back from dives with that special ‘Lembeh Smile’ on their faces, the smile together with the slightly glazed look in their eyes, as they try to recall all the different critters they saw in the muck. That smile is frequently on my face too….

So the photo gallery I’ve uploaded this week is my selection of Barb’s20 Best Photos of June. It’s very hard to choose, but they are the ones I like best. From those I have selected my Top 3, the photos I think are totally fab.

In 3rd place: Velvet Ghost Pipefish. This lovely couple, with the female in the foreground and the male in the background, seem to be reflections of each other. They are perfectly named, and you can imagine they would feel warm and smooth if ever you brushed up against one.

In 2nd place: Three Ornate Ghost Pipefish. I know that this, quite rightly, is one of Barb’s favorites. We do not, when publishing the photos, put the names or descriptions. But this photo deserves a little explanation. You can clearly see the beautiful family of white Ornates, and there is also a little blob of white in the top right corner. This, as Barb is fond of recalling, is a tiny little bit of Ghost Pipefish Poo!!! Just as she was taking the shot, the little guy decided it was time for number ones!!!

And my favorite photo of June…in 1st place: Pygmy Cuttlefish on Soft Coral. I love this photo. For those who aren’t familiar with the scale of things here, the cuttlefish is only about 2cms (less than an inch) long and camouflaging himself against a vividly colored pink soft coral tree. Tiny cuttlefish always amaze me that they are so detailed, perfect copies of their larger cousins. And to find such a great tiny specimen close to such a colorful soft coral, turning himself such a wonderful hue is a special moment in a special place.

To see the rest of Barb’s June Top 20 Photos, just click on the photo strip at the top and bottom of this blog.

My video of the week is, in fact, my completed video of my first month at KBR. It’s about 20 minutes long, all shot with my macro lens and well worth watching, especially if you are at work and feeling like you’d rather be diving…..

Click here to see the video in high def in a new windows

And finally…….. Since the beginning of June I’ve asked the Dive Guides to write down a couple of ‘interesting’ critters they’ve seen on each dive. I’ve recorded what they saw (some it is quite general, like ‘Nudibranch’, or ‘Frogfish – various’) and it gives you a good idea of the incredible variety of amazing critters that can be found here. There are over 80 different critters, and that’s still just some of the stuff here, not all of it……

Till next week……

Barb’s June Top 20 VIEW SLIDE SHOW