Dive Wakatobi #3: The Diving

SPLASH!!! I have just taken a giant stride off the side of the dive boat at a site called Table Coral City in the Banda Sea. I am diving with Wakatobi Dive Resort in the southeastern side of Sulawesi, Indonesia.  Table Coral City is a sea mount and we are going to circumnavigate it over the next 70 minutes.  This was a special dive as most of the dive sites at Wakatobi Dive Resort are wall/drift dives with just a couple seamounts/coral terraced areas.

Five divers (the dive guide, 3 other divers, and I) descend to about 60 feet.  The site is an assault on the senses in that hundreds of square feet are covered with table coral and literally hundreds, no – make that thousands – of fish are busy being fish. Enormous schools of black triggerfish, yellowtail fusilier, black snapper, chromis, and other fish blanket the reef.  I don’t know where to look first. Luckily, our fantastic dive guide leads us through a saddle in the coral.  Within minutes we come upon a seemingly motionless school of barracuda hovering just below the surface of the water. We watch and photograph them for several minutes before getting distracted by a Denise pygmy seahorse. 

On this dive and other dives this past week I have seen three species of pygmy seahorse (Bargibant, denise, and Pontoh), ghost pipe fish, winged pipefish, various species of leaf fish, frog fish, turtles, sea snakes, a solar-powered nudibranch along with several other species of flat worms and nudibranchs, several species of anemone shrimp, coral crabs, orangutan crabs, Zanzibar shrimp, a sea spider, large schools of puffer fish, squat lobsters, and so much more!  In addition, there are hundreds of species of soft and hard coral, sea squirts, sponges that support reef life.  I did observe a few larger marine animals such as eagle rays, blue spotted rays, and black tip reef sharks, however, Wakatobi is known for its macro marine animals.  

The water temperature consistently stayed at 82 degrees. However, even with a 7 millimeter wetsuit, booties, and a hood I was shivering at the end of most of the dives.  Granted, the dives are generally 70 minutes and I was making three to four dives per day so my ability to maintain normal body heat was challenged.  

At the end of the dive at Coral Table City eight giant trevally swaggered (yes, swaggered, just like John Wayne coming into town) through the water column seizing up the thousands of fish in their realm. Wakatobi is world class diving.

If you would like more information on Wakatobi Dive Resort please contact Outdoor Travel  Adventures at 800-554-9059 / info@otadventures.com.