Derawan, Sangalaki and around

There is occasional mention of Sangalaki here -- I have a brief report and

some photos from diving in that area from August 06.

I hope it is not a breach of protocol to merely link my own page (below)

rather than enter it all here.

Also (sorry to mix topics), some folks have asked about the Canon S80.

The gallery has pictures taken with an Oly5050 and some with an S80,

sometimes of the same subject. Hope it gives some idea what's the least

you can expect from these cams :-).

Sorry if the pages load a bit slow, I prefer larger image files.

Derawan and Sangalaki Dive Trip, Aug 06

Best,

Ajay.

Nice catch on the mandarins Ajay. Esp with the shutter lag.

The "night" pygmy seahorses look like the H. Pontohi. They are also active in the day and are actually not as rare as once thought, just hard to find.

... The "night" pygmy seahorses look like the H. Pontohi. They are also active in the day and are actually not as rare as once thought, just hard to find.

Thanks.. I found some more discussion another website, and have

put a mention of this (with your handle) on my page -- hope that's ok.

Ajay.

Hey, its great to see Baracuda Point is still performing, were there any other big schools of fish on that site, how is the reef around there now and how is the jellyfish lake these days?

I have very fond memories of diving with my good old friend Mr Agus... a very knowledgable local fisherman who knows more about that area than anyone. He used to work for Derawan Redort, in fact it was this guy who showed the owner of the resort the sites they now dive regularly, to have this guy as your boat captain was a dream, he knew exactly where I would come up after each dive, even when the current was ripping. Thinking back its like it was yesterday, I still remember all the dives over that way very clearly.

I am sure they are what may eventually be called H. pontohi, I also have a few of them that can be seen at http://www.diving4images.com/seahorse_pipefish_gallery.html... Oh dear there is even a pair that Scubadru himself shot!

So glad you had a great time over there in Kalimantan...

Great report!! I've been there in May this year, I stayed in another resort called "Maratua Paradise" which, as the name implied, is located on Maratua.

The East Kalimantan is a great dive sites and I already planned to pay another visit there next year.

May check out my photos here: Ringo's East Kalimantan Photos

I felt quite disappointed for our group missed the manta galore(a good reason for a come-back trip), but we managed to see large school of barracudas. By the time I visited there. the water is as calm as a pond and the surface was as quiet as a mirror!! Simply incredible!!

Hi Graham,

It's definitely the same species of pygmy as on your site. I don't recall

Mr. Agus, though we did dive once with their senior guide, Dharma, who's been

at Derawan since it started, and whose name marks the site 'Dharma point'.

About the reef: some sites (esp in the fast current sites near Sangalaki and Maratua)

had regions with broken hard coral; can't say what caused it. The reef life is pretty

prolific.

At Derawan, there was a European group, one of whom was doing (PhD?) research

on coral -- she claimed the count on coral species would run into three digits, at the

house reef.

Hey Ringo,

I love your barracuda swirl! We saw barracuda schools 3-4 times, but not

in large enough numbers to get a good swirl going. Next time, I hope :-).

Ajay.

Hey Ringo, you really did have a good time with those cuda's didn't ya! Was that at Baracuda Point or Big Fish Country, I think they call it that, it's really Maratua Channel! Mr Agus really knew where to drop in on that site and man did it perform, sharks, cuda, jacks, rays, the lots, even once I had a huge congregation of sailfin snappers and I mean thousands of them covering the whole bottom of the channel, it must have been a spawning time or something. From Maratua did you dive a wall section that drop to a deep undercut at about 45-50m, wow this was amazing twice I had schools of grey reefies, giant rays, eagle rays and jacks not bad for a rather unimpressive (at first glance) section of wall.

I have heard there are a few people working for conservation org's over there now, coral counts are the highest everywhere, the highest recorded is just beign announced from Irian Jaya, I am waiting the results on the two surveys very soon...

Wow Dharma is still there doing his stuff, I was actually a real cheapy backpacker when I was there and I stayed in the village, met Mr Agus who took to rent tanks and off we went on a 4 days adventure into the unknown. He knew exactly what I would see and he never dived! Whilst on Derawan I spent quite a evenings with Dharma and have to say I really got a great vibe him a true passionate fella and the heart and soul of Derawan Resort when I was hanging round there.

I will get over there one day; my Hunny wants to go so it will happen one day!

Thanks for all your images highlighting this fantastic area to me again...

yeah, the barracudas were great!! I can't recall where did I exactly take these cudas pics, but I'm sure they're taken in Maratua.

I look forward to my second visit there!! And hopefully I can encount the manta galore in Sangalaki!!

I really like the shrimp on the anemome...nice negative space with eye-popping color on the shrimp.

Very cool shot of the jelly... can't tell if that's waste or planulae. I dont know of a rhizostomae species that broods planulae, but who knows they aren't well enough studied yet.