Karas Island, Indonesia

Hi,

I am travelling to Karas Island of Indonesia for a small documentary project and I need to film underwater as well.

My flight require me to fly like this :Bali-Jakarta-Ambon-Fak2, then 3 hours speed boat to Karas Island.

Dive information about Karas Island is limited to me.

Does anyone know Karas Island well ?

How is the underwater enviornment ? comparing to Ambon, or Wakatobi ??

Can anyone recommend a dive centre or dive master to me ? If there is any ?

I will be there around 13-18 Nov 2011.

I wll be hosted by the interviewee so I still don't know the exact location for "sleeping", whether at his boat or land ???

Anyone's comments are highly appreciated !!

Thanks in advance !!

Regards

Edmond Chan

I've past been there a few times on liveaboards. Last time was awhile ago though. My notes say 2 dive sites that we did, one in the channel between the big island and kecil, and one on the outside southern tip. Nothing special, wobbegong, leopard shark.Coral growth was ok and youngish.

I would suggest you check with the liveaboards like Seahorse and Grand Komodo who go through the area more often.

Oh and then come back and post some pics on the area... would be nice to see it from the land perspective.

I've past been there a few times on liveaboards. Last time was awhile ago though. My notes say 2 dive sites that we did, one in the channel between the big island and kecil, and one on the outside southern tip. Nothing special, wobbegong, leopard shark.Coral growth was ok and youngish.

I would suggest you check with the liveaboards like Seahorse and Grand Komodo who go through the area more often.

Oh and then come back and post some pics on the area... would be nice to see it from the land perspective.

Hi Drew,

Thank you for your information. We will try our best to explore Karas as much as we can and we will stay with the fisherman for most of the time, not with the dive operator.

In fact, I don't expect we will encounter very much special species since we are not focusing on the underwater bio-diversity.

It will be a nice experience as we can spend a week with the local fisherman.

Will keep you posted when we back, from land and underwater perspective.

Regards

Edmond

The hookah fishermen or net draggers?

I thoroughly enjoyed the channel, personally. It had interesting caves along the banks and wonderful shots of mangrove roots with creatures shot upwards capturing trees and clouds. The current can get a bit extreme, so planning is helpful.

The hookah fishermen or net draggers?

Hi Drew,

This time we wil be staying with fisherman that perform " Non-destructive and low-impact methods" such as pelagic hook-and-line.

They are those fisherman that stop using compressor fishing,bottom line,dynamite,cyanide, together with WWF effort, hopefully to avoid over fishing around Karas, whereas most other areas are seriously suffered from overfishing. See if we can film something special, like I am going to place a Go Pro on my chest and see how many "So May" we will encounter during a long distance snorkling, a study for the "So May" monitoring !!!

Regards

Edmond

I thoroughly enjoyed the channel, personally. It had interesting caves along the banks and wonderful shots of mangrove roots with creatures shot upwards capturing trees and clouds. The current can get a bit extreme, so planning is helpful.

Hi Allison,

Thanks for your advice, we will try to avoid diving in strong current !!!

Regards

Edmond

Hi Drew,

This time we wil be staying with fisherman that perform " Non-destructive and low-impact methods" such as pelagic hook-and-line.

They are those fisherman that stop using compressor fishing,bottom line,dynamite,cyanide, together with WWF effort, hopefully to avoid over fishing around Karas, whereas most other areas are seriously suffered from overfishing. See if we can film something special, like I am going to place a Go Pro on my chest and see how many "So May" we will encounter during a long distance snorkling, a study for the "So May" monitoring !!!

Just as long as you don't catch a So-may (for the non-cantonese it's the humphead/napoleon wrasse!) to eat! Is this for WWF? If it is you better get the correct visas otherwise you'll incur the wrath!

Just as long as you don't catch a So-may (for the non-cantonese it's the humphead/napoleon wrasse!) to eat! Is this for WWF? If it is you better get the correct visas otherwise you'll incur the wrath!

Wow,the word "WWF" is a bit sensitive there !!! We are doing this for our local media, nothing to do with WWF.

Regards

Edmond