Keep the Wakatobi experience alive after you return home or build excitement for your upcoming adventure. Visit this page for regular reports from Wakatobi dive staff on recent marine life sightings.

Report from Coralie ( 22/08/08, Trip 25 )
A school of 20+ dolphins were seen on diving day one from the boat heading to the first divesite Dunia Baru. We changed direction to get a better look at them and they brought us back to the jetty for a 5 minutes delightful show!

Later in the week we were very lucky to see a female cuttlefish was laying eggs in staghorn coral heads. The male was also there hovering around her with a protective eye as she kept inserting her ping-pong ball looking like eggs. Family of the Cephalopods, the Sepiids have the best color and shape changes in the world. They are just amazing to observe for the first or the 100th time.

Xenocarcinus tuberculatus belongs to the Majidae family, this crab is often found living in pairs on whip corals and is most commonly found below a depth of 30 meters or 100feet. Reproduction occurs by internal fecundation and is only possible when the female moults. The male, still in his hard shell, will identify a female moulting by her smell and protect her with his claws to be first when the timing is right. The eggs are then fertilized as they pass through the chamber holding the sperm and shortly released after mating. They will then hatch as free swimming larvae with spines, abdomen and antennas. Good luck to them they will still have three distinctive larval stages to go through before becoming tiny crabs which will then look for their own whip coral home on which to hide.

Lights,Camera, Action!!! Wakatobi turned into a mini film set this trip while guests and dive guides became the stars of the show.Professional photography and videography team, Stuart and Susannne Cummings and Shawn Levin shot footage of both the resort and reefs to be used for future promotional material. They aim to have the final cut ready for release later this year.

We are also joined this trip by Marine Biologist and photographer Richard Smith. Richard is a pygmy seahorse expert who chose to return to Wakatobi to study these minute creatures as in his own words,“Wakatobi is unique for the diversity and abundance of pygmy seahorses”. Richard plans to stay with us over the next few weeks, during which he will be providing guests with slide shows and informative talks about his research.

Some new pygmies were found by Claire whose keen eyes spotted a pair of Denise at Pinkis and also a Denise pygmy seahorse at Teluk Waitii. The giant blue Frogfish, initially found in Trip 21 was spotted again this trip, with a special thank you to guest Gillian Corrigan of 'Depth Unlimited' who has kindly contributed a fantastic photograph of the critter!

A huge thank you to all guests who joined us at Wakatobi this week, with a special thank you to Mike and the Scuba World Group; we had an awesome trip, filled with sunny skies and critters galore!

During the trip, guests and guides alike were thrilled to see three Giant Frogfish on dives at Pinkis Wall; each perched upon their individual color coordinated sponges.

The last morning of diving also proved to be a fruitful one; Robust Ghost Pipefish were spotted at Spiral Corner and Cornucopia and guests aboard Waka 3 were treated to a glimpse of a passing Black Tip Reef Shark and large Sting Ray as they cruised through the reef at Conchita.

Wakatobi's macro life briefly took a backseat to some larger pelagics this trip;on voyages to Blade, guests witnessed a huge pod of Pilot whales surfacing for air, and dolphins were spotted leaping out of the water from the jetty bar at sunset. Spotted eagle rays graced us with their presence while cruising the reefs for food.

Back on the reef itself, Mike discovered a beautiful new Giant Frogfish at Pinkis, perched atop a clump of blue tube sponge, with which he blended in perfectly and a large Solar Power Nudibranch (Cirrate phyllodesmium) reappeared at Roma, grazing on a mushroom leather coral.

A wonderful sunny yet windy trip has come to an end and while the water temperature is slowly decreasing the visibility continues to be impressive! During a boat ride out to Blade, lucky guests aboard Wakatobi 5 watched in delight as a pod of dolphins cruised up alongside the boat.

Nudibranch numbers were on the rise this trip! We are seeing a wide variety of the colorful Chromodoris species and also some rarer nudibranchs,in particular a Notodoris gardineri seen at the House Reef and a Notodoris serenae at Kollo Soha.We are also excited to report the continued sighting of a beautiful pale blue giant Frogfish at Pastel, first spotted by Deni in trip 18.

Dive guides this trip conducted exploratory dives of a new site: Lebuhan Ketupat. The site holds promise for a new night dive location and boasts beautiful formations of hard corals.

A huge Phylodesmium longicirrum , commonly named the "solar powered " nudibranch, has been seen on divesite Conchita by many groups this trip. On the picture of this amazing nudibranch, you can cleary see the golden zooxanthellae packets. They are ingested from the soft corals it feeds upon and passed live through the nudibranch's digestive system. The zooxanthellae then continues to photosynthesize, leaking nutrients which are used by the host nudibranch.

Many thanks to Sven De Vos, a talented photographer with a passion for macro life. He took some incredible shots during his stay here of the luminous Risbecia tryoni nudibranch, the spectacularly colourful longnose filefish, and the bargibanti pygmy seahorse and was kind enough to allow us to use some of these photos in our slideshow.

Another guest, Niels Schrieken, was a marine biologist. After every mealtime he and his friends could be found lingering at the table with many marine identification books, discussing the difficulties of common vs latin names, exactly which phyllidia nudibranch they had seen on their last dive, and the secret life of the wentletrap snail. The wentletrap sports a lovely bright yellow shell, but don't be fooled by its good looks: it feeds on pink and orange cup corals and then mates on the remains of its prey and lays its eggs inside.

We are thrilled to report that 3 "pygmy pipehorse", Kyonemichthys Rumegani, have been seen at Teluk Maya, adding another attraction to one of our favourite divesites

Marine News Archive 1

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