Before I came to Lembeh, diving for me was about fish, coral reefs, wrecks...you know, that Jacques Cousteau imagery of colourful tropical fish fleeting about brightly coloured corals with the occasional shipwreck to keep up interest. I'd not really heard of muck diving (apart from in the UK!!) so didn't really know what it was about. Until I came to the Lembeh Strait.
Prior to the ear infection kicking in, I actually managed four dives at KBR on the Lembeh Strait, so now I know what muck diving is all about. Think black sand. Think the occasional lost shoe, perhaps the odd floating bag (Lembeh Strait is a 2 mile by 500m very busy channel of water). Think blandness and general underwater uninterestingness. Think muck.
Then think that due to the odd nature of the warm currents, that some very strange beasties (they call them critters in this part of the world) live here. So you have to look closely. Very closely. They call it macro-life, not 'macro' as in big, but macro because you need a macro-lens on your camera to photograph them!
Prior to the ear infection kicking in, I actually managed four dives at KBR on the Lembeh Strait, so now I know what muck diving is all about. Think black sand. Think the occasional lost shoe, perhaps the odd floating bag (Lembeh Strait is a 2 mile by 500m very busy channel of water). Think blandness and general underwater uninterestingness. Think muck.
Then think that due to the odd nature of the warm currents, that some very strange beasties (they call them critters in this part of the world) live here. So you have to look closely. Very closely. They call it macro-life, not 'macro' as in big, but macro because you need a macro-lens on your camera to photograph them!
You can see nothing but black sand, and then suddenly a brightly coloured nudibranch (a relative of the slug and about the same size) appears (see photo below...not mine...stolen from another site!). Then a bright blue ribbon eel (see photo below). Then the guide points out a giant green frogfish, so well camouflaged you swam right past it first time (see photo below).
Yes, you have to look hard, but the results are well worth it. Hundreds of these species live nowhere else on the planet, it's a true micro-ecosystem right in the balance, threatened by over-shipping, and over-diving. I'm honoured to have seen it in the flesh. Sadly I only got to dive it a few times before the ear infection kicked in. Let's hope it clears before we have to leave the Bunaken National Marine Park.
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