Dancing In Komodo

Consider the following, chromodoris annae, tambja monosa, risbecia tryoni, nembrotha kubaryaba. If these names mean anything to you then you know more than a thing or two about nudibranchs or in other words sea slugs. I must admit I know little or nothing about them. I found these names in reference books beneath the pictures. What I do know is that they are amongst the most remarkable creatures you are ever likely to encounter under the sea. These creatures are probably the most colourful you will ever encounter on a dive. They have a strange effect on people in that some tend to get obsessive in their pursuit of the various species, a bit like tropical butterflies or orchids I suppose, you know the type. For instance I recently met a German lady who after discovering nudibranchs for the first time five years ago, became keenly interested in their pursuit, gave up the job in Europe sold the house and moved lock stock and barrel to Indonesia so that she could do some more diving to view and study these creatures. She is now quite an expert and can rattle off the latin terms for each like the ABC.

How did I get on to this…

Ok I`m supposed to be relaying to you the story of our recent diving experiences in Indonesia on board the Komodo Dancer.

The Komodo Dancer is a 100ft wooden schooner built in 2001 but following a local design tried and tested over hundreds of years by these sea faring people. On completion it was customised for diving and operates solely as a dive charter travelling from Benoa in Bali to the Komodo region each week. It can accommodate 14 divers and a similar number of crew and dive staff. It operates on an all inclusive basis in that all dives, food, drinks (incl beer and wine) and bed are part of the price paid upfront so there is little or no requirement for money once you are on board. The charter is franchised through an American company Peter Hughes Diving. I have had the good fortune to have experienced a couple of boats operating under the Hughes banner and they are definitely at the leading edge in terms of service and management in this business. Put simply you are very well looked after.
There is a serious emphasis on safety. Consider that at some stages of the trip you are up to 36 hours cruising time away from the nearest hyperbaric chamber and you can see why there is no room for messing around.

The areas dived are weather dependant (usually it doesn’t vary much but winds can blow up in the more westerly areas). This diving takes you away from the usual hustle and bustle found in many foreign dive areas eg. Egypt, Barrier Reef. We sailed for 22 hours to reach the first dive sites. This brought us north east from Bali past Lombok to a small volcanic island called Satonda. We then sailed a further 12 hours into the Komodo area. They main dive sites visited during the week were Gili Banta (GPS Point, Tanjung Rusa and Toto Oi). Gili Lawa Lau (Castle Rock Crystal Rock and Darat Passage, Langkoi, Rinca Island (Cannibal Rock Yellow Wall) Nusa Kode and on the return journey North Sumbaya.

In all we did 17 dives in 6 days. First dive was usually around 8am and finishing the day with a gentle night dive. Naturally there was no obligation to do every dive available and we did`nt. We varied our approach over the week, in that some days we did four dives and others only two. We dived on Nitrox (32%) on all dives. They used a membrane system which meant that they were extracting nitrogen from air rather than having to carry large volumes of oxygen on board. For safety reasons and also to maximise the time available in the water diving was not very deep. We usually hit a max depth of 25m but spent most of our time around the 10m mark where most of the activity was. As a result we hitting the allowed time limit of 60 minutes on each dive.

The notable thing throughout the area was the remarkable variety and colour of coral available. We were told that there were several hundred species of both hard and soft corals many in pristine condition and the hard corals especially were enormous. In the Langkoi area in the south of Komodo the variety of soft corals was truly amazing, one dive aptly named “Yellow Wall” defied belief with extent of the colour, unfortunately my attempts at photographing many of these sites did not capture the reality of the place.

The fish life included all the usual reef inhabitants such as anthias, trevailly, sergeant majors, groupers of various sizes and colours, lion fish, scorpion fish, moray eels etc. But also there was the unusual, Spanish Mackeral, Stargazers (at night naturally) giant cuttle fish, pygmy seahorses (if your eysight was up to it) and mantis shrimp. There was a myriad of small creatures that required you to slow down and look over small areas very closely. In these places you found the colourful nudibranchs and other molluscs and flat worms that you would otherwise miss. Komodo is not an area reknowned for the big pelagics but we did see quite a number of white tip reef sharks, bamboo sharks, eagle rays and a few elusive manta rays and of course hawksbill turtles.

Much of the area dived was tidal but the knowledge of the crew ensured that we were nearly always diving at slack water. There were a few variations and you needed your wits about you to manage the currents. Boat cover on the surface was excellent so there was little chance of getting lost but for the comfort of the diving it is important to be well up speed and dive fit. We did one serious drift dive in what I considered to be about a 4 knot current. Of the 13 who started only five of us made through the passage to the end without being tumbled.

Our trip did not confine us entirely to the boat as each day we went for a walk on one or other of the islands. Many of these were quite barren but had some great views from the headlands. Some had their own unique inhabitants such as fruit bats, eagles, wild pigs and the elusive monitor lizards, ( the infamous Komodo Dragons).
The people of Indonesia that we met were very welcoming and helpful. The boat crew could not have done more to make our stay better.

On the down side we were informed that while we considered the reefs to be in pristine condition, there was a considerable amount of dynamite fishing in the area despite it being a national park. Given the size it is next to impossible to monitor by the meagre resources provided. Indonesia is a very poor country and the attraction of the big prices available for certain reef fish makes it well worth the risk. There is a huge demand from mainland China and Hong Kong for the colourful fish such as Spanish mackerel for which they will pay up to $115 a kilo in Hong Kong that translates to about $35 a fish for the fishermen in Komodo. For them that’s almost a months wages!!! They use dynamite to stun the larger fish and so capture them alive. They then keep them in tanks for shipping to Hong Kong. Dead fish lose their colour very quickly and the Chinese like to select live fish from a tank in the restaurants. And while they stun the bigger fish they kill hundreds of the smaller reef fish and kill and break acres of coral in the process. They also release cyanide over the reefs and this has the same effect on the fish but is even more harmful to the reefs.
So the next time you`re in the Far East and you see these colourful fish swimming in tanks in the restaurants remember the cost of getting it there.

Since my first liveaboard diving holiday some years ago I have been very fond of this approach to diving but the Komodo Dancer brought this to higher level. Needless to say I hope to return. If anybody would like further details let me know.

Diving on your behalf were,

Michael O Loughlin
Rhona Mannion
Curragh Sub Aqua Club

PS….
On our journey to Indonesia we made a short detour to Sarawak Malaysia to visit the town of Miri which is now home to the Dancer household. Nick, Helen, Lorcan and Fintan gave us a great welcome, Fintan waving the flag on our arrival set the scene. They are beginning to settle down after having to move from the Philipines so early. Miri is a fine town with plenty of amenities. There are a number of very interesting places to visit if you allow enough time, Mulu Park and the Niah caves are all accessible as is Brunei. We spent a lovely day visiting the Limbar Hills which are only a short drive from Miri. There is good diving available but you have to take a short boat journey out to sea to get good visability..A couple of rivers meet the sea in the area and bring a lot of mud and debris down from the jungles. Helen is now involved some research work on the condition of the reefs in the area
Helen and Nick both miss their friends from the Curragh SAC and would be delighted to see a few in Sarawak The hospitality and food is great and a cold Tiger beer is a cure for most ailments.

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