Mark B Hatter jumps on board the Raja Ampat Aggressor for a cruise throughout Indonesia’s Sulawesi Sea to the attractive diving of the Derawan Islands
Phrases and Pictures by Mark B Hatter
Our cruise director, Pep, was nervous. Our departure from Lembeh Strait to the Derawan archipelago off the east coast of Borneo within the Sulawesi Sea was timed to reach simply two days earlier than the complete moon.
The moon’s excessive illumination would probably imply the ‘bagans’ operated by native fisherman wouldn’t be manned.
Bagans are offshore platforms with seine nets extending laterally within the water from both aspect of the buildings, with shiny lights employed to draw small fish and shrimp, which swarm to the lights, and the nets throughout the evening.
The nets are raised when full and the evening’s catch is sorted for transport to shore the following day the place it’s offered in native markets.
Inside a day or two of a full moon, the fishermen abandon the offshore fishing platforms, as the intense moonlight tends to out-compete the lights on the bagan.
Thus, Pep’s fear was palpable, as bagans are synonymous with whale sharks on this a part of the world. No fishermen, no catch; no catch, no whale sharks. And whereas not a assure, a whale shark dive on Borneo’s bagans is a signature dive on the Raja Ampat Aggressor throughout its seasonal itinerary cruising Borneo’s Derawan archipelago.
We had been aboard the Raja Ampat Aggressor’s transition voyage, from Lembeh Strait to Borneo, the place the boat would cruise for the following six weeks within the Derawan Islands.
The afternoon earlier than, we’d arrived at and dived the northwestern nook of Sulawesi Island. Now we had been six days out of Lembeh Strait, and relying on the climate solely 16 hours separated us from the japanese coast of Borneo and a dive on a bagan floating above Borneo’s shallow East Kalimantan shelf.
Or we may head on to the Derawan Islands, a very good 4 hours north of the bagans and to forgo any probability of a whale shark encounter. Any delay to go to the bagans past the following day was not an choice in line with Pep, and he was assured tomorrow was our final and solely alternative to dive with whale sharks on this voyage.
DECISION TIME
Having arrived on the midway level of an already wonderful twelve-day journey, we’d checked-off various bucket-list diving targets for the photographers and sightseers. From blue-ring and coconut octopus, to scores of nudibranchs, regionally endemic Banggai cardinalfish and frogfish, Lembeh Strait delivered.
Across the northeastern nook of Sulawesi at Sangka Seaside, we dived a signature reef blanketed with gorgeous orange-hued comfortable corals. Additional west, midway to Borneo, we dived with dozens of inexperienced sea turtles at Bunaken Island.
With a lot nice diving already logged, Pep’s proposition to go for a dangerous aspect detour in hopes of discovering a whale shark was a simple determination to make…Unanimously, we selected the bagans!
DERAWAN WHALE SHARK DIVE
The next morning round 10 am we reached the shallow shelf off coastal Borneo and commenced looking the broadly spaced bagans searching for fishermen and whale sharks.
At 11 am the dive bell sounded loudly. One of many superior employees, racing forward of the Raja Ampat Aggressor within the dinghy, had discovered a manned bagan with two whale sharks nonetheless feeding on the catch within the water across the construction. Time to gear up!
At 11.45 am we rolled off the dinghy underneath a cloudless sky and with wonderful visibility to among the finest whale shark encounters I’ve skilled. Two eight-metre-plus animals repeatedly swam in lazy arcs round our small group of divers, lining up underneath the bagan to feed by the hands of the fishermen ladling sardines into the water.
Pirouetting on monumental tails, holding vertically within the water column, the huge animals vacuumed the sardines in nice gulps from the floor for the higher a part of 75 minutes.
With the whale shark encounter now within the log books, we steamed the 4 hours north to Sangalaki Island for an additional particular occasion; the discharge of newly hatched inexperienced sea turtles from the island’s ranger station refuge.
TURTLES OF SANGALAKI
To allow the best survival price, the refuge harvests turtle eggs instantly after a brand new nest is found on the island. The eggs are then relocated to a protecting enclosure till they hatch.
Hatchlings are held for a day in a small cement pond and launched at nightfall to additional support their means to keep away from early predation, particularly from sea birds.
We helped the park rangers acquire the inexperienced turtle hatchlings as they swarmed up and out of their nest throughout the protecting enclosure. These latest hatchlings had been moved to the cement pond and people already within the pond had been collected for launch on the seashore.
In an impromptu child sea turtle race, the squirming hatchlings had been arrange in makeshift lanes the place they instantly raced for freedom to the ocean, to the raucous cheers of our divers.
Of the 31 islands within the Derawan archipelago, sitting two levels north of the equator within the Sulawesi Sea, the Raja Ampat Aggressor visits spectacular dive websites on 4 of them over the course of seven days.
Positioned close to the left leg of the Coral Triangle, the Derawan archipelago is exceptionally biodiverse, that includes 872 species of reef fish, 507 species of coral and invertebrates, together with 5 big clam species, two sea turtles species, and the land-based coconut crab.
It turns into shortly obvious that the diving within the Derawan Islands resembles the diving in and round Waigeo and Gam in northern Raja Ampat. The stony coral reefs are simply as wholesome and simply as gorgeous as these present in Raja Ampat, solely on a smaller scale.
Within the present order of our planet’s maladies, the Derawan Islands appear to have evaded the damaging forces of local weather change, at the very least for now.
Giant, old-growth tabling corals and dense thickets of staghorn corals abound. And, wholesome corals translate to wholesome fish populations, resembling these seen in Raja Ampat.
BARRACUDA POINT
The Derawan islands are atolls with precipitous partitions, reef passages to internal lagoons, and drift dives alongside the outer partitions. On one precipitous wall dive, at Barracuda Level off Kakaban Island, the ripping present required us to make use of reef hooks to carry place, as briefed by Pep earlier than the dive.
I left my digital camera behind, and gladly so, as the present was so robust I might have been unable to shoot pictures. I used to be, nonetheless, capable of work my technique to inside a couple of ft and dangle for a number of minutes with the huge faculty of barracuda after which the location is known as.
Surprisingly, as we transitioned up and over the underwater spur of Barracuda Level to the lee aspect of the present, the reef modified dramatically from the comparatively barren wall (scoured by the ever-present present) to broad vistas of stony coral thickets swarming with blue and inexperienced chromis, orange anthias and yellow and white butterflyfish.
Happily, we returned to Barracuda Level for a second dive late within the day. This time, with out the reef hook, I sailed within the present to the spur, rounded the nook to slack water and spent 70 incredible minutes taking pictures wide-angle pictures of the coral forests and their inhabitants underneath a shiny, late-afternoon solar.
One other shock was a swim in one of many largest jellyfish lake on the planet on Kakaban Island. The mangrove-ringed lake is an enclosed saltwater lagoon supporting three species of land-locked, non-stinging jellyfish; moon jellies, golden jellies and upside-down jellies.
It was a enjoyable problem to shoot the jellies in midwater and within the mangroves with out assistance from fins (prohibited because of the fragility of the jellies), utilizing solely a snorkel and masks.
One afternoon my group of 4 divers and I had an unbelievable encounter off Sangalaki Island at a dive website named Manta Cleansing Station Quantity 2 – spawning cuttlefish!
Whereas the mantas had been a no-show, late within the dive we occurred upon 4 massive cuttlefish participating in breeding exercise. So centered on the mating course of, which is the switch of a sperm packet from the male to the feminine in a short-lived tentacle embrace, they had been completely detached to our presence.
Equal components photographers, marine biologists and voyeurs, we had been witness to one in all nature’s wonderful acts of replica.
On the penultimate day we dived early at Maratua Island channel, the seaward entrance to the island’s lagoon, on the tail finish of the incoming tide when visibility was optimum.
With robust currents predicted by Pep, as soon as once more, I dived with out my digital camera. It was one other right determination. Though we encountered large faculties of snapper and jackfish on the mouth of the move, merely hooking-in to witness the spectacle with out worrying about f-stops, shutter speeds and backscatter was refreshing. n
Discover out extra about Raja Ampat Aggressor itineraries at www.aggressor.com/vacation spot/RajaAmpat. For reservations head to bookings.aggressor.com or telephone +1-706-993-2531
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