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 06-21-2008
On day 2 of Trip 18 , In between the surface interval between the two morning dives, the dive guides were
squeezed by the boat radios to reconfirm what they had just heard. Yes a 3-4 meters Blue Marlin was
spotted underwater on Roma and the lucky group was on dive boat Wakatobi V with Guya (diveguide) and Nicol
(diveguide). They watched for about 2 minutes at 10 meters depth at the beginning of the dive. The marlin
was chasing a needle fish who lucky for it managed to get away from its predator.
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.
Report from Lauren 05-13-2008
Trip 13 was a great trip. Among our guests were many talented
spotters, photographers and knowledgeable divers.
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 pipedragons", Kyonemichthys
Rumegani, have been seen at Teluk Maya, adding another attraction to
one of our favourite divesites
Report from Iman 03-10-2008
A wonderful trip with absolutely marveleous sunny and calm weather. A brown pygmy seahorse was found
at Fan 38 along with a
white pygmy seahorse
in the very same halimeda patch. Dive site Liable continues to provide stunning wide angle and we have
a midnight black frogfsh as a
resident here. We have also found a small clown frogfish at Roma. The pygmy pipe dragon is still at Turkey Beach.
Pilot whales were seen on the ride out to Blade. We had a few snorkellers on this trip as well who enjoyed
going out on the housereef on "dawn patrol".
Report from Iman 02-16-2008
Valentine's day has come to the resort for the first time. This
is the first year that Wakatobi has been open during February.
The weather has been generally calm providing the opportunity
to make trips to the outer most dive sites of Blade, Lorenzo's
and Pastel. The diving has been wonderful! We have been
seeing leaf scorpion fish, robust ghost pipefish and of course,
many pygmy seahorses. The pygmy
pipehorse has been seen repeatedly at Turkey Beach,
so for now, it looks like we have a resident.
Report from Iman 02-10-2008
Visibility haw been around the 20m/60ft for most of this week. Some of the highlights of the trip
were the spotting of another Pygmy Pipehorse at Turkey Beach. We have received news from our pygmy
seahorse guru Richard Smith that this species has been recently described from a single specimen from
Lembeh and photographs and has been give the handy mouthful of a name Kyonemichthys Rumegani.
Other highlights included a pair of free swimming
spanish dancers on the
house reef spotted from the jetty by guest Matthew Schippani and causing a brief flurry as everyone grabbed
thier masks and snorkels and swam with these magnificent creatures.
Another critter not often seen here the
juvenile cockatoo wasp
fish was seen this trip as well at Teluk Maya. Also kudos to guest Andrew Chylista who we believe to
be be the first guest to see the
white pygmy seahorse
on snorkel. We have just recieved news that this seahorse is a different species from the Hippocampus Colemani which is found only in Australia and
only officially known from Lord Howe Island. It is currently being described and we will keep you
updated as we hear more abou this woderful critter. In addition we have found a new
juvenile clown frogfish
at The Zoo which continues to live up to it's name.
Report from Wendy - 27-11-2007
All three species of pygmy, Denise, Bargibanti and Colemani. A host of ghost pipefish!, Robust,
Fragile and Halimeda.
Whales spotted swimming past the resort
Report from Wendy - 17-11-2007
Sightings of Pilot whales and Spinner dolphins. Some new white pygmies were
found on Pinkies.
Report from Wendy - 09-11-2007
Very nice big Pleurobranchus on the house reef at night. Many guests reported seeing different species of nudibranchs
and sear hare on the house reef during night dives. Richard Smith got some great photos of pygmy seahorses with
full egg pouch. One guest got a distant photo of the new crocodile.
Report from Wendy - 18-31-2007
Wow and wow again, we found again the small little pygmy pipe dragon that Anton first spotted two months
ago. This guy seems to be the very same that was first discovered in Lembeh and was written about in
Asian Diver Magazine in Feb. We have Richard with us now (Richard Smith, ex Waki Guest and now doing his
PHD on Pygmies in Australia) who is as well an extraordinary photographer so have some amazing shots. This
little new critter was found on the house reef first and now at Teluk Maya. Very exciting indeed with many
discussions following the viewing. Richard has also done three talks on the marine world so guests can enjoy
and learn more and really feel part of the whole experience.
Some new white pygmies were spotted on Pockets and Rene’s. Quite a few Robust Ghost pipefish, some
great schools of fish at Table Coral City.
Report from Wendy - 18-10-2007
Fabulous weather and another great week with many great critters. A new pair of
Ornate Ghost pipefish
on Kollo Soha, which is also becoming a hot site! Two more Ornates on Conchita and Dunia Baru. Quite a few
robust ghost pipefish
found in the second gully, the zoo, spiral corner and pockets. All sorts of great shrimp in
Teluk Maya. Some great Whale sightings again from the shore and the boats, they seem to be swimming past
in the early morning quite near the resort.
There was another little critter that was reported to have been seen, 10 days ago the local crew told
us that apparently a crocodile was seen in Osuku! The last night of the trip a security guard said he
saw something on the beach which then swam away. When we went to investigate we saw a foot print and a
tail track right on the waters edge but no sign of the croc. So we have no idea if this was indeed a
croc or maybe a monitor which was swimming. The mystery continues!
Report from Wendy - 10-10-2007
Some very nice finds again this week. A large whale was seen but it could not be identified.
Mobula's were seen both jumping out of the water and also on dives. Teluk Maya continues to be the hot site
this year with
frogfish,
Pegasus sea months, Robust Ghost Pipe fish,
Solar powered Nudi,
Cuttlefish, and so on! We also have seen another
Ornate Ghost pipefish
at Dunia Baru. Plus some very nice Halimdea ghost pipefish on Pastels. We had a
Spanish Dancer on a night dive
at the Zoo.
We did some more collecting of Crown of Thorns this trip concentrating on the Zoo. Some new moorings have
now been put in place at Lorenzo's and Pastels. Perhaps though the most exciting find was a pair of brown
pygmies on Pockets, finally! Deni found them at 13 metres.
Report from Sam on Pelagian - 28-09-2007
Today we dived PNdaa for the first dive and then moved on to Karang Koromaha
for the second and third dives. Strong currents and lots of life out to
play. We are staying in Karang Koromaha tonight and will move on to Karang
Koka in the early hours. The day after we will dive Binonko and the channel
for the third dive
Report from Sam on Pelagian - 27-09-2007
Ornate & Ghost pipe fish galore, mobula, eagle rays,
schooling feather tail sting rays, white tips,
black tips
and grey reefs.
Cheeky beach was great - spotfin frog fish, black frog fish, veined octopus
with eggs, and an octopus mototi (2 distinct blue rings).
The other dives in Pasar Wajio also turned up a short pouch pygmy pipe
horse, an ambon scorpion fish
and lots of other intresting critters.
We are now making our way down towards hoga where we shall sleep tonight.
Tommorrow we shall head for PNdaa.
Today we dived at NW wall Kapetan, good dive and a healthy ammount of fish
life. The second dive was the south point of Kampenaune. This was a very
nice dive, great vis and healthy coral.
Report from Sam on Pelagian - 10-09-2007
Good dives in Wangi Wangi. Great dives again in Button -
Frog fish,
sea horses, Ghost pipe fish and more. Today we dived Gone with the wind at Batu
turo. Great dives eagle ray's, schooling bump head parrot fish,
white tips
and a hammerhead.
Second day in Wangi Wangi we dived Blue Mosque and Alice in Wonderland.
There were many large fish traps on the reef, this became the hot topic
of discussion of the day.
We are now in Buton. Today was a fantastic day of diving. Ornate ghost pipe
fish, blue ringed octopus,
common sea horse's and much much more. Guests requested a second day here!
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