Thursday, September 30, 2004
DIVING SISTERS, BURAN, KUSU & HANTU.
One day. No. More like 6 hours. If you exclude travel time. Four dives. Sites? Sisters' Island, Buran (again, to finish up yesterday's unfinished survey), Kusu Island and Pulau Hantu. But with great vis prevailing...(THREE METRES!)...I'll make the sacrifice...HAHAHA!
SISTERS' ISLAND
We did not do a survey here, but mostly helped Priscila collect her settlement tiles from her experimental rack. See HERE for more of the Marine Biology Lab's projects, albeit a tad outdated.
But from what I know, the reefs of sisters island is actually quite nice. Some parts nicer than others of course. While the deeper reef slopes of Sisters has rather nice seafans, the shallower parts has rather nice corals! Big table corals, boulder corals and rather diverse too in terms of coral species, I must say. Would love to go there for proper leisure dives...well, actually, depends on where you go. I mean, there ARE parts of the islands' reefs that are quite rubble-ized and in a very sad state. We can only hope that there is a way to rehabilitate them back to even a fraction of their original natural glory, man. Sigh. Sigh.
Here's a few photos taken by Tse-Lynn from today's dive:
Nice seafans!
Bubble coral! (Euphyllia divisa)
Filefish!
BURAN REEFS, day 4
"Oh, window to dive here only one hour."
"Should hurry up and dive now."
"Got a bit of current lah, but if you faster go, should be O.K."
These were the wise words of the boatmen. Which, as usual, is as true as the sky is blue. GAH!
Currents were EVEN STRONGER THAN YESTERDAY'S!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more. I could not stay still long enough to take any photos. The currents were so strong, when we reeled back the transect tapes, we just FLEW and had to hang on for dear life every few metres. The currents were so strong it twisted and knotted the tapes so badly....and we had to hang on so tightly...that I just bunched up the whole 25m of tape all tangled around me up to the surface. No time to unknot and reel back properly. The current was so strong that whatever rocks I held on too, would sometimes get ripped apart or overturned if it was not heavy or firmly attached to the ground. It was at LEAST 1.5 knots. AT LEAST. I think it was probably 2 knots. Then again, I don't really know how fast it is. Judging from how fast i travelled...and the speed of the algae pieces that are flying past, that's how strong the currents were....OK so enough about Buran already. It's finally OVER. HURRAH. Although. Quite sad. It is a VERY nice place to dive with LOTS of nice stuff....
KUSU ISLAND
T'was my turn to do my work at KUSU. Kusu is probably one of my most favourite favourite favourite dive site. It's diverse coral life, even table corals! And sooooo many cute anamonefishes, nudibranchs, soft corals...etc etc and generally nice reef topography make it one of my favourtite favourite favourite dive sites. I've said that already haven't I. Oh well. IT IS my favourite favourite favourite most dive site!
My favourite favourite favourite most dive site...
False Clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris).
Tomato anemonefish
Hmm... do you ever notice that actually, the ANEMONES are also VERY VERY NICE. Eventhough there's no clownfish inhabiting it? The florescense...the swaying movements...HYPNOTIC!
Anemone up close!
Kusu is also home to....
Polyclad flatworm.
Corals and butterflyfish.
Hmmm. I think if anyone does anything to harm Kusu more than it has already suffered........GrrRRrrr....
PULAU HANTU
Hehe. What is there to say about Hantu but...fantastic... simply magnificent. Amone all the 4 sites, Hantu had the best vis. It was probably at least 3m. The rest of the sites had vis about 2.5 - 3m....At most. Hantu is GREAT.
The currents were again strong by the time we dived Hantu and did not manage to take any nice shots. But you can always go to the home of the Hantu Bloggers for all the photos and info you need about what you can expect when diving Pulau Hantu!!!! So go. What are you still doing here? GO GO. Shoo! See Debby's site. ALL ABOUT THE PULAU HANTU. Yeaps. All about it....
¶ 11:41 pm
SISTERS' ISLAND
We did not do a survey here, but mostly helped Priscila collect her settlement tiles from her experimental rack. See HERE for more of the Marine Biology Lab's projects, albeit a tad outdated.
But from what I know, the reefs of sisters island is actually quite nice. Some parts nicer than others of course. While the deeper reef slopes of Sisters has rather nice seafans, the shallower parts has rather nice corals! Big table corals, boulder corals and rather diverse too in terms of coral species, I must say. Would love to go there for proper leisure dives...well, actually, depends on where you go. I mean, there ARE parts of the islands' reefs that are quite rubble-ized and in a very sad state. We can only hope that there is a way to rehabilitate them back to even a fraction of their original natural glory, man. Sigh. Sigh.
Here's a few photos taken by Tse-Lynn from today's dive:
Nice seafans!
Bubble coral! (Euphyllia divisa)
Filefish!
BURAN REEFS, day 4
"Oh, window to dive here only one hour."
"Should hurry up and dive now."
"Got a bit of current lah, but if you faster go, should be O.K."
These were the wise words of the boatmen. Which, as usual, is as true as the sky is blue. GAH!
Currents were EVEN STRONGER THAN YESTERDAY'S!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more. I could not stay still long enough to take any photos. The currents were so strong, when we reeled back the transect tapes, we just FLEW and had to hang on for dear life every few metres. The currents were so strong it twisted and knotted the tapes so badly....and we had to hang on so tightly...that I just bunched up the whole 25m of tape all tangled around me up to the surface. No time to unknot and reel back properly. The current was so strong that whatever rocks I held on too, would sometimes get ripped apart or overturned if it was not heavy or firmly attached to the ground. It was at LEAST 1.5 knots. AT LEAST. I think it was probably 2 knots. Then again, I don't really know how fast it is. Judging from how fast i travelled...and the speed of the algae pieces that are flying past, that's how strong the currents were....OK so enough about Buran already. It's finally OVER. HURRAH. Although. Quite sad. It is a VERY nice place to dive with LOTS of nice stuff....
KUSU ISLAND
T'was my turn to do my work at KUSU. Kusu is probably one of my most favourite favourite favourite dive site. It's diverse coral life, even table corals! And sooooo many cute anamonefishes, nudibranchs, soft corals...etc etc and generally nice reef topography make it one of my favourtite favourite favourite dive sites. I've said that already haven't I. Oh well. IT IS my favourite favourite favourite most dive site!
My favourite favourite favourite most dive site...
False Clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris).
Tomato anemonefish
Hmm... do you ever notice that actually, the ANEMONES are also VERY VERY NICE. Eventhough there's no clownfish inhabiting it? The florescense...the swaying movements...HYPNOTIC!
Anemone up close!
Kusu is also home to....
Polyclad flatworm.
Corals and butterflyfish.
Hmmm. I think if anyone does anything to harm Kusu more than it has already suffered........GrrRRrrr....
PULAU HANTU
Hehe. What is there to say about Hantu but...fantastic... simply magnificent. Amone all the 4 sites, Hantu had the best vis. It was probably at least 3m. The rest of the sites had vis about 2.5 - 3m....At most. Hantu is GREAT.
The currents were again strong by the time we dived Hantu and did not manage to take any nice shots. But you can always go to the home of the Hantu Bloggers for all the photos and info you need about what you can expect when diving Pulau Hantu!!!! So go. What are you still doing here? GO GO. Shoo! See Debby's site. ALL ABOUT THE PULAU HANTU. Yeaps. All about it....
¶ 11:41 pm
