The Lembeh Strait

The Lembeh Strait, at the very eastern tip of Sulawesi in Indonesia, is the undisputed "critter diving" capital of the world, and my favorite place in the world to dive. I first visited it in September 1999 and was so enthralled that I made it my destination for my next dive trip in December 2000. Although there are beautiful coral reefs on the shores of the island across the strait and big-fish diving at Bunaken Marine Park not far away, it's the "muck diving" on black volcanic sand that's the big attraction here. I'd gotten my first taste of muck diving on Mabul in Malaysia in 1998 and 1999 and was totally in love with it. The list of out-of-this-world bizarre creatures in the Lembeh Strait is endless and I won't list them here, you'll just have to browse my logs to get an idea. OK, I will mention one: the elusive flamboyant cuttlefish, my all-time favorite marine animal and the coolest critter on the planet. I'm currently in the process of editing some cool flamboyant video footage, for a preview, click on the photo below:

Many animals found here are found virtually nowhere else in the world, notably the pygmy seahorse (about 1/2-inch tall), and the incredible candy-striped mimic octopus, which forms its body into the shapes of other marine animals. A variety of mimic octopus, tentatively dubbed "wonderpus" has been sighted only in the Lembeh Strait and is awaiting scientific classification. To view a brief video clip I took of a wonderpus, click the photo below:

I stayed at the Kungkungan Bay Resort, which was luxurious, beautiful, clean, and comfortable without being ostentatious.

The resort's staff was wonderful, the restaurant's food delicious and available late. Serious divers come here and KBR knows how to take care of them. The resort is small and boats were never crowded. Bottom times were very liberal; a look at my log shows dives up to an hour and twenty-four minutes, with only one dive out of twenty-seven less than an hour, and that one was 57 minutes! Renowned marine photographers Denise and Larry Tackett were the resident photo pros during my trips, and they were delightful. Denise even has a species of pygmy seahorse named in her honor! Big-name photogs and naturalists are regulars here, and the Discovery Channel filmed a special on the mimic octopus here some years ago.

The diving here is wonderfully convenient, with most sites no more than a five-minute ride away. The shore diving in front of KBR is excellent also, and wonderful for snorkelling. There are some rain forest sightseeing trips available, although I didn't take any, being too enthralled by the underwater world.

Here are my dive log entries for my first visit to the Lembeh Strait. Click on the links to view short video clips of the subject matter:

Dive No.	Date	Dive Site	Max Depth	Bottom Time	Night?	Notes
255	9/22/99	Jiko Yance	88	1:10	N	1st dive of trip, @KBR. Northernmost divesite, Lembeh side. “Scenic” dive, plentiful coral, pygmy seahorse on fan @start, close to mooring. Numerous nudis, including some new ones. Video had trouble focussing on pygmy horse & fan. Very cool snake eel in cave-lair, excellent orangutan crab in bubble coral. Dolphins in strait to and from site. Viz about 40”. Shrimp in crinoid. 8Lbs too much even w/new wetwear wetsuit - will go back to 6. Biofins are great! Divemaster trying to please w/critters, but all over coral, kicking, standing, grabbing, moving critters, etc.
256	9/22/99	Critter hunt	76	1:09	N	Rubble, sand, scattered coral heads. Nice nudi’s, especially one @end, 2 “devilfish” (shaggy, sand-walking scorpions). Underweighted w/6 lbs, but not as much as Suzie from California, who spent entire dive with a big coral rock under her arm :(.
257	9/22/99	Denise’s Hairball	62	1:16	Y	5-star night dive w/Denise herself and Jack Randall, world-famous marine biologist/ichthyologist. As advertised, black sand and critters galore. Little octopus in tubeworm case, “velvet fish”, flatheads, stargazers(!) conger eels, hairy frogfish, hairy arrow crab, 1/2” baby lionfish, skinny sole, cockatoo waspfish, cruising blue-ringed stingray, magnificent nudi cruising w/emperor shrimp riding shotgun, Ambon scorpionfish, big seahorse, many more!
258	9/23/99	Angel’s Window	118	1:03	N	Fantastic dive around tall pinnacles. Big octopus at beginning at 100’. D.M. pulled out from rock & I chased it around w/videoAnother shot out from a nearby rock. Small cuttle in sand, cool crab in soft coral tree. Great blue/black flatworm, another octopus sticking up from coral, but Jack scared him back in. Reef pipefish, banded piefish, leaf fish, juvenile ribbon eel, big yellow frogfish. Dolphin clicks heard. Tremendous variety of crinoid colors.
259	9/23/99	House Reef, KBR	62	1:01	N	Solo shore dive - alone at last! Very nice reef, two great mantis shrimp, lots of tropicals, nice coral. Dolphin clicks heard. Nice big blue/black/orange nudi in sand. Lots of coral.
260	9/23/99	Nudi Retreat	72	1:05	N	Cove on mainland side, not much light due to shadow of shore. Pair of pegasus fish (sea moths?), pygmy seahorse (put fingers behind for video focus). Cockatoo waspfish, mantis shrimp chased out by D.M. Big frogfish on wall. Had to spend most of dive up shallow, not much bottom time left after shore dive. Very prolific coral on wall. Huge (10-12”) “chain” nudi on palm frond at end, wanted to climb onto my lens! Nice smallish scrawled file, not too timid. Unusual “bristly” filefish. Nice pair of small banded pipes in hole w/urchin. Blue lobster at start.
261	9/23/99	Hairball	60	1:05	Y	Another hairball night dive in search of H.C.O.T.N. - Hairy Critters of the Night! Same stuff as #257 except I had a lovely 20-minute play session with a small octopus - went up my fingers a few times, good fun. Also noticed that stargazers flick their lure/tongue like crazy as they bury themselves (or at least this one did) - very nasty looking. Pair of small (3-4”) ambon scorpions, several sole, peacock flounder, awesome 3” “mop-top” nudibranch.
262	9/24/99	Batu Merah	87	0:57	N	Fun dive. Down a wide sand chute to a big coral head @80’, covered w/all kinds of shrimp. John, Amanda, and I all had our teeth cleaned! Fantastic “solar-powered” nudibranch, approx 8” long. Heartbreaking to watch Jack leave a trail of smashed & broken coral behind :( D. M. found octopus in coral but it hid quickly. Very profuse coral on North side of sand chute. Beautiful deep purple/red shrimp riding on black sea cuke at end.
263	9/24/99	Police Pier	65	1:15	N	Very mucky dive. Inimicus, sleeping puers (including cute one inside mussel shell). Nice brown nudi, long gray pipefish, small cuttle cruising sand, great fingered dragonet at end. Spotted (big spots) mappa-type puer. Bitten by vicious clownfish while trying to film bubble anemones, more “bristly” filefish (very yellow), mottled moray.
264	9/24/99	Nudi Falls	83	1:05	N	Just around the corner from KBR. Nudibranch heaven! Most beautiful one I’ve ever seen (actually turned out to be a juvenile cowrie that mimics a nudi) deep burgundy with white/ytellow bumps on mantle. Sand/rubble/garbage slope, vertical wall at shore. Big octopus in hole in wall wouldn’t come out. Cool white/translucent flatworm on rock under wall. Brownish mandarin-like dragonet. Ornate ghost pipefish. Tiny (thumbnail-sized) cuttlefish. Miniscule (1/8”!!) nudie w/bright red rhinophores. Shallow end of wall covered w/gorgeous cup corals; orange, yellow, red. Altogether awesome dive.
265	9/24/99	KBR House reef	58	1:08	Y	Solo night dive. Low-key but interesting & fun. Full moon allowed light-less diving from time to time. Big hermit & decorator crabs, blue lobster, nicely-colored crinoids, cool box crab perfectly camouflaged as a nugget of rubble, huge (16”) pincushion star, big slate urchins, many flutemouths, blue ring stingrays, including one in 12” of water at shore. Fat sole.
266	9/25/99	Air Perang	46	1:13	N	Just me & divemaster Henseh. Flamboyant cuttlefish was seen here yesterday by obnoxious Californians, and I found it again today! 40’ deep in pretty much open sand. Spent most of dive with it. Also several dragonets, brown seahorse, totally awesome urchin w/unbelieveable magenta color & electric blue dots.
267	9/25/99	Aw Shucks	72	1:10	N	Nice combo of volcanic sand & big reef. Nice nudi @start, weird maroon squirts that look like xmas-tree steeples, junior football-sized cuttle @end near mooring let me get close. Yellow/black shrimp in crinoid. Big hermit crab out in sand.
268	9/25/99	Pulau Putus	89	1:12	N	Fantastically lush coral cove, hard & soft of all kinds. Down sand chute @start, jawfish & nice small cuttle (4th or 5th today!). At one spot on wall, several sponges in a small area were covered w/thousands of tiny (2mm) bright orange “crabs”. Amazing school of juvenile coral cats were stretched in a line about 40’ long vertically over the steep coral slope.
269	9/26/99	Hairball	53	1:22	N	First time at hairball by day - awesome! Ambon scorpions, 2 octopus, hairy frogfish, yellow lionfish, orangutan crabs, mantis in coconut “house”, “chocolate” frogfish on mooring, cockatoo waspfish, crabs on cucumber. Cool school of “mouth mackerel” or “Indian mackerel” - silver heads, grayish bodies, all opening mouths simultaneously to strain plankton.
270	9/26/99	Magic Rock	56	1:16	N	2:00 PM Big patch of sand @35’ w/rock in middle & coral around edges. White ribbon eel (probably a conger) out in sand at start, but hid before I could film. Two nice ornate ghost pipes, beautiful yellow leaf fish out posing, gorgeous football-sized olive drab frogfish on sponge. Larry showed weird burrowing tube worm thingie. Wandered off to look for the white eel again, and came upon... WONDERPUS!!! out on sand. Got brief but good footage before he went back into hole. Larry & I tried to poke him out but no dice. 1st-ever sighting at this site. Nice medium cuttle @end let me put myu face a few inches away. Awesome dive.
271	9/26/99	Hairball	62	1:14	Y	6:00 PM Usual hairball stuff, hairy frogs, cockatoo wasp, yellow lion. Teeny (3/4”) baby frogfish. Chocolate frog fm mooring was out cruising sand, flicking his lure. Helped Jack photograph a stubborn sole that kept burying itself. Divers’ lights annoying, especially video light, bright everywhere on reef. Doing video show tonight. Carrier crab with leaf.
272	9/27/99	Batu Sandar	69	1:21	N	Gorgeous site, nice mix of sand, rubble & magnificent coral vistas. Nice mini-wall w/loads of banded coral shrimp. Nice footage of sleepy barramundi I woke from inside a sponge. 2 ornate ghost pipes, flamboyant on sand @60’, tiny clown shrimp, nice shrimp w/anemone, crab in soft coral tree, very playful mantis shrimp out attacking dm Henke’s red-tipped antenna pointer. Another tolerant medium-sized cuttle. Last dive of trip :(

Dive No.	Date	Dive Site	Max Depth	Bottom Time	Night?	Notes
273	12/3/00	Hay Nus	72	1:14	N	Patchy coral, black sand, muck, rubble. Nudi's on little rock, very nice dark dragonet w/yellow fins.Big cuttle wouldn't let me approach. Mandarin deep in vase corals. Wonderful encounter w/2 big octopi out in the open @end of dive close to mooring - playful & curious! Long-tailed, big-eyed, blue-spotted ray at start, nice inimicus. Good to have the Cochran back!
274	12/3/00	Hairball Too	52	1:17	N	Awesome critters. Loads of cockatoo waspfish @start, big pair of robust pipes (one pregnant), inimicus burying himself, lots of cool colorful urchins including one on top of a very active crab. Orangutan crab, nice yellow cube box, and a velvetfish! Striped comensal shrimp in crinoid, active mini-cuttle (same size as flamboyant, and close to bottom, but not a flamboyant). Wrasse with big thing on its forehead.
275	12/3/00	Nudi Falls	66	1:06	N	Strong current, couldn't get around the point. Several nice nudi's. including risbecia tryoni. Poor light, should do this site in the morning! Tiny pygmy seahorse on fan. My first comet fish! Juvenile (but just) pinnatus batfish. 18-inch tuna guys circling & playing with me. Fellow diver saw & played with big octopus, but I never sawa it :-( Nice pair of robust pipes.
276	12/3/00	Hairball	59	1:03	Y	Least exciting of all the hairball night dives to date. 3 ambon scorpions, 2 distant squid, lots of pleurobrachs, including a large-ish (5" dia) dark one w/nice markings. Coll big decorator crab cruising, played dead when prodded. Stargazer (no lure action). Bukan ikan gurita! (no octopi). White-faced stingfish (look like scorpionfish but smoother, w/red bellies).
277	12/4/00	Batu Sandar	83	1:08	N	Trouble clearing, probably due to pinkeye :-( Nudi at start w/incredibly flourescent orange lines. Spent most of dive looking for flamboyants, no luck. Really nice bearded scorpion, tiny (1") solar-powered nudi. Yellow & black ornate ghost pipe, 5" cuttle. Video housing loaned to Lori of CA to use w/her PC-1.
278	12/4/00	Retak Larry	56	1:20	N	Extemely mucky site, critters galore. Lousy with seahorses, at least 10. Nice risbecia nudi @start, sand divers, 2 greenish frogfish, several mantis shrimp (one in cute tin can house), unusual white scorpionfish, cool hermit crab posing framed in gorgonians, awesome lumpy box crab. Little box crabs running around all over. Nice head of "polyp coral". Little coral head w/2 lionfish, 2 banded shrimp & moray.
279	12/4/00	Critter hunt	62	1:08	N	Medium-strong current going every which-way. Very cool brown shrimp w/gold sparkles under a hydroid bush. Anemone shrimp, popcorn shrimp in disc coralm cool shrimp on bubble coral. "Bangai cardinal fish" up shallow in urchins; originally found only at Bangai Island, recently dumped here by a ship transporting aquarium fish. "Dr. Phil" kindly gave me some antibiotic eyedrops, now left eye is cloudy, can't tell if lens is in or not!
280	12/5/00	Nudi Retreat	72	1:04	N	See #260 for site desc. Pegasus still here, much better light for cideo this time. Same for pygmy horse. Long-frilled nudi's. Nice tiny comensal shrimp/crab on whip coral. California divers (Jim, Lori, Rich, Mark) gone, finally back on KBR1, other boats have engine problems. Pinkeye much better.
281	12/5/00	Police Pier	69	1:09	N	Uneventful dive, many nudi's, 2 really nice bright orange frogfish. Lost my pointer rod somewhere :-( Lots of tropicals, amntis shrimp out in open but went in at my approach. Blue-ringed stingray. Big bearded scorpion.
282	12/5/00	Air Perang	52	1:08	N	Site is not as I remembered it from #266. Now black sand covered with algae, lots of scattered live coral rocks. Just four divers and one guide. Inquisitive lionfish approached me straight on and hung around. Cute 1-1/2" seahorse. Wandered off southwards along 40' line, ran into massive huge coral reef teeming with fish! Nice blue-eyed green moray in sponge.
283	12/5/00	Nudi Falls	59	1:11	Y	First non-hairball night dive at KBR! (except #265 solo shore dive). Kind of Caribbean-ish - crabs, shrimp, morays, big lobster on wall. Many morays, including 6' green, 6' banded, little pink one inside sponge, and 3' free-swimming banded. Tons of tubastrea of course. Lots of spider crabs etc. on fans & gorgonians, little sucker fish on base of huge whip coral. Nice pair of robust ghost pipes.
284	12/6/00	Tanjung Tebal	90	1:08	N	Very pretty site, lots of coral, fish, & good viz. Others messed w/pygmy horses in fans, I looked for flamboyants (what else). Nice mellow barramundi, nice foxfaces. White crab in white coral polyps. Gorgeous day.
285	12/6/00	Panti Paregi	70	1:08	N	Very boring for the first 10 minutes, just barren rubble. D.M. called to show crinoid crabs, then as I was looking at a really nice crab in an anemone, he spotted a 1-3/4" frogfish, looking just like a lump of algae - filaments & stuff hanging all over him, amazing that the DM saw it. No video, battery dead :-( Very nice coral at mooring & shallower.
286	12/6/00	Telat Kambahu	62	1:13	N	Awesome muck dive! Bristleworms, octopus in hole, green(!) lionfish, brown frogfish, black-rayed shrimp goby, 3 cockatoo wasps, velvetfish, cool neothyonidium sea cucumber feeding, crab under saddleback slug. Very mucky site just left of hairball. Nice yellowish beardy scorpionfish. Cool "sand darter"(?) burying & unburying in sand.
287	12/7/00	Kainus' Treasure	91	1:00	N	Way out on Lembeh side. A half-hour ride just so fat f*ck Phil Slossberg could snap pics of a purple leaf fish. Pretty but boring steep coral slope, octopus in hole at 62'. Leaf fish was nice, but worth destroying a 30-foot by 5-foot swath of reef with our anchor? Dolphins in the strait on the ride back.
288	12/7/00	Jahir	60	1:14	N	Very muck site, far end of Air Perang bay. Wandered off & found sunken fishing boat contraption, lots of sweetlips & other fish. Nice red&white shrimp in anemone. Cool nudi w/flourescent orange dots, then on one isolated lump of stuff: chocolate frogfish, big T-Bar nudi, cool crab disguised as halimeda algae. Cochran gave one spurious "warning" for no apparent reason.
289	12/7/00	Hairball	59	1:24	Y	Yet another 5-star hairball night dive, this time with video. Used my flashlight and Dante (DM) was great and patient with holding his on my subjects. Oddly passive cuttle at start. T-bar nudi's, another big round flat one, awesome ambons (missed great footage by being in standby), frogfish, small octopus in hole, crab carrying a stick(!), halameda decorator crab, stargazer, small red pterois w/solid wings, very cool (helmeted?) gurnard, never saw before, redinimicus looking very nasty, skinny sole, seahorses near mooring. Engine trouble, took an hour ot get back, nice ride though, w/beautiful gibbous moon, clear sky, and balloon-y clouds.
290	12/8/00	Nudi Falls	76	1:13	N	Nice to do this site in the A.M., good light for a change. Many nice nudi's, including the one mimicked by the cowrie of #264. Small cuttle, interesting stingray/flounder duo. Good orangutan crab. Good light for green robust pipe. Sony autofocus hunting is really annoying. Huge (for KBR anyway) flounder.
291	12/8/00	Hay Nus	64	1:07	N	Last dive of trip, so my choice of site, much to the dismay of the rest of the group, lol. They were justified, actually, as nothing special was seen by anyone. I still like the mix of terrain - super muck, extensive rubble, and substantial reefs. Jumpy little wrasse w/electric blue line, big dirty black-ish sole.

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