Scubashooters – July 2019

Travels

and steep slopes sheltering a multitude of
the most colourful of fish.

Some of the Molana and Nusa Laut island
diving sites offer spectacular steep slopes
along the reef’s edge, lavishly decorated with
cup and soft corals, sea fans, forests full of
sea whips, and fragile fire corals plus huge
sponges.

It is well worth taking a lamp for exploring
caves and overhangs, encrusted with inver-
tebrates such as sponges, moss animals and
sea squirts and also sheltering various flat-
worms and sea slugs.

Encounters with sea snakes are no rarity, nor

are sightings of sea turtles, stingrays, amber-
jacks, round-faced batfish, barracudas, mo-
ray eels and reef sharks.

On some reefs you will see manta rays
emerging, and large bottlenose dolphins
and humpback as well as minke whales have

been spotted in the area, too.

A paradise for any photographer's macro

and wide-angle lenses.

Most sites also allow you to snorkel.

Our house reef is some 2 km long and be-

tween 4 and 12 m deep, a complex harbour-

ing a multitude of coral rocks and a dense

staghorn coral population - a diving range

with a varied marine life where large swarms

red mullet, sweetlip, triggerfish and damself-

ish and many other species can be found.

You will see a variety of colourful feather

stars, with lionfish, coral trout, coral hinds,

squirrelfish, barramundis and countless but-

terfly fish thronging under the overhangs.

The sandy parts of the seabed serve as a

hideout for blue-spotted ribbontail rays and

stonefish.

And if you are lucky, you might just spot du-

gongs feeding on the seaweed.