411 Dive Log Australasia April 2025

do is to get withing 2.5 metres. I turned my self into an invisible coral rock, stopped breathing and got as low as possible. After about ten minutes, I was able to get to within five feet. My quarry was so alert and watched me like a hawk as I tried to get ‘that shot”. This is my dream dive challenge! Then the final revelation was that dive time is seventy minutes. My ideal! When I dive at a place and they say dive time 45 or 50 minutes, like most divers, my heart drops. Someone should tell those dive operators that is a really bad idea for experienced divers to be restricted like that. Might be ok for newbies but… The next dive was a drift dive at Kaledupa point. It featured giant sponges, fan corals and some pelagic fish. It was a very photogenic wide-angle dive but the overcast cloudy sky meant low light, not good for capturing these reefs at their best. The next dive was at Hoga pinnacle and could not have been more different. It had plenty of current. However, the dive guide took us to the protected side and showed us some Bargibanti Pygmy Sea Horses. Nearby, a hot pink Leafy Scorpionfish was hiding. I followed a Black Banded Sea snake, a Sea Krait as it hunted for it

lunch across the coral and watched as brilliantly coloured Parrotfish scraped algae off the corals. The night dive here was absolutely superb. Another Sea Krait hunting in the dark using only its sense of smell. A dark Feather Star had two juvenile Sweetlips hiding in the ‘safety’ of its feathery tentacles doing that furtive dance they do to avoid predators. The dance makes them impossible to photograph especially with their black bodies in the inky blackness of the night. I went into quiet ecstasy when I spotted a Saron Shrimp out in the open but as usual, they duck for cover as soon as my red light shines on them. Immediately, an Imperial Angelfish weaved its way back and forth inside a small coral cavern. Then, Bingo! I spotted a huge Spanish Dancer with its bright mantle display of brilliant bright red velvet. It was right out in the open making a superb subject. I was distracted by an even larger Sea Snake, some Butterfly fish asleep and scurrying crustaceans. I do like night diving! As we sailed west across the South-East Sulawesi Sea, we encountered so many great dives on our way to our turn around point of Buton Island. The huge bay at Buton is home to excellent muck diving. This was in complete contrast to the coral diving. Our first dive was a sandy slope festooned with plenty of Fire Urchins and nudibranchs. Like all muck diving sites, you need to spend time here. I know that each dive would reveal more and more diverse lifeforms. We were fortunate to spot a brown triangular leaf with eyes. That was a baby Bat fish disguised to perfection as a piece of composting leaf. Nearby, a Thorny Sea Horse was trying to be inconspicuous up side down. Mantis shrimp had burrows in the seaweed garden. The second dive was on ‘New pier’. It was extremely silty and you had to swim a metre off the sea floor with head down posture well away from my bulldozing dive buddy. This dive featured Blue Ribbon eels, one adult Blue one and a black juvenile. The highlight of the day was Magic Pier. I was told that there are more Mandarin fish here than

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DIVE LOG Australasia #411 - April‘25

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