411 Dive Log Australasia April 2025

locals. Nonetheless, 13 dive shops are found in Iboih. Friday morning is a holiday for Muslims. The dive centre is not open until 2 pm. It feels super quiet, no foreign visitors. The gentle wave crashes softly on the coral beach below the guesthouse. It is hot and humid, close to 32°C. Shortly before 9 am, I meet Fahmi, the 33-year-old dive guide, all smiles, with an open face and lively eyes. At the age of 13, he lost his mother, father, and two brothers in the December 2004 tsunami. When the monster wave struck his home at 8 am on that fateful day, his father drowned, his mother got her head chopped off by an open fuel drum, his brothers disappeared, and he was washed away 2 Km inland, with cuts on his head and stomach, and an iron in the foot. He felt lost like a stray dog. Today, Fahmi is married with two kids, he is a dive instructor and loves the ocean. The past had been a trampoline for his future. He is a survivor. Iboih faces a couple of islands to the east: Pulau Rubiah and Pulau Seulako. Some rock clusters jut out of the water south and north of Seulako. Most of the dive sites are only 5 minutes away by speedboat. The conditions look perfect, with water temperature at a

balmy 30°C. Fahmi has done his wetsuit, even with the hood on. I am happy with my shorts only! Arus Balee , our first dive, means ‘wild current’. We jump in near some volcanic rocks. The current is from the southwest. Heading south the visibility is optimal. At a depth of 30m, large golden gorgonian sea fans ornate the slope. Several bushes of hard dark green Tubastrea coral host their swarm of scalefin anthias “ Pseudanthias squamipinnis ” in orange color. Clouds of small blue triggerfish, dot the blue space, with curtains of black pyramid butterflyfish Hemitaurichthys zoster ”. A little school of yellow band goatfish “ Mulloidichthys vanicolensis ” hovers near a boulder, mixed with gold spot emperors “Gnathodentex aureolineatus”. White collar butterflyfish “ Chaetodon collare ”, Meyer’s butterflyfish “ Chaetodon meyeri ”, and lined butterflyfish “ Chaetodon lineolatus ” are common. The powderblue surgeonfisn “ Acanthurus leucosternon ” is conspicuous. Golden yellow with blue lips, the three-spot angelfish “ Apolemichthys trimaculatus ” is ravishing. Limbo Gapang “Could we have a macro dive”, I enquire. In Pria Laot Bay, this underwater mountain has a flat top covered in coral with patches of sand. I

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DIVE LOG Australasia #411- April 25

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