DIVELOG JUNE 406

A pair of elegant dartfish.

All dives off the Cheng Ho are from two tender boats, and with 17 guests and five dive guides we were split into three rotating groups. All the crew on the Cheng Ho are first rate, looking after you, your gear and your every need. We quickly got into a routine of dive, eat, sleep and repeat. The next morning, we dived a sloping reef covered in large barrel sponges at Nyata Slope. With many ledges, we were delighted to see quite a few rare barred angelfish. This site also had a large colony of spotted garden eels. Our post lunch dive was the best yet at Palau Laut. With a current running there was plenty of fish action, and we saw schools of rainbow runners, jobfish, mackerel, fusiliers and coral snappers. We also spotted the first shark of the trip, when a large tawny nurse shark darted across the reef. At this site were garden eels, shrimp gobies and a large porcupine ray.

The next dive at Palau Limtutu was also very enjoyable. This was another very colourful reef covered in beautiful corals and swarming with fishes. We spotted schools of trevally, goatfish and snappers and also a shy whitetip reef shark. The next day we arrived a little late at our destination, so only had time for two dives at Terbang. This was another pretty reef wall with fabulous barrel sponges and lovely gorgonians. On the first dive we saw mackerel, tuna and a yellow-lipped sea krait. While on the second it was barracuda, sailfin snapper, giant Maori wrasse and a good variety of morays. The next morning, we finally arrived in hammerhead territory at a coral atoll known as Nildesperandum. Schools of scalloped hammerheads are seen in the northern Banda

Typical Banda Sea wall dive with sponges and gorgonians.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #406 - June ‘23

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