BUNAKEN 2005

Arriving at Froggies.

I first dived in the Bunaken National Park in Indonesia back in 1999 but was newly qualified so my pictures were mainly rubbish. That time I stayed at the Tasik Ria resort which was very pleasant and well run but has since changed hands and when I was researching I came across Froggies Divers on Bunaken Island itself.

Their advertising promised relaxed diving with a homely atmosphere, staff who were all committed to conservation and no more than eight divers per boat. Also offered was a few days on a liveaboard in the Lembeh Straits for the muck diving so I was hooked.

Once more I booked direct and was very impressed with the standard of service offered and the friendly helpfulness.

The flight was with Singapore Airlines and was excellent although 12 1/2 hours on one leg was a bit too much. From Singapore I flew to Manado on Sulawesi where I was to be met and tansferred by taxi to the docks and thence by boat for the one hour journey to the island.

However the Heavens opened when the taxi arrived so we were taken to an hotel where Froggies paid for beers and a meal until the storm passed. All part of the service and a suitable introduction to a wonderful holiday.

In the event there were never more than five divers on my boat and I usually had a guide to myself.

Another of the advertised services was free laundry so I took advantage of it and this is how my laundry was returned

Returned laundry. Just one of the personal touches at Froggies.

One of the many highlights of the trip was seeing the Pygmy Seahorses in the Lembeh Straits at a site called Nudi Falls.

These exquisite creatures are less than an inch long.

Another highlight was the Ecoreef off the island of Manado Tua.

I was priveleged to dive on this reef, which is normally off limits for divers, because of my interest in and experience of coral propagation and for me it was the best dive of the trip.

In early 2004 some 620 ceramic modules were put in place in an area which had been devastated by blast fishing some fifteen years ago and where nothing had grown since and no fish had returned.

The devasted substrate.

Eighteen months later there are schooling fish and many attached corals including Acropora sp., Seriatopora sp., Montipora sp, Millepora sp, various sponges, ascidians and a wealth of life.

One of the conservationists made the following comments:- "On the eco reefs modules, those corals that are longer than 15 cm (6 inches) are implants, all the other growth is natural. Experience has taught that coral implants smaller than 6 inches, have very little chance of surviving, so we were instructed to get only longer cuttings. The astonishing thing is that the implants started to overgrow the arms of the modules, and that those layers have been then colonialized by new organisms, like small seafans, sponges and ascidians."

The view from my room.

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