Dive, dive, dive!

[Ramadhan]

I wonder if any of you here also have interest or hobby in (scuba) diving, as I do.
I first took my diving courses (PADI - Professional Association of Diving Instructors) ten years ago and has taken certificates in Open Water, Advanced, and rescue licenses.
I wasn't really interested in diving until I traveled all over Indonesia which gave me the chance to do some snorkeling here and there in these vast archipelago. Even snorkeling, i could see how beautiful the underwater life was, and it really entranced me.
Since I get my first diving license, I have dived in the world's top diving destinations in Indonesia (Bunaken, Sabang, Komodo Island, and many other sites), the great barrier reef in Australia, Ko Tao and ko phiphi in Thailand. I wish one day to be able to dive in Macronesia, Palau, Maldives, and Costa Rica and Belize. I have encountered smaller whales, sharks, sting rays, dolphins, pelagic fish, almost all varieties of turtles (leatherback, green, hawksbill, etc), countless types of coral fishes - shy, playful or downright dangerous, to the tiny super vibrant colorful nudibranch (sea snails).

While diving down below looking at the amazing corals and beautiful fish I always get this kind of spiritual experience, one is because it's so calm so peaceful down there and second because it hits home hard how Great The Creator of all these creatures must be, and makes me so grateful of everything that Allah SWT has provided. The underwater nature in tropical seas is so beautiful and alien it feels like we are visiting other planets.

These pictures below are some that I took during my last diving trip (a couple of months ago) in Donggala area in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Sulawesi is the island shaped like the letter "K" in the middle of this Indonesia map. The diving sites I went to is close to the city of Palu in the middle of the Sulawesi island.

Spaghetti Corals:
the name truly describes this corals.

Nudibranch:
Multicolored snea snaill which are only few inches long

Scorpion fish:
the spines of this fish is quite toxic

Stone fish:
a cousin of scorpion fish, but with much more deadly toxic on its spines. Blend with the bcakground. Can you see it?

Hawksbill turtle:
This guy was quite shy, he swam away when I tried to get close.

Orang utan crab:
named because it has "fur" like orang utan. He is netling on transparent bubbles corals.

Cleaner shrimp:
In the movie "finding nemo" he was called "jacques"

Anemone fish:
Popularly known as "clown fish", in the film finding Nemo, he was "nemo" and his dad "marlin"

Cuttle fish:
the master at blending with the background, he was blinking red when I was chasing after him

Another nudibranch:

And these are just really small sample of what I saw down there.

 

[Getoffmyback]

Wow nice pictures bro.

 

[Grofica]

thats beautiful you should post some more if you have time. its awesome!!!!! i would be too scared though to go chaising after some fish my luck i would would see a giant squid or something and end up missing

((crying)) ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

[ardianto]

Are those pictures taken in Donggala ?.

Hm, I never realized there are many beautiful sea gardens in our country.

Thanks for sharing, brother.

 

[Asiyah3]

They're beautiful masha'llah. Jazakallah for sharing.

Umm.. did you buy a special camera like some water lasting? :hiding:

 

[Beardo]

I never realized how beautiful the underwaters can be, SubhanAllah. I love swimming, but in a pool. Not open waters.

 

[ardianto]

I hope I can dive or swim in open waters.

When I was kid, I raced in several swimming competitions. In pools, of course.

 

[PouringRain]

Beautiful pics! Thanks for sharing them.

 

[Ramadhan]

Are those pictures taken in Donggala ?.

Hm, I never realized there are many beautiful sea gardens in our country.

Yes, they were taken in sulawesi sea in the donggala regency, around an hour drive north from Palu.
Fyi, the top diving site in the world is Raja Ampat, in the Sorong regency of Papua. The area has more concentration of corals and types of fish than any area in the world.
Indonesia is located in the centre of the coral triangle, an area between great barrier reef in queensland, australia, and south phillipines and Palau.

Umm.. did you buy a special camera like some water lasting? :hiding:

I use ordinary pocket camera (Canon ixus 980), thats why the quality of the photos are not that great. but I have an underwater plastic casing. Most camera manufacturers also sell underwater casings for their cameras, sometimes they can be as expensive as the cameras themselves

 

[ardianto]

Maybe the diving itself is not so expensive, but transportation costs to diving area ?. Wow !.

 

[PouringRain]

Maybe the diving itself is not so expensive, but transportation costs to diving area ?. Wow !.

Diving itself can be very expensive.

I suppose it is all relative. I should say that in my opinion it is expensive.

 

[Ramadhan]

All the corals in these pictures are soft corals, meaning they are alive and still growing. Corals can grow endlessly as long as they are still alive (hence the great barrier reef is often considered single organism).

red leaf scorpion fish:
These fish have shape similar to leaf, and they also don't move a lot

white Leaf scorpion fish:

All these corals are soft. Some of them are poisonous (eg. anemone). some fish like clown fish live in anemone corals so they won't get attacked and eaten by other predator fish:

These corals are also soft despite looking like rocks. Home to these orange-bluey fish, which I cannot remember the name:

Angel fish and butterfly fish:

Trumpet fish:

 

[Ramadhan]

Maybe the diving itself is not so expensive, but transportation costs to diving area ?. Wow !.

Diving itself can be very expensive.

I suppose it is all relative. I should say that in my opinion it is expensive.

Alhamdulillah, my work often gets me to travel near these diving sites in Indonesia, so I normally go diving the weekend before or after work
also, the diving trip cost (that is, you pay for the air tank and the suit and buoyancy jacket if you dont have your own, and boat ride) in Indonesia is among the lowest in the world.
It is still not cheap. Around USD 40 per day dive (normally consists of 2 dive trips) and cheaper if you bring your own equipment, but for me it's all worth it. and I only do it once every two months if I get lucky.
In other countries it get more expensive than that.

 

[PouringRain]

also, the diving trip cost (that is, you pay for the air tank and the suit and buoyancy jacket if you dont have your own, and boat ride) in Indonesia is among the lowest in the world.
It is still not cheap. Around USD 40 per day dive (normally consists of 2 dive trips) and cheaper if you bring your own equipment, but for me it's all worth it. and I only do it once every two months if I get lucky.
In other countries it get more expensive than that.

That is a good price. I would not call that expensive either. Buying your own equipment can be expensive. (This is where you tell me how cheap it is in Indonesia also, right? Hahah)

 

[Woodrow]

Jazakallahu Khayran for the fantastic pictures. Very beautiful I am now very far from any ocean, I appreciate this reminder of how beautiful the sea creatures are.