A Third Wreck

Miguel’s Diving staff accidentally heard about another shipwreck long known to locals in one seaside neighborhood in Gorontalo. The wreck has been lying on its side for over 60 years in three to thirteen meters of water near the mouth of the river. Locals have fished the wreck with hand line and spear guns for decades, so large fish are rare. Most of the wreck itself is buried in mud. In fact, it rests atop a steep mud bank. Various sea pens protrude from its slope and very large Steinitz’s shrimpgobies (Amblyeleotris steinitzi) and their crustacean pals live there. A weirdly coiffured juvenile Peacock razorfish (Iniistius pavo) darted along the mud bottom. A sea horse drifted down into the cold upwelling. The wreck itself hosted numerous lionfish, a couple of wicked looking scorpionfish, several nudibranch species, and wary batfish. In the mud underneath a section of heavily encrusted hull, a black juvenile Ribbon eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita) flexed its yellow dorsal fin. Suddenly a school of perhaps a thousand Purse-eyed scad (Selar crumenthalmops) enveloped the wreck. In Sulawesi diving in mud can be an adventure of discovery.