Jinn Caves Opens its Secrets

This morning’s early dive started in a swirl of fishes along the vertical wall heading toward the entrance to Jinn Caves. A mild current tempted massive numbers of fish to feed. Countless prickly Dendronephthya soft corals, pumped up to full size, swayed back and forth. With the return of seasonally calm weather, visibility was again the typical 20 meters.

As I headed inside the wall at “The Bypass,” a wide area cut back into and behind the sheer wall, I spotted an unusual butterflyfish with three black diagonal bands, fluttering along the inside wall. This marks the first time that a Burgess’ butterflyfish (Chaetodon burgessi) has been seen here. This butterflyfish is found adjacent to steep drop offs, sometimes in large caves, and usually in water between 40 and 80 meters deep. The fish today was only at 20 meters. It is only known from eastern Indonesia to Palau and the Caroline Islands.

Heading into the cut of Jinn Caves is always spooky, and this morning was no exception. But after only a few seconds of swimming into the deep gloom, the eastern wall appeared, plastered with huge sponges and black coral. A Pinnate batfish (Platax pinnatus) too large for one skillet hurried out, followed by a pair of wary juveniles. Inside the cut the visibility was unusually good, so that both western and eastern walls were visible simultaneously. On the mud bottom below a thumb-size Bullock’s nudibranch (Chromodoris bullocki) waved its wildly purple body back and forth. A Zebra lionfish (Dendrochirus zebra) rested up side down under a sponge. A pair of Black-saddled tobies (Canthigaster valentini) eyed me nervously.

In less than a meter of water, groups of sparkling blue demoiselles gave startled looks at the dive mask that rose from the depths to the edge of their narrow, shallow home. This fish resembles the Blue devil (Chrysiptera cyanea) but the orange-tailed males all have a dark tail spot. This Gorontalo variation is not listed on Fish Base. What could it be? In the rubble at the surface one of the guys found the green coil of a spaghetti worm out of its burrow and a little crab that looks like a tuft of algae. What could it be? Jinn Caves dive site still holds many secrets.