Surface Intervals are Great, too!

You know it’s going to be an interesting dive when your backward roll lands you in the middle of a school of feeding fusiliers. The Honeycomb dive site is known for the holes in its vertical wall with sand inside, harboring the beautiful Sailfin shrimp goby (Amblyeleotris randalli) and its crustacean pal. Today I found several before being buzzed by a Giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis). A Hawksbill turtle glided down the wall. A large squadron of Humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) literally dive-bombed me. More than a few spewed me with the residue from yesterday’s meal, leaving streams of falling “particulate matter” in their wake.

During the surface interval, we pulled into a fishing village and watched the locals land their tiny canoes, which are just big enough to hold one fish. That fish is the Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), now running in deep Gorontalo waters. Residents hauled the meter-long tuna by stretcher to the shaded area where it was quickly filleted and its valuable meat put on ice, ready for export. The cleaned meat was weighing 70 – 80 kilos per fish. A lone fisherman with his hand line and no reel landed it. They brought in about six while we were there.

One of the highlights of the second dive was seeing a Redface dwarf goby (Trimma benjamini), a beautiful new species. It is solid orange with a large white ring around each eye. It is sometimes called Ring-eye pygmy goby. As I was watching this tiny fish, something cast a shadow around me. I carefully looked up and saw a school of Yellowtail barracuda (Sphyraena sp.) undulating as one overhead.