Winning Photo of Shrimp in Gorontalo

Congratulations to Suzannah Browning! This tall blonde member of Singapore's Free Flow Divers entered its first underwater photography competition. We just learned that a photo she took while diving here with friends over last Chinese New Year holidays won Overall Winner. The photo shows two pregnant Sarasvati shrimps, one of the new species available in Gorontalo. If you have a copy of FiNS magazine's September/October 2005 issue, turn to page 59.

Six Risso's Dolphins

Divers in Gorontalo wise enough to choose Miguel's Diving today not only enjoyed spectacular visibility, swirls of schooling fishes, pristine coral, and new or rarely seen species. They also swam with a pod of six Risso's Dolphins! One of our sharp-eyed boat crew spotted them snoozing on the surface of the calm sea. They were right off the wall of one of Gorontalo's popular diving sites. They allowed those snorkeling a chance to see their white and scarred undersides, the key distinctive of this specie. Gorontalo has several resident pods. These six were all juveniles.

More Pygmies and More

Diving in Sulawesi never fails to amaze and delight. For diving guests fortunate to be in Gorontalo, we went back to look for those tiny seahorses today. There are not four but six pygmy seahorses on one sea fan.

At a muck site our dive master found a "White-V" mimic octopus, trying hard to move like a flounder, plus a very large Mimic Octopus with the banded arms, plus three cockatoo washfish, plus a couple beautiful red-banded Randall's alpheid shrimp. The list goes on.

For the third dive guests descended next to a school of hundreds of Purse-eyed scad, all swerving back and forth in turn-on-a-dime synchronicity. Those diving in Sulawesi's prime locations like Gorontalo can expect something special every trip.

Four Pygmy Sea Horses

Diving season opened with regulator-muffled shouts of joy when Dive Master Frangky found four pygmy seahorses within the first five minutes of our first dive. Located at our ever-intriguing Shadowlands dive site, all were on one sea fan. One was pregnant. All were very small. They were Hippocampus denise of the uncommon orange coloration. In case pictures taken by our guests don't turn out well, you might want to do some diving in Gorontalo and take some shots yourself.