November 28, 2010
Magic Carpet
This week in one location where Miguel's Diving brings diver is a rare natural phenomena: the sudden appearance of millions of Bennett's tobies. They form moving carpets that sail along the coral walls. Divers can swim through the schools, watching them part for divers and bubbles. This event is only recorded from two of Sulawesi's diving locations, that is Gorontalo and the remote island volcano of Una-una, both of which are in Tomini Bay. This huge bay is formed by two arms of Sulawesi. Diving right now is prime. Soon these fish will begin to attach each other, bite off each other's fins and begin to die. Because the fish has toxic glands, most predators will not venture to eat the dead or dying tobies. Miguel's Diving staff presume this phenomena is related to spawning.
November 21, 2010
Korean fishing boat wreck
On an exploratory dive last week Miguel's Dving accidently found a large wreck. It turned out to be a Korean fishing boat that sunk in the 1980s. All valuable and removable metals like the round window hatches and propeller had been removed by salvagers long ago. It sits upright and has a striking profile. Because of its position near a small stream, the surrounding area is basically silt, so it is unlikely that Miguel's Diving will be offering this as a dive attraction in the future. Sulawesi is not known for its wrecks. However, diving wrecks in Gorontalo is possible. Of the five wreck that Miguel's Diving has discovered and surveyed over the past decade, only two are offered to divers: the 1942 Japanese cargo wreck and the 1993 Tjenderawashi barge wreck.