Whale Shark Testimonials

Recent guests post accounts of their encounters with whales sharks in Gorontalo on their blogs. Enjoy by clicking this link and by clicking this link and by clicking this link.

Facebookers can enjoy one-minute of Dav's video of a whale shark in Gorontalo by opening the Miguel's Diving Gorontalo facebook page.

What's big and spotted and swims by slowly?

She screamed and pointed. Our dive master quickly turned to see what was behind him. Within a few meters was a seven-meter long whale shark taking a slow look at the divers. So much for our theory that whale sharks in Gorontalo swim close to shore around the new moon!

Violence on the Reef

The pristine reefs of Gorontalo have shocked recent divers with reality. On the massive pinnacle we call Sunken Island divers saw the remaining half of a cushion star - and the mature trumpet shell that had just eaten half of it!

On another section of reef a coconut shell octopus disproved the notion that anemones protect decorator hermit crabs that hide under their stinging fingers. Divers watched the quick work the octopus made of one crab by carefully turning the crab shell so as to avoid the anemones and then with two other arms simply rip the helpless crab out and gobble it down!

Imagine hearing the scream of our dive master. He was watching a large and unusual sea hare nudibranch lumber over the sand when suddenly the head of a large bobbitt worm lunged out of the sand, its four jaws spread wide open, grabbed the nudi and began dragging it under the sand.

Happy & Crazy Corona Dive Club

Members of Corona Dive Club spent a week diving in Gorontalo, basically wearing themselves out from lots of diving, eating all the crabs available at the night stalls and singing silly songs. To read Parvita's impressions of the diving in Gorontalo and see some great wide-angle shots, go to this link. Thanks so much to trip leader Teti who did a great job with everything including organizing 18 pieces of checked luggage!

Aren't you running out of dive sights yet?

Wise indeed the business traveler who works in a day or so of diving along the way. One such guest of Miguel's Diving has been diving in Gorontalo five time so far during the current diving season. With 30 something dives here and only three repeated dive sights, her comment "aren't you running out of dive sights yet?" got the staff to think of some other places she hadn't been yet. At Sand Pit our sharp-eyed dive guide found a rare Shortpouch pygmy pipehorse. Then at a section of Silvertip Grounds that no one has dived in a couple of years, the five Napo.lean wrasse, patrolling Spanish mackerel and fly-by schools of large Rainbow runners made staff wonder why this site has been neglected. When a morning storm silted up a muck site she hadn't seen yet, everyone went instead to a previously dived site where the same winds off the ocean brought in a huge pink jelly fish and the juvenile trevally that was pushing it along. And yes, there are still dive sites she hasn't seen. Yet.

A Meeting of Ghosts

Not to be out performed by the recent cetacean sightings, macro finds in Gorontalo the last few days have impressed visiting divers. At one muck sight seven harlequin ghost pipefish of various patterns and color combinations were gathering around a colony of fire coral. They have since paired up and separated to adjoining coral clumps with one still looking for a companion. The same site also produced a baby Bonaparte eel, two dark frogfish including a fingertip sized baby, several cockatoo waspfish, a robust pipefish, a black Ambonion scorpionfish, Tozeuma shrimp and a family of Helmet conchs, rare in many places in the world. A harlequin ghost pipefish found at another dive site has since been replaced by a smiling lionfish that presumably has eaten it. However, the transparent baby Mimic octopus is likely to escape notice of predators for some time to come.

Pelagic Encounters

While weather in other parts of Indonesia is causing problems, this is optimal diving season in Gorontalo. Today's diving featured close pelagic encounters. An old Hawksbill turtle gave a slow turn in a deep blue sea. A young Na.polean wrasse curiously tagged behind divers while a mature one lingered below. Closer still was a frenetic school of countless large trevally (jacks) feeding within meters of divers drifting in the current. Then a school of dozens of full grown Rainbow runners streamed between divers. Sailing by in the other direction were three White-spotted eagle rays. Add in countless schools of other fishes, dense coral and 25-meter vis: that's a glimpse of diving in Gorontalo today!

Friends Old and New

A group of dive junkies from Jakarta ended 2008 diving in Gorontalo and made some special memories that included a fly by encounter with a squadron of 17 mobula rays off Gorontalo's Kurenai Beach dive site. Our congratulations to Jerry and Vera who got engaged on a Gorontalo beach to the delight of all their friends. New Year Day also brought the return of Maria from Jakarta who is diving here for the third time. Returning also is another Jakarta-based dive club. Happy New Year 2009 to friends both old and new.

Family Affair

Divers today enjoyed the best of macro subjects and a startling pelagic encounter. On the tiny side is a pair of Denise pygmy seahorses, one very pregnant. Then in blue water a pod of about 10 Bottle-nosed dolphins of various sizes and ages swam by, evidently wanting to catch a glimpse of visitors to their waters.

Searching for food

Although this is not diving season in Gorontalo, Miguel's Diving staff and several guests braved the swells and did a couple of dives in a protected area about 15 mintues travel time by speed boat. Visibility was between 5 and 12 meters, way down from what is typical during regular diving season, which begins in November. However, Gorontalo's marine environment provided some exciting encounters, including sighting a large Hawksbill turtle and Nap.olean wrasse and swimming among all the various schools of fish. As the group was surveying a deeper flat before the lower wall, the divemaster heard dolphins. Then suddenly a school of Yellow-dash fusiliers blasted right through the group, obviously fleeing something. A bit later a school of about 20 Dogtooth tuna came in and circled the divers several times. On the second dive the divers watched in fascination as pairs of Green chromis laid eggs and spawned in a section of rubble. Meanwhile overhead, a baby four-meter long Whale shark played on the surface, the fourth whale shark sighting this year.

Gorontalo Wide-Angle

It seems that Gorontalo is not only the domain of the macro photographer any more. Miguel's Diving has hosted a flurry of wide-angle enthusiasts in the last several weeks. Their comments and great photos are available on this WetPixel thread.

Schools of Dolphin & Barracuda

Guests this week enjoyed the thrills of exploring the varied marine environment of Gorontalo. Nowhere else can divers experience dramatic coral walls, multiple pinnacles and muck all in the same day. Wrecks, caverns and shallow coral gardens are also available. In addition to the wide variety of diving, guests had the thrill of snorkeling with a school of about 30 Risso's dolphins. With their white bodies, they look like pale ghosts underwater. One even dove right under them! Later the same day in the new Olele village marine park, a curious school of Yellowtail barracuda surrounded them. This made for a great circular shot for the videographer.

Count Them!

Count on diving in Gorontalo to have some wonderful surprises. Not only are guests enjoying typically flat seas and sunny mornings, but also visibility has been an incredible 25 meters. Even one surreal Salvador Dali Sponge in a corner of a wall was visible from the surface. But today after busily photographing six Bumblebee shrimps, we sighted a pair of marlin also swimming along the surface on the way to the dive boat.

Quite a Special Place

That's the comment from veteran divers Steve & Shirley from the UK about diving in Gorontalo. Unjaded by over 30 years of scuba diving exerience, they enjoyed what Gorontalo and Miguel's Diving provided during opening week of the diving season. Highlights included a dense school of hundreds of trevally, a tuna weighing 50 – 60 kilos, a very pregnant Thorny seahorse, acres of hard corals and of course Gorontalo's many new, undescribed or endemic species of various marine life.

PreSeason Diving

Intrepid divers from the USA and Canada braved the dying east winds to get a jump-start on Gorontalo's dive season, which traditionally begins in November. Highlights this week included a large school of barracuda, a family of Napol.ean wrasse, a Hairy frogfish and a live Murex shell. We found several Mimic octopi but they couldn't be coaxed out of their holes. However, one very friendly Sargassum frogfish (Histrio histrio) kept jumping onto divers, perhaps mistaking us for big floating debris.

ADEX 2006 Lucky Draw Winners Dive in Gorontalo

Last April two Malaysian divers won the Lucky Draw at Asian Dive Exhibition for a diving adventure in Gorontalo. Bok and Bee just wrapped up five days of diving here. This is what they say:

We had a wonderful time. The underwater haven in Gorontalo is almost untouched. Everything is in its original state (you know what I mean?). We saw so many stuffs, some of which we saw for the first time. The cute Orangutan crabs, the pretty Coleman's coral shrimps, Salvador Dali's sponges, the many species of fishes, etc etc... Gorontalo has it all. We enjoyed the Muck diving at Olele Village too. Missing the speedboat rides to the sites already... simply love being accompanied by the pods and pods of dolphins. Marine life is in abundance. We felt so welcome by the friendly Gorontalo people. Last but not least, the professional services rendered by Rantje and his staff at Miguel's Diving. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much, Rantje. We hope to return to Gorontalo soon.

Brilliant Day

Repeat divers to Gorontalo picked a brilliant day to return here to dive. Visibility has been running around 25 meters lately. But today it jumped a notch to 30 meters at Chimneys dive site where we found a rare polyclad flatworm (Acanthozoon sp.) spiraling down the wall like an undulating ribbon. Miguel's Diving actually has a picture of this beautiful creature taken by Massimo Boyer on display in our picture frame at Gorontalo's airport. Its black surface is edged in white and dotted with cream and yellow spots.

Overwhelming

Yesterday's diving had so many fish as to make divers dizzy! Visibility hovered around 25 meters and seas were extremely flat. Seeing a pair of huge Napolea.n wrasses swimming together was a special highlight of the day. Denis from the USA says, "Now I know what you mean by biodiversity!"

Gorontalo Diving on Scubaboard

One of our November guests, Jovin of Singapore, has posted a new thread about her dive trip to Gorontalo. Some of her great pictures taken in this hidden paradise are also available to view. You don't have to be a Scubaboard member to access these links, just click the highlighted words in the text above.

Ribbons of Blue and Yellow

The coral wall at Honeycomb was streaming with ribbons of blue and yellow in the morning light. Thousands of Blue and Yellow fusiliers (Caesio teres) enveloped divers in Gorontalo this morning. Sometimes mixed with other fusilier species, these brightly colored fish poured down the wall then circled around for another sweep mid-wall. Evidently in search of food, these fish never left the reef during the course of the dive. Their size and numbers confirms that local fish stocks are high and healthy.

Breeding Grounds

Divers enjoying pre-season diving in Gorontalo today got a glimpse of the result of months of bad weather that prevents people from fishing. We saw a pair of large Coronation lyre-tail grouper (Variola louti) swimming together. Usually seen only singly, we hope they are a breeding pair. Not far away was a juvenile Napol.ean wrasse. Both species were in places that Miguel's Diving staff had not seen them previously. We hope this indicates that these large fish are expanding their ranges. The dive sites today are part of an area soon to be set aside for conservation, which will provide a secure nursery for future generations of these spectacular fishes.

Stress Break

Miguel's Diving staff took a much-needed break today. Even though dive season doesn't start again until November, diving is still possible in a couple of protected bays. With stiff winds already blowing from early morning, we decided to try the opposite side of one bay that provided a bit more shelter. Actually, we have never surveyed this location. Almost immediately upon descent we found an enormous sea fan next to one of Gorontalo's famous Salvador Dali sponges. Although fish schools were numerous, churning waters and plankton rendered the visibility to only three meters. This is off-season! However, numerous sponge species plus the odd nudibranch or worm kept the camera low on memory.

Really Off Season

This past weekend Gorontalo's governor insisted on going diving. So we braved waves and stiff winds to take him where he wanted to go. Swells were breaking up to six meters up the cliff face. Because of all that turbulent water, visibility was about two meters. But he seemed more relaxed after his time underwater. Weather will begin to improve in October.

Squadron of Mantas

Guests diving in Gorontalo on Christmas Eve day enjoyed quite a show. On the first dive we watched a squadron of eight pygmy mantas, probably Shortfin devil rays (Mobula kuhlii), which are common here. On the same dive a Black-tip reef shark and large Nap.olean wrasse made appearances. Two other Napo.lean wrasse came up from the deep to check out divers on the second dive. But the main attraction was the cuttlefish. A large and very pregnant female was inserting eggs into coral while a large male waited. However, he had to keep chasing off a small male that seemed determined to get in on the action.

Guest Comments

16 Nov 2004

Dear Miguel's Diving,

I just wanted to write and tell you what a wonderful time I had diving with you in Gorontalo. I have been diving off 3 continents/7 different countries and I have never had as much fun as I did diving in Gorontalo with your crew. The 6 sites I had a chance to dive were spectacular. You guys have it all - beautiful corals, anemones, sponges, rays, eels, shrimps, nudibranchs, and to top it off, "tons" of fish. Even the boat rides out to the sites were fun, since you have calm water and dolphins and flying fish to entertain you on the way.

Your crew was great! The local staff was helpful and polite and your American dive master, Rantje, was the best dive master I've been diving with in my 10 years of diving. Diving with Rantje is like having your own private marine biologist along on the trip.

Earlier this year I had contemplated giving up diving after being terribly seasick on yet another dive trip that required long boat rides on choppy seas. I'm glad I didn't quit. You should advertise your calm seas and target divers who are sick of being seasick!

I enjoyed Gorontalo itself. It was easy to get around and I loved the little horse carriages.

Sincerely,
Anna from the USA

Attached are some photos I took on the trip.