Nudi Falls: Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi
My first visit diving in the waters of Lembeh Strait was an awesome experience
I plan to repeat again soon. Kungkungan Bay Resort, tucked away in a very picturesque
setting, was more than comfortable and its helpful and friendly staff made my stay
something to write home about. When I visited this area I was interested in
macro-photography and in search of wonderful new critters to fill my lens. I would
not be disappointed.
One of my favorite sites was Nudi Falls - I wrote in my log book at the time
"Nudibranchs out the ying yang." In fact on one dive it became quite a comedy
for my dive buddy and I as we tried to focus on one thing. It seemed every time
one of us turned around to show-off our find, there would be another unique
animal in view! On several occasions we looked at each other and shook our heads
in amazement! I was astonished by the pygmy seahorses - how anyone saw them in
the first place boggles my mind. The dive master at the time, Larry Smith, would
take my hand and pull me forward towards the subject of interest, in his excitement
he would squeeze my hand so hard when showing me something new I thought my eyes
would pop out! Even though "Mr. Larry" had spent many hours under these waters he
was still so enthusiastic and loved to show off the weird and wonderful critters of
this area.
I dived Nudie Falls many times and was always thrilled at the number of nudibranchs.
It is an easy dive and it is not at all necessary to go deep to see things. The
nudibranchs are often found on the Tubastraea/sponge encrusted cliff faces
that plunge into the sea along the shoreline. The site gets its name because the
nudibranchs would fall from the ceilings of the overhangs and caves when diver
bubbles happened to knock them off. Not only could you find these beautiful inverts
munching on sponges and bryozoans on the rock faces, they were also encountered
crawling about on the open sandy and gravel bottoms. The caves and crevices of the
submerged cliff face was home to a resident comet, a fish I had only seen once
before (in the Maldives). There were also boxfishes, butterflies and lionfishes
and using the wall as a source of protection or food. On a couple of dives we saw
the "wonderpuss" moving among leaf litter and rubble in about 5 m of water. This
beautiful cephalopod would come out in the mid to late afternoon to hunt. It is an
undescribed species that is often mistaken for the true mimic octopus
(another undescribed species), and although it is not as good at charades it
is much prettier than its more "gifted" cousin. We saw the same individual
on consecutive days and were able to shoot loads of photos of it.
If you move down the reef slope at about 20 m you will find a sponge/algae bed,
which is a haven for an untold number of photo subjects. These include the
filamented flasher wrasse, pink flasher wrasse, an undescribed flasher, whipfin
fairy wrasse, longspine waspfish, manyeyed snake eel, an undescribed species of
jawfish with an orange head, blue ring octopus, wartskin frogfish, and yes, more
nudibranchs. This is also a site where a lilac colored Rhinopias has been
spotted (I saw photos of it, but we were unable to find it during our stay).
If you ever get to Kungkungan Bay Resort, make sure you spend several dives
exploring the wonders of my favorite dive site, Nudie Falls!
Be sure to read an extensive report on
the marine life of this area by Clicking HERE!
All images are clickable to larger pics
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