Diving 4 Images - Halmahera Exploratory Trip Report
Click here to read Erwin Kodiat's report with some great photo's too!
Click here to go to back to cruise and dive report page...
Halmahera is a region of Indonesia that for some reason has been very rarely visited by tourists never mind divers. The last diving liveaboard I know of that came through this region was back in 1998 with a man I was to track down with sea charts to get a few pointers on where to and not to head for. Many people talk about Halmahera with many different stories, I have heard talk about the region being heavily impacted by fish bombing which kills all surrounding reef leaving fields of nothing but broken coral rubble. Due to these kind of stories my expectations were not so high. I knew that the group booked on this trip were more interested in big fish and reefs so my chance to go hunting for critter dives was just a last resort. Eventually I managed to track down Mark Erdmann who had dived around this area before, though anything could have happened since he was here in 1998. Still any pointers good or bad would help. I had a planned route I wanted to take and spoke about a few areas with Mark, he pointed out a few areas that he found good and one whole area in particular that was totally bombed out. The plan of attack was to try a few areas that looked like they should have good reef and fish life... according to sea charts anyway. If the reefs were as I had been told, all bombed out, we would simply head into different environments in search of critters instead of reefs and fishy dives!
Day 1. Our supposed arrival day was marred by the airlines canceling our flight, one more evening in Manado and more time to try some of the local delicacies, or so the locals call them anyway!
Day 2. We managed to make the early flight, this meant we never lost too much in the way of dives. Our arrival in Ternate was a pleasant one and very interesting as we headed down the streets to one of the many harbours on Ternate. Ternate looked very prosperous, certainly in comparison with many other small island towns I have visited in Indonesia! The majority of the houses looked really neat and the streets were all fairly clean, as usual in Indonesia, lots of happy, smiling people greeting us with "Helo Meesterrrr"!
We boarded Ciska and not too long afterwards we were heading towards our first dive. This was a spot on Maitara island. This was to be a bit of pot luck, it actually looked like it should have been a mini wall, what we found was a pristine hard coral reef from 2m to 25m. As we entered we saw our first fish, a very pleasant surprise to a large black tip shark cruising by, not too bothered by our presence either like many other places. Then at 12m we came to a scenic coral bommie, here we saw a school of shy batfish, a few sweetlips and various different species of angelfish. The deeper reefs had areas with large sponges and a variety of corals whilst from 12-15m upwards was mainly hard coral gardens that were buzzing with life as hundreds of damsels and fairy basslets flittering above. We covered a fair distance and only came across a few small spots that had obviously been impacted, by the looks of it, a long time ago with new re-growth already taking a hold. The ironic part was that the whole group apart from Mie Khie (who was the only one who really wanted to see sharks) managed to see a few sharks, I counted 4 different white and black tip sharks along with the odd large pelagic fish cruising by and a small group of large bumphead parrotfish.
Our second dive was on Pilongga island; here I had time to make a quick check out while the tanks were being filled. Just before I jumped in a shout for whales and everyone was on the port side looking out towards Halmahera at whales spraying into the air, they were reported as being Sperm whales? My quick check on snorkel revealed an excellent hard coral reef, this time lots more fish and a larger variety of corals with very good invertebrate life. All around this small island we kept seeing big mouth mackerel swimming around frantically feeding often in huge schools, there was a large school of skipjack tuna that came in and shot as quick as they approached. There were a few deep coral ridges that went down beyond 40m with large sponges whip corals and in places lots of fish. As we slowly drifted we came past an area packed with small coral growths of soft corals, sea fans and many other colourful invertebrates, in amongst this we came across a few different species of nudibranch and a few scorpion fish. What made this island spectacular for me was the hard coral gardens in the shallows at the end of the dive. There were layers of pristine coral formations with different varieties of layered hard corals mixed with other more colourful corals making for great wide angle photography!
Moving over to Mare Island, here we found a safe anchorage in front of one of the two villages, this one the larger of the two called Kampung Mare. Checking a few areas near the village I chose one area with a variety of good invertebrates along with a few sand/rubble patches. This proved to be an excellent night dive site, as soon as we dropped in we came across lots of different soft coral and decorator crabs, then a golden coloured ornate ghost pipefish, then a group of 3 robust ghost pipefish with one being covered in red algae making it look hairy. A variety of different parrotfish were seen sleeping in between the hard corals, along with huge saron shrimps, there were a few tiny bobtail squids in the sandy patches and juvenile reef squids clinging to sea fans or swimming around close to crinoids and then after over an hour came one of the holy grail of critters... a tiny blue ringed octopus which just perched atop a small coral cluster, from time to time moving so we could see the glowing of its blue rings.
Day 3. Waking up in very choppy seas as we headed out
to Terumbu Gora, a sea mount that only emerges on low tides. Due to this
it took us about 15-20minutes to find. I was determined to find it as I
had been told that was this was a great dive. Once we found it I placed
a buoy to clearly mark what looked like the best area to enter, this also
indicted the direction of current and where to drop in. On entry we descended
on to a highly impacted reef, it was interesting to see the secondary re-growth
of reef starting to take hold over the impacted rubble. Regardless of all
the damage there was still lots of fish life schooling around this sea mount,
especially when in the small patches of healthy reef. I took my group way
out north and managed to come across quite a few sharks, first a large white
tip, then about 4 different juvenile grey reef sharks mid water, the smallest
being a real baby, maybe only 50cm ahhh! The majority of fish were fusiliers
and surgeons, at times literally thousands of them covering areas so thick
we couldn't hardly see through them. One very interesting behaviour we noticed
was the oceanic trigger fish, they all seemed to be nesting here, making
large holes looking like bomb craters which they were very aggressively
guarding from smaller fish. We slowly ascended towards the shallows we coming
across on area with good soft coral growth due to the current sweeping past
here, then quite a few huge lobsters around a sheltered giant porites coral
mount.
We then headed back east for calmer seas within the shelter of some small
islands with the Goraichi island group. Here I wanted to check out a group
of small islands, checking a few areas it all looked OK and thought I would
drop in and hope for better reef a little deeper on scuba. As we headed
back towards Ciska, Darvis (the tender boat driver) pointed out a large
sea mount rising up from deeper surrounding water. A quick snorkel to check
it out revealed a what looked like a very worth while dive site. We all
kitted up and this time entered in 2 groups from the tender to play safe.
We headed south east across colourful coral filled bommies very much like
those in the Raja Ampat, but here there were sharks, black tip reef sharks
which came in fairly close, virtually all throughout this dive we were surrounded
by a huge school of pale surgeons with a few gigantic dogtooth tuna cruising
by with the school, at times there would be groups of tuna would pass us
by. Dropping slightly deeper to our maximum depth of 28m we came to a mini
wall packed with soft corals in just about every colour imaginable. Then
we crossed a slope also packed with pristine corals of great diversity and
then to another mini wall once more packed with soft corals and at the bottom
a few sea fans. The shallows too were totally pristine with lots of swaying
soft corals. This we named "Batu Darvis" after our great tender
driver!
Next up I headed over to check out a group of small islands for another possible dive site, amazing beds of endless hard corals though not too many fish meant I wanted to try another small island instead. This was a tiny rock with sloping reefs all round, again we saw a shark, this time a large white tip and the odd large wahoo passing by overhead. A few areas we saw had been impacted though there were many great areas with plenty of fish and gorgeous coral formations that this a worthy dive site. In between one of these small coral covered bommies, Winda came across a pair of robust ghost pipefish. As we left the current facing reef we drifted over beds of candy coloured soft corals with a giant dogtooth tuna cruising by overhead. In the shallows around the island we saw a few big bump head parrot fish and a few nudibranchs..
We moved over to find a safe and calm anchorage for a night dive on Pulau Miskin. Here I searched for a short while and decided it all looked very similar and best to drop in where the captain had anchored. The area looked as good as anywhere to jump in and look for some cool nocturnal critters. Here we found enough critters to keep all happy and even Dave with his 15 minute Bintang rule (not much to see after 15 minutes and its time for a beer). Among the many different crustaceans were the bizarre looking palamonid shrimps (leander plumosus), there lots of sleeping parrotfish, a few sea slugs and flatworms and a few cool colourful dendro' crabs hiding in amongst the soft corals.
Day 4. We awoke near Selat Gilalang, as soon as everyone was awake we headed in to see what we could find. This area looked liek it should be good fro critters. Though on entry I noticed it was more lagoonal with very minimal coral life, of which had been very highly impacted. I managed to find one area of wall that was left intact with plenty of sea fans, black corals bushes and some invertebrates. Searching hard we came across a few sea slugs, I counted 4 different species, peacock mantis shrimp, a few pipefish and orang utan crabs in the bubble corals.
Heading south into the Patinti straits, here the area looked very interesting
with a 400m deep channel to the north and a 2000m deep channel to the south...
this had to good. Our first dive on Pulau Pokal, the charts gave the impression
of walls though without time to fully check and being on slack tide we just
dropped in on the south straight from the Ciska. Charts are not always as
they seem as this was mainly slowly sloping reefs. From the looks of the
hard corals and sponges our entry point would usually be swept by very strong
currents, we hit slack tide so could enjoy the scenery slowly. As we headed
east we came across areas with pristine coral formations with a great variety
of corals and thousands of anthias flittering above. We did see a few eagle
rays here though a little too far off to get a really good look! The rest
of this island had more great reef though a few areas in the north did show
severe bomb damage. After our dive the locals came over to see what we were
doing and told us we should really report in to their village, we explained
our situation about not having a lot of time and not realising there was
even a village nearby. They were very friendly and told us more about where
to go and not to go, it turned their not to go area could be very good after
all, I made check later the next day and found more pristine reef with heavy
current
Next up a channel that was recommended as an exciting drift dive. I checked
it out and sure enough found that there were indeed plenty of sharks that
came in fairly close, and not just this some great reef and coral packed
bommies too! The group was briefed to stay shallow first and then follow
the slope. We headed straight to the shallows, a few large colourful coral
covered bommies packed with small fish made for great photography before
headed towards the slope, just then I noticed that a ridge headed out away
from our initial plan, signaling to the group to follow we headed down this
ridge, gorgeous coral scenery surrounded lots of sweepers, as we more focusing
on the larger fish here I didn't want to spend too much time searching fro
critters though I am sure there are plenty amongst this ridge. We headed
into the mouth of the channel across a sloping reef covered with sea fans
and good coral life. The current picked up taking us faster and faster with
the bottom of the channel then over coral covered bommies, the bigger fish
started to show up, every minute or so we would see a few black tips slowly
go by along with a few huge bumphead parrotfish, the corals became very
minimal with small soft coral growths and lots of blue coral, then slowly
the reef started to slope down beneath us, we headed towards out of the
central channel... suddenly the current stopped and we were on yet another
great coral reef slope with a few more black tip sharks cruising around
below us. We continued on to see how the reef looked, in places it was just
amazing with coral covered bommies packed with small fish, there was the
odd area that had been impacted though not enough to spoil a great dive.
Searching in the shallows we came across a few colourful sea slugs, a few
pipefish and a leaf scorpionfish trying to feed amongst the glassy sweepers.
We called this site "The Proco Pass"
The plan was to try and dive the ridge again in search of critters, the
current had different plans and was just a little too strong for a night
dive. I had gone in search of other possible dives earlier and new another
spot, I gave a brief overview of this area, dropped the first group in from
the tender and went back to make sure the other group knew the plan. This
turned out to be an excellent night dive, with a lot epaulette sharks, I
counted 4 in all. There was an overhanging area of reef from 16 to 20m then
what looked like more below, all packed with colourful soft corals and other
colourful invertebrates, here we found tiny cuttlefish and a few tiny juvenile
reef squid, there were few colourful sea slugs and then in the shallows
we came across a school of pipefish, there must have been about 8-10 of
them all close together near a pair of large coral bommies. Everyone enjoyed
the dive so much they agreed we should dive it as a day dive to see what
else we could see here...
Day 5. Another day in the Patinti straits in search of
more possible dive sites. Kusu island in the middle of the straits looked
like it should be good for big fish and hopefully good reef too. The current
was running so first up was find an area of the island that wouldn't be
too dangerous. I had a quick look at a few spots and found a spot that was
free of current, or at least when I had checked it. When we got in the current
had changed and we had to fight a little against the current, the reef here
was full of blooming orange soft corals packed with anthias. I am not too
much interested in fighting against currents, even mild ones for too long
so I managed to find everyone and signal to each of them that we should
go with current. As we did we passed plenty of large, soft coral covered
bommies, then as the current really picked up we crossed a sloping reef
with beds of soft corals, in places all different colours and different
species too, just here we started to see a few bigger fish, black tip sharks,
giant bumphead parrotfish and large tuna. The current now really started
to take us fast across the the reef slope, I looked around concerned that
the group would be to far off reef in case of up or down currents, though
shortly after looking the current came to a quick stop and were in a back
eddy. Eventually everyone ended up in this spot, here we could see a black
tip sharks that looked like they were territorial to this area, a huge school
of big eye jacks came in a few times to check us out and there were plenty
of other large fish in this area too.
I wanted to check this island out for more possible dives, sadly the majority
of the island was totally destroyed from fish bombing and it seemed we had
dived the best of it already! Though what we did find was a submerged reef
in the middle of the strait here, the current was really running strong
here when I had checked and I drifted over the reef seeing over 6 different
sharks as I went. We would need to wait a while for our surface interval
and to fill tanks by this time the current should have stopped to slack
tide. The current did indeed stop though by the time the tanks were full
the current had picked up again. Everyone in the group was OK with a current
dive to see more big fish and sharks, many deciding to leave their camera's
out for this. I chose to drop in up current and see how it was, when I had
checked I noticed an area that looked very good with coral bommies and this
is where I was hoping to head, by the time everyone was down we had drifted
past and were on the side of the reef all holding on or hiding behind bommies
in the current. After a short while with not much big fish action I signaled
to let go and go with the flow, we did and once more drifted over very low
growth corals, obviously short due to the strong currents here. The current
eventually subsided as we came to a gradually halt in amongst great coral
gardens with sea fans, whips and allsorts of wonderful coral compositions.
Amongst all this were a few reef sharks, black and white tips both cruising
around in this region. The reefs scenery and fish life throughout this area
was superb, only a small area of the reef top had been impacted, it could
have been by local boats anchoring. One boat was above us as we finished,
I surfaced and held onto their rope for a quick chat, they were waiting
for the current to stop so they could go in search of lobster, sea cucumbers
or anything else they could find to sell.
Back on the boat a few people asked what the local boat was doing I mentioned
they were catching lobster. Mie Khie wanted to buy some lobster so we headed
over with some cash and bought all their lobster. They had caught a turtle,
it looked dead and had been upside down on their boat in the sun for a very
long time. The fishermen said it was still alive and as they held it up
it showed it did indeed still have a good fight left in it, they agreed
to let it go for Rp.30,000 about 3US$ and did immediately when we said we
would give them the cash. Later that evening the cook made a feast of spicy
lobster for us!
We headed back to the safe anchorage and made the night dive again, we called
it Proco Proco. Here we saw those overhangs in daylight, great coral life
and this time we went a little deeper and found bargibants pigmy sea horse
and a few sea slugs.
I wanted to see what Halmahera island had to offer and headed east. On the
way stopping to check out more small islands, the one I checked was yet
another pristine reef though no good for our planned night dive as the current
was too strong here, on a slack tide or with current in the opposite direction
I'm sure this would be a great day dive. Looking over at the lay of the
land on Halmahera I asked the skipper to steer us towards one the small
bays. As we slowly entered we could see hornbills and lorikeets and other
tropical bird life flying above the dense canopy of forest here. Back in
the tender boat to check out this bay, most of which had been bombed. In
one area there was a holding pen for live fish. The owner came over in his
boat, I thought he may not be too welcoming, though I could not have been
further from this, he was very friendly and even allowed us to dive beneath
it if we wished, there looked to be an interesting rubble slope with urchins
and algae beneath. I continued to check the bay and eventually found what
I looking for, a black sand area with forest debris. We entered here and
instantly dropped to 10m to a golden coloured ghost pipefish, there were
many different crustaceans living in different species of anemones and sea
pens, a small halimeda crab was trying its best to blend in amongst the
algae it mimics so well, a cool starry night octopus, small cuttlefish,
bobtail squid and a few sea slugs. This dive was big hit with everyone!
Day 6. We headed towards Tolimago, this looked on the
sea charts to be an island with steep reef or even walls all round... not
so, mild sloping reefs, with strong current and not so many fish, I simply
said, "sorry folks it's not good enough for you". I didn't want
dives to go down hill after such great dives already. In search of a sea
mount that should come up to 8m, sure enough it came up on the depth sounder,
we could see it beneath us and I instantly marked it on my GPS to make it
easy to find again. Dropping in with snorkel I found what I though was the
best spot for entry and marked it with a marker buoy so we could all drop
in together from the Ciska. As soon as the skipper manouvered us into the
right place we all entered and headed straight down to the reef below, soon
we were all together and swimming into a mild current (now I know where
we should have dropped in) along a pristine coral filled reef slope, the
reef crest above us was packed with fish, while off reef the odd big tuna
and wahoo cruising by. Two different reef spurs jutted out from the main
sea mount, both packed with colourful soft corals. We came to the end of
the sea mount and drifted back nearer the reef crest, the view all round
here had me wishing there was someone who could capture the scenery here
with a good wide angle set up... next time!
Next up we headed towards a group of 3 small islands, again on the sea charts
this area looked as if it should be great diving. The reef here was indeed
very good with not much impact at all, though fairly minimal fish life.
We decided to go looking for some small critters, we managed to find a few
colourful nudibranchs, a blue ribbon eel, orangutan crabs and best of all
a huge giant clam as big as any I've ever seen!
There was a very interesting looking area where two islands split, sadly
we checked this out and most it had been bombed to smithereens with not
much coral left at all. Surprisingly enough there were still quite a few
fish in the areas with small coral outcrops that remained. The channel itself
makes for a great scenic tour with a small village of friendly people waving
as we turned back from where we had entered. In the mouth of the bay I checked
a small islet that looked like it could be OK, sure enough this had been
left alone with no damage what so ever, it looked fairly interesting as
it packed with different whip corals. There was current so once briefed
we all entered to see how it looked a little deeper, the whole reef was
packed with just about every species of whip coral and whip bushes, lots
of large sea fans and lots of other corals lined the reef slope here, fish
life was minimal though the scenery made up for this!
This was to be the groups last dive as we had found out that yet another
flight had been cancelled, this time Pelita who are usually the best and
most reliable! Our office had tried all other airlines and they all said
they were full already. Once in port Dwi headed straight to the office and
gave the staff hell till they eventually made a few calls and had all the
group booked onto another flight with Merpati. It worked out that Pelita
came good in the end! I have different systems when I take my own group
charters to ensure this does not happen!
First trip conclusion
I personally thought the diving we saw was way better than I ever could
have expected. I have to admit I expected to see more critters here especially
with it being all volcanic, though with the great reef dives and excellent
fish life it was hard to stop and search for small stuff. I really wanted/needed
to see the reefs so I could understand how to dive again!
The whole group agreed it was some of the best diving they had seen in Indonesia
and the majority had dived a lot around Indonesia, they were after all locals
or expat's. One well travelled expat' diver, Dave Van Rooy told us all about
his past experiences on exploratory trips, telling everyone that this was
the best he had ever been on, all his other exploratory trips had been very
average in comparison. For sure I will be back here for more...
Interested? Click here to inquire about our next trip to Halmahera!
In between trips
During our stay between trips Derek and I decided to make a few more dives
locally to see a little more. Derek had dived a few spots prior to my arrival
which he said were average with patchy impacted areas. I picked out 2 very
different spots, the first an area that looked like it would be facing a
current, sure enough the reef here was interesting enough. A wall dropped
to 35-40m with large crevices and spurs that jutted out, on one of these
spurs at 35m I saw a giant frogfish, then a very rare and unusual winged
or whiskered pipefish hiding amongst the halimeda algae, there was a few
nudibranchs and an are with lots of glassy sweepers, sure enough looking
in amongst the small fish there was a white leaf scorpion fish. The reef
top here was patchy, in areas very good with lots of damsels and sergeant
majors schooling around with a few areas of rubble patches. We were not
too well equipped but decided to make the second dive on our half full tanks
instead of going all the way back to change tanks, it was just a quick check
to see if would be good enough for more future dives. Next up was a black
sand bay. Checking a few areas to see how the bay looked in the shallows
I chose the muckiest area with the least reef nearby and plenty of sea grass.
We dropped down to the deepest area at 26m and a black sand bottom, here
there were plenty of anemones, a few with porcelain crabs and shrimps, there
were a few lionfish, one with huge bulging parasites above both eye's making
it look very bizarre. In the shallows I noticed a little lump popping up
in the sand, it moved, yeah it was a mimic, I tried to lure it out, it spread
its legs out checking out what was happening nearby its hole but eventually
retreated not to be seen again! This was enough to make me want to go back
again some time, it would for sure make a great night dive site!
Next day we had time for two more dives, this time we headed out with two
full tanks, and went as far as we could in the tender without pushing the
limits. This time the north eastern corner of Tidore island. I didn't even
bother to jump in and check. Dropping in we headed down to a group of small
sea mounts with excellent coral growth, we headed into a mild current past
soft coral slopes till we hit a wall covered in soft corals, then a sand
slope with soft corals then to a large reef spur with more good coral life.
We headed back over the reef where had we come from to see how the shallows
looked, at 10m the reef here was in very good condition, good variety of
corals though minimal fish life. The area where we had started was fairly
impacted in the shallows though from about 5m to 10m below and above this
the reef still looked good!
The next spot was on the north of Tidore to see what it looked like here,
the reef top was very patchy with great areas and then a few bombed patches.
The reef sloped down to 30m with the odd huge soft coral, sea fans, lots
of sponges and a few coral bommies in between, this looked like a good spot
for the next group and their research work.
A day of rest, Dwi, Derek and I took a car for the afternoon and drove around
the island to see a few of the sights here, a very picturesque island with
volcanic lava flows, deep volcanic caldera's, black sand beaches that have
been made recreational areas for the locals to go bathing, snorkeling and
general relaxing. During the drive we passed many different plantations
of banana, cloves, nutmeg and other tropical fruits and spices. The road
around the island is very smooth in comparison to many roads in Indonesia!
That critter site! - I managed to dive the black sand
mucky looking with the next group and hey, it’s one hell of a night
dive, saw a few different bottle tail squids, something not meant to be
found in Indonesia and many other cool and exotic critters, this makes me
wanna go back all the more now!
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