The Hippocampus Pontohi has been classified as a new spieces of seahorse after being discovered in 2003 by Hence Pontoh, dive guide in the Bunaken Marine Park. Today, this little critters just 1 cm in size, is often found attached to hydroids and often can be seen in pairs. The color variation range from white and yellow to dark brown.

In the pictures above you can see its big round belly as it is pregnant. I really wonder if its babies can reach a couple of mm in size. :-) 

It is not so easy to take pictures of this animal as the size is very small and often is in movement. 105mm lens is reccomended. This picture was taken with my Nikon D80 with a 60mm lens.

I really appreciate how my diveguides patiently every time while diving look for it.  Today, it si quite common to find this Hippocampus and you can make sure that you will be able to see at least one of them during your holiday here at our resort with us.

Then the usual "shark mistaking diver for a seal" story (Jan 2007): Diver Saved from jaws of a shark

Apparently scuba divers dressed in their black suits look like seals. This one got lucky as after one taste, the shark spat him out...

The occasional crocodile Dundee fan might also try his hand at wrestling a shark like this guy who had had a couple of vodkas when he went for the shark (Feb 2007). At least the story ended well for Phil but not so well for the shark who ended in the frying pan.
Shark-wrestling Phil's 'crazy': wife

Thirty years after the movie thriller "The Spy Who Loved Me" hit the silver screen, 'sQuba' is the first car that can actually fly under water. The Rinspeed sQuba will have it's world debut at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show

( http://al13lea.wordpress.com/2007/12/25 )

What a great morning for our new guests arrived yesterday to our resort .

The dive took place in Tanjung Parigi in the nearby island of Bunaken. Around 9:00 o'clock, Thomas, Sandra, Katja and Hella were gearing up ready to have their morning dive. Something for sure that was not in their minds was...... to be able to be playing with a whaleshark for about half hour. The whaleshark had a strong interested for the bubbles exhaled from the divers, probably thinking that it was food. Well, this magnificent fish was keeping coming back and it was so close that all divers had to swim away in order to do not touch it.

In bahasa Indonesia they call the whaleshark: hiu bintang. It is a very lovely name that means the shark with the stars, in fact the white spots on its back resemble the stars :-) .

Dear Sandra, thank you very much for this beautiful picture. 

An other great day in the Bunaken Marine Park!!!!!

January and February are supposed to be the wettest month in the North Sulawesi. However, The Bunaken Marine Park has a different weather pattern than the Mainland of the Sulawesi. In fact ,as the islands are mostly flat, there is  less evaporation therefore less clouds are able to be formed. In the picture you can see that the most of clouds are in the left, where the mainland is.

Today in the afternoon I will go to have a nice dive ;-) !!!

Parman, 26 years old (Left) and Noldy, 24 years old (right), are two of my dive guides in Siladen Resort&Spa. Their specialty is finding small seahorse (hippocampus pontohi), sometime as small as just 0.5mm ( 0.15inch). I truly respect their dedication in finding such as small critters, as since I have been here I could just spot 5 of these little seahorse.

They both come from the nearby village in Siladen Island and they both have logged more than 1500 dives with Parman being the most experience of all my dive guides having logged more than 3000 dives.

Beside being very good in conducting the dives, They are very funny and friendly guys. It's a pleasure being able to work with such a lovely peoples!!!

Not far from Siladen Island along the coast of the mainland of North Sulawesi, there is a great dive site where we can see many Mandarinefish. The best time to be there is just before sunset as all the mandarinefish will start to mate. Like this couple that came up in front of my camera's lens.

I have heard that in other places of the world the mandarinefish have a mating season, like in the islands of Okinawa (Japan) where they mate for just few month during the year. Probably given by the optimal conditions, in the Bunaken Marine Park mandarinefish mate almost everyday!!!

Observing their behavior I personally find them very funny :-)

THIS GROUPER IS ACCOMPANIED BY PILOTFISH, THEY SWIM ALONG WITH HIM, WHEREVER HE GOES. THE GROUPER BENEFITS FROM THEM, AS THE EAT PARASITES THAT TRY TO LIVE ON THE GROUPER.  THE PILOTFISH WILL NOT BE EATEN BY THE GROUPER, AS HE KNOWS THAT HE BENEFITS FROM THEM. PILOTFISH ALSO ACCOMPANY OTHER BIG FISH LIKE SHARKS. THE BIG FISH ALSO VISIT CLEANINGSTATIONS IN ORDER TO GET RID  OF PARASITES, AND TO GET CLEANED AFTHER THEY HAVE BEEN BITTEN, OR WOUNDED IN ANY OTHER WAY. THE CLEANINGFISH WILL CLEAN THE WOUNDS, SO IT WILL NOT BE INFECTED THESE CLEANINGFISH LIVE OF THE BITS AND PIECES OF SKIN AND PARASITES THAT THEY TAKE OF THE BIGGER FISH.

This picture was taken in egypt, Hurghada, and the grouper was approx.

80-100cm big (33-41 inch.).

These stingrays are very common in the sangalakki area in Indonesia, but are also very mutch seen in the red sea. The kind that lives in the red sea has less spots, but otherwise they are very simular. It's very interesting to watch them hunt for food in the sand, wherever they are stirring up the sand in search for food, it looks like a local sandstorm. If you are patient, and carefull, they allow you sometimes to come up very close to them, as you can see in this picture, but if you are with a group of divers, it's hardly impossible to shoot this kind of pictures. The stingray is a smaller relative from the big manta's. The most common size you see them is about 40 cm (approx. 17 inches) in diameter. Although they can sting you with the tail, they rarely hurt people, and if, they only do that if they feel cornered or threatened. They mainly live in the area of coral reefs.

If you have never heard of naked scubadiving then you may be a little surprised to learn that there are actually several clubs available that support and makes this exciting way to scuba dive available to anyone that wants to give it a try. Nude scuba diving is described as being extremely exhilarating and it is an experience that you will not soon forget. The water is said to caress your body naturally and can add more thrill to your life than you thought possible. It is great for couples that are looking for a way to enhance their sexual relationship and add more pleasure to their lives.

Nude scuba diving does have some other advantages over regular scuba diving that may not be obvious. For instance, because you are not protected by a wetsuit most divers tend to be more cautious and observant. This can help you become a better diver in the long run. If you are not very observant then your wonderful adventure may turn into an adventure that you would soon like to forget. There are also small creatures found in the ocean that can attach to your clothing. Without clothes you don't have to worry about these. However, you do need to take other precautions to stay safe.

All activities have a few drawbacks and naked scubadiving is no exception. It is very important that you know what to expect and how to take care of yourself. The best way to do this is by enlisting the help of a reputable company with trained professionals that can help teach you the ropes. You can find many of them online, just make sure that you do your research and check them out before choosing one. Remember that it is imperative that you know the location in which you plan to dive. After all, many locations are full of hungry aggressive fish just waiting for something to feed on.