Rhinopias are some of the rarest and at the same time most beautiful creatures to find here in the Lembeh Strait. And that’s also the reason why we are proud to say that our dive guide Oksin found one for the first time in two months now!
The majority of our guests are not only divers but also photographers. Therefore, it is a big plus if you can provide dive guides with a photography background. We have several camera setups for rental, available for our guides whenever they want to go fun diving. In order to give them an incentive to improve their photo skills, we organized a little dive guide photo competition with some great prices!
The life cycle of fishes and other marine organisms is extremely complex and one blog entry is surely not enough to elaborate this topic. But regardless of the season and dive sites, we can usually see several marine species and their eggs whilst diving in Lembeh. Normally, marine organisms produce large amounts of small eggs that hatch quickly. This produces large populations and therefore a greater chance for species survival.
The spectacular critters and diving is what brings most people to the muck capital Lembeh. Often overlooked is the fact that the highlands of North Sulawesi are rich in culture and art. Whenever you need a break from diving or if you are just curious to learn something about the heritages of North Sulawesi, I’d highly recommend to go on a day trip with us.
In most of the cases you would probably hit the delete button straight away, when you check your pictures and see a blurry image. The main objective of photography is usually to have a clear and crisp subject in focus. However, when used right, a bit of a blur can be quite interesting and give your image a sense of motion.
Although most people come to Lembeh for the tiny critters and muck diving on black sand – I can’t stay away from shooting wide angle every now and again. Especially right now that the visibility is suitable for it and perfect subjects like Wonderpus, Mimic Octopus or big Hairy Frogfish keep turning up on a regular basis.
Our guests Johan and Bets from the Netherlands have visited Lembeh in 2010 already. Compared to a few years ago, they enjoyed diving in the Strait now even more: less trash, more critters, better corals. A big thank you to Johan for some beautiful underwater pictures which he was happy to share with us in our guest gallery.
Some of our dive guides and I took advantage of a free afternoon to go on a photographic mission on our house reef and wreck. Although all of our guides are pretty good in handling cameras and taking pictures already, there is always room for improvement.
Every six months, all our dive guides and boat crew get a quick refresher course of the most important EFR skills. Regular training ensures that everyone knows what to do in case of an emergency – but hopefully we will never need those skills in real life.
CPR, Oxygen Administration, First Aid for hazardous marine life injuries or serious bleeding management, it all sounds totally boring. Why not make the EFR staff training fun instead?
Divers usually get to the point where, after hunting all kinds of different critters, they pick their personal “obsession”. Whether these are Cephalopods, Crustaceans, Gobies, Nudibranchs or Frogfishes – so my weak spot have always been Seahorses. Here in Lembeh, we can find up to six different species on one dive!