King of Gossip, King of Jazz, King of Larike, but A Village Boy at Heart

Other than the dive guides, probably the most remembered among Maluku Divers’ staff is Hafes Lausepa. Most guests know Hafes as the warm and charming Restaurant Manager at our restaurant who regularly serenades to them at dinner. Unbeknownst to many guests initially, Hafes is also a king. The word “Maluku” or “Moluccas” (old name of Maluku) has Arabic origin, Jazirat-al-Muluk, meaning “The Land of Many Kings”. Almost every village in Maluku has a king. Years ago, Hafes’ father gave up his kingship to set up a garment factory in Jakarta. After his father passed away, Hafes returned to his birthplace, Ambon, but it was not his original intention to assume kingship in his village, Larike (pronounced as la-ree-kay) in the year 2016; he had wanted to get away from the isolation and impersonality of city life and relive the charm of village life in his childhood. In 2009, when he married his wife, Elfa, he decided to make his home in her village, Laha, which, coincidentally, is where Maluku Divers relocated to in the same year. At that time, Laha was a quiet village that people pass through briefly to get to and from the airport. Employment was scarce and mainly limited to the airport industry. So when Hafes heard about a new resort in the village, he wasted no time in applying for a job with us. However, when Hafes was first recruited into MD, he was actually primed to be groomed into a dive guide because of his proficiency in English. Two years later, we can’t help but think what a waste of his many talents it would have been if he had become a dive guide—this is not to say that dive guides are less talented; in fact, dive guiding is only for a selected few—but just think of all that we would be missing out on if Hafes’ mouth were kept shut with a regulator!

The team at Maluku Divers jokingly refer to Hafes as “Raja Gossip” (meaning “King of Gossip”). If something out of the norm occurs in the village or at the resort, you would be sure to hear it from Hafes, and you would want to hear it from him, because no one tells it like Hafes. Like a stand-up comedian, he would be on his feet with his arms waving wildly in animation, his eyes wide with mischief, and voice breaking occasionally when he was equally tickled by the story he was telling. The audience – staff and guests – watch with a grin and more than a tinge of incredulity, ready to break out in laughter. Hafes’ presence as part of the Maluku Divers Team has indeed livened up the days of guests and staff alike.

Other than his comic eloquence, Hafes is also remembered for his renditions of classic jazz numbers by, among others, Michael Bublé, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong Although he had boasted about his past career as a singer in a band surrounded by old men at least twice his age performing in Jakarta, Ambon, and Ceram, and about having reached the top 10 in Ambon, top 50 in Indonesia, of the Indonesian Idol in 2008, we had taken it with a pinch of salt until we kept running into his ex-band members and strangers who recognized him from his gigs all over Ambon, who often sang praises of his vocal talent. No one sings like Hafes, at least in Ambon. His choice of musical genre also sets him apart from other local performers. Why would someone with a promising career in the entertainment industry give it up for a service job in a remote part of Ambon?

Family, he says. Hafes has a beautiful wife and two lovely daughters to support, and performing did not offer the financial stability he needed for his family. And although jazz has an established following in the Western world, in east Indonesia, people still prefer to listen to local music. So it was with a twist of fate that Hafes found a job at Maluku Divers where he can continue to pursue his passion in performing, and still provide a stable financial future for his family.

It was also owing to Hafes that his village, Larike, is now the most frequented tourist attraction by our guests—for its freshwater eels. Most people had only heard about the relatively few domesticated freshwater eels in Waai village in travel guide books. It was only when Hafes started bringing guests at Maluku Divers to the village of Larike, that ‘visiting eels’ took on a totally different perspective. Numbering more than twenty at any time, the eels of Larike live at the mouth of the river, and would slither up the shallow river alongside the village when they smell the fish that the villagers wash in the river. The villagers live in harmony with the eels, handling them like ‘pets’, because they wash, bath, do their laundry and play in the same river. Guests from Maluku Divers who have made the tour at Larike never fail to be amazed by the encounter. And how often do you get to have a King take you on a tour of his village?

So, come dive with us at Maluku Divers and remember to reserve a royal tour with King Hafes on your off-gassing day.

Octopus Bonanza in Ambon Bay!

The Octopus is one of the most highly intelligent invertebrates in the marine world. One, bred in a German aquarium, even ‘predicted’ the winner of each of Germany’s national football team’s seven matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the outcome of the final game by its feeding behaviour. Now, we don’t know how true that is, (and surely truly intelligent life would have chosen to predict the chances of the dire English National team) but we do know that they are a hearty treat for divers’ souls and Ambon Bay has many varieties of octopuses to offer.

High on our divers’ lengthy wish lists, in the octopus department, are the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) and the wunderpus octopus (Wunderpus photogenicus), which, because of similarities in appearance, are often confused for each other.

Mimic Octopus (Thaumoctopus Mimicus) Joachim Rebell

Wunderpus Octopus (Wunderpus photogenicus) Joachim Rebell

Both are found in Indonesian waters near sandy bottoms of river mouths—which Ambon Bay has in abundance—and both octopuses flash contrasting colours when threatened; but the mimic octopus has less defined patches on its body compared to the wunderpus octopus, the outer rims of the mimic’s arms are outlined in white while the wunderpus’ has no such rims, and the mimic’s war colours are darker than the wunderpus’ orange-brown. Behaviour-wise, mimic octopuses tend to be more shy and more cryptic than wunderpus, which explains the less frequent encounters with mimics. While divers at Maluku Divers could be lucky enough to spot a wunderpus during almost every dive within the Ambon Bay, there is just one dive site we call “Mimic Point”. You’ll find out for yourself why when you visit the location and see the experienced MD  dive guides in action.

Even more elusive than the mimic octopus is the yet-to-be described hairy octopus (octopus sp. 1,), although they are now regularly sighted in Ambon Bay. Considered a highly-prized find, our guides at Maluku Divers seem to have a knack for hunting them, they have been spotted on a weekly basis this season in all the frequently dived sites.. With arm sizes extending to only 8 cm, hairy octopus live in sandy rubble, are mobile, and are so named because they morph hairs on their bodies only when threatened.

Hairy Octopus (octopus sp. 1,) Joachim Rebell

We could go all-day-long talking about the different varieties of octopus we find in Ambon Bay. But a picture says a thousand words. Below are some images of the most sought-after octopus taken here by our happy guests during their stay with us. So it you’re a cephalopod addict or you just enjoy the weird and wunderful, isn’t it about time you come to Maluku Divers to see what all the fuss is about?:

Blue-ringed Octopus (Hapalochlaena sp) Matt Oldfield

Mototi Octopus (Amphioctopus Mototi) Joachim Rebell

Coconut Octopus (Amphioctopus Marginatus) Marcel Hagendijk

Equator Diving – Ambon Trip Report

Continuing our theme of letting other people spread the word about Maluku Divers and the dive experiences we offer, here’s an update from the team at Equator Diving in the UK, who visited our resort earlier this season.

Over five weeks in late 2011 the Equator Diving team visited some amazing dive locations in both Indonesia and East Timor. First on the list was Ambon, where our hosts were Maluku Divers Resort. As a dive travel agent we specialise in the world’s hottest underwater photography destinations and having heard great reports we were super excited to finally be in Ambon. Instantly we were amazed by the diversity and sheer numbers of critters we were encountering on each dive – it was adrenaline critter diving, and some of the critters appeared to have been on steroids!

You could easily dive Ambon for a month without tiring, there is just so much diversity. One of our most memorable dives involved three giant frogfish free-swimming from diver to diver and at one point being perched on the camera housing of my very startled dive buddy. Without a doubt Ambon has some of the best muck diving in the world, and it is all right in front of Maluku Divers Resort! Here’s a list of what we saw during our stay – countless Ornate, Robust and Velvet Ghost pipefish, Bumble Bee shrimps, Leaf Scorpionfish, an array of Crabs and Shrimps (including Zebra crabs, Emperor shrimps, Coleman shrimps, Hinge-back shrimps, Boxer shrimps, Cleaner shrimps and Anemone shrimps), Paddle-flap and Lacy Rhinopias, Giant free-swimming frogfish, Juvenile Clown frogfish, Ambon Scorpionfish, Mimic Octopus, Ribbon eels, Napoleon Snake eels, Mandarin fish, Banded pipefish (everywhere), at least 6 types of Moray eel, Coral Cat Sharks, Thorny seahorse, Pygmy seahorse, baby cuttlefish, a giant Mantis Shrimp that looked like it could have taken my hand off….and many more….the only thing we didn’t see was the infamous psychedelic Frogfish, Histiophryne Psychedelica – we’ll be back for him next time!

 

The guides who work at Maluku Divers are the key to finding all of the amazing creatures. Many are career dive guides having learnt their skills in Lembeh and travelled all over Indonesia on various liveaboards. Our guide was Stonner and with his knowledge of where the different critters could be found we were kept busy photographing critter after critter.

During our stay we also had the chance to visit Ambon’s shipwreck. This wreck was recently identified, by Resort Manager Marcel Hagendijk, as the Duke of Sparta, a huge 137 metre length vessel, which was bombed by the Americans in operation Haik in 1958. This clandestine operation is still denied by the CIA, but its apparent aim was to prevent Indonesia becoming a communist country. We really enjoyed the wreck and did two dives where we found giant jellyfish, pufferfish, morays and with a little penetration were able to easily explore the insides of the wreck.

On our last day we had a non-diving day and decided to go to Larike village where the river contains giant eels! We were escorted there by the soon to be village king, Hafes, who is also a Maluku Diver employee and former competitor in Indonesian Idol (he reached the last 30)! This was a really unique experience and with a little effort you can get some nice split shots of the eels.

The diving in Ambon is of course the highlight of any trip to Maluku Divers but a close second has to be the food. The resort serves both lunch and dinner as three course meals and normally has a BBQ one day of the week – you will never go hungry and the food is excellent. The resort also has a great camera room which is a real plus for photographers! In our eyes Maluku Divers Resort is a shining example of everything a dive resort should be.

We have already arranged for a lot of photographers to visit Maluku Divers, including some big photography groups. Everyone returns happy and we have no doubt that many more will follow. Personally, we will be back to Maluku Divers this coming July and we can’t wait! Thanks to Marcel, Hafes, Stoner and the rest of the Maluku Divers team for your amazing hospitality!

Text and images by Ben & Bonnie Jackson from Equator Diving www.equatordiving.com/ambon_trip.html

Howard Hall’s Report; Diving Ambon with Maluku Divers

As we reported in our last update, we were very happy to host some well known photographers at the resort in February, what better way to see what they thought than publishing their own experiences and images…

On February 6 Michele and I made our last dive aboard Seven Seas in Raja Ampat.  Early the next morning we flew from Sorong to Ambon where Resort Manager, Marcel Hagendijk, met us at the airport.  We painlessly loaded our gear aboard Marcel’s van and arrived at Maluku Divers Resort in time for breakfast and an afternoon dive. Among the Seven Seas passengers who followed us to Makulu Divers were old friends, Douglas Seifert and Emily Irving, and John and Karen Ellerbrock, owners of Gates Underwater.  Norbert Wu had arrived in Ambon a couple days earlier and was already logging dive time in the famous Ambon muck.

Diving in Ambon was completely different than diving in Raja, but it was no less interesting.  The diversity of strange marine creatures in Ambon Bay is legendary and we were certainly not disappointed.  On our first dive our guides took us to see a pair of beautiful purple Rhinopias.  One of these was perched next to an identically colored soft coral.  Lying in the rubble, twenty feet up the slope, was the largest sea krait I have ever seen.  He was easily twice the size of any I had seen before.  I couldn’t decide which way to point my camera. I decided to spend my time with the sea snake while others in our little group photographed the scorpionfish.  The next day I asked to go back to the site so I could grab some images of the Rhinopias.  They were still there and easily found by our Maluku guides, Nus, Samuel, and Soleman.  Amazingly, the sea krait was still there as well. 

Michele and I photographed pygmy seahorses while in Raja, but I had much better luck in Ambon.  This was mostly due to increased experience on my part.  Capturing motion pictures of a critter about the size of a bluebottle fly with a digital cinema camera like the RED is more than a bit difficult.  Each time I tried, I got better at it.  In Ambon I finally got some shots in focus.  Putting a 60mm lens on specifically for pygmy seahorses took a bit of discipline though.  Most of my shooting in Ambon was with a medium-wide zoom (Nikon 16-85mm).  When I had the 60mm on, I had to swim past dozens of interesting subjects better suited for the zoom.  These included wonderpus, large stonefish, frogfish, and a half-dozen different flavors of Rhinopias.  Fortunately, we made about 24 dives with Maluku Divers and I could avoid the frustration of bad lens decisions by simply asking to go back to previously visited dive sites.  Our Maluku guides never had trouble finding the subjects we were looking for.

 

 

Ambon Bay is a special place.  Most of the dive sites are unstable rubble slopes with coral outcroppings that plunge quickly into deep water.  The bay is an astounding 3,000 feet deep.  A few years ago, The Maluku Divers Team discovered a new species of frogfish in the Bay – the Ambon Frogfish.  The discovery made international news.  But the frogfish hasn’t been seen in recent months.  I suspect that after spawning, it just wandered back down into the depths of Ambon Bay to join hundreds of yet to be discovered denizens. 

 

Marcel is beginning to support technical diving at Maluku Divers.  When ichthyologists like Richard Pyle start making deep dives in Ambon Bay, I know they will find amazing things.  In the meantime, it was wonderful capturing images of the strange critters that live in the shallows or occasionally wander up from the abyss to pose for my camera.  Now I know why so many celebrated underwater photographers find diving Ambon Bay so exciting.

Text By Mr Howard Hall and Photographs by Miss Michele Hall

All-Star Diving at Maluku Divers

February 2012 saw the crew of Maluku Divers honoured by an all-star visit by eminent IMAX underwater cinematographers, Howard and Michele Hall, world renowned underwater photographers, Norbert Wu and Douglas Seifert and his wife Emily Iriving, and owners of Gates Underwater video housing, John and Karen Ellerbrock.

An introduction of the star-studded cast in the diving world has to start with the ‘Halls’ of Fame of course: Howard and Michele Hall are living, walking, diving legends of underwater cinematography. The larger-than-life husband-and-wife team are producers of the first underwater IMAX 3D film, Into The Deep (1994), followed by subsequent projects (Island of the Sharks, 1999; Coral Reef Adventure, 2004; Deep Sea 3D, 2006; Under the Sea 3D, 2009) that have been and are screened in IMAX theatres all over the world. Their films have bagged numerous international awards that pitch them on the ranks of Hollywood film makers. Between them, the Halls have earned seven Emmy Awards for their works, majority of which were about underwater wildlife.

Michele, looking petite at 5-feet tall next to the towering Howard, is not to be overshadowed by her other half in terms of her own achievements: she is a producer and an astute underwater photographer in her own right. At our first encounter with her in person, we could easily see how her girly charm, genuine warmth, and bright-eyed fascination about the underwater world could have inspired Peter Benchley to write The Girl of the Sea of Cortez.

Norbert Wu, a prolific writer, photographer and videographer of numerous books and films on marine environments and issues including Splendors of the Seas: The Photographs of Norbert Wu (1994), Diving the World: Photographs by Norbert Wu (2003), and the latest, Under Antarctic Ice (2004), has a reserved geeky countenance that belies a candid personality sprinkled with a generous helping of simple plain humour. He is also a recipient of multiple awards that cover scientific research on nature and photography.

Standing at an imposing 6 feet, Douglas Seifert oozes with Hollywood’s Most Desired Men charm in his demeanour. But unlike most of Hollywood’s Most Desired Men, he has an intelligence to match, and—underwater—the innocence of a child. He has been World Editor of Dive Magazine in the United Kingdom, and is an accomplished photographer and photo-journalist with umpteen insightful articles on marine creatures’ behaviour and numerous photographic awards under his belt. Like his many respected predecessors, Douglas puts his money where his mouth is: he is a director of Sharks Savers (www.sharksavers.org), an organization dedicated to ending the exploitation of sharks for their fins all over the world. While most of his photojournalistic works are about ocean giants—whales, sharks and manta rays—his childlike fascination with critters takes him and his lovely wife, Emily, to Indonesia’s best muck diving destinations a few times a year.

John and Karen Ellerbrock are the owners behind the Gates underwater housings, noted by professional and amateur videographers, marine researchers, film and TV producers worldwide to be the best housings ever. Their housings are virtually bullet-proof and ingeniously constructed to cater to the needs of their customers. The Gates housings that Howard Hall and John were using during their stay here weighed over 60 pounds to lug on land but cruised weightlessly underwater.

So it was with a little trepidation that Marcel, Li Li and the staff of Maluku Divers welcomed the distinguished guests to the resort on 7th February. But we soon found out, other than their colossal extra baggage (all camera and video equipment), there was little else that hinted of their star status. In fact, they were one of the most relaxed, jovial and friendly groups to have stepped foot at our rustic little resort in the quiet village of Laha, Ambon.

Like little children, they wasted no time in assembling their massive equipment and jumped right into the water on their first day of arrival. The marine life in Ambon bay equally matched our visitors’ star status. The star-studded cast in muck diving at Ambon bay (rhinopias, frogfish, pinnate batfish, wunderpus, etc.) greeted their Homo sapien counterparts with nonchalance while the latter’s excitement encountering these stunning critters was hardly muffled by their regulators underwater. But once they got out of the water, there were oohs and wows about what they’ve seen. As if spending 90 minutes underwater with SCUBA was not enough, they would snorkel and free-dive to shallow waters during their surface intervals. To the crew at Maluku Divers, it was like watching a pod of baby seals at play.

They had a wish list alright, like all our guests when they arrive at Maluku Divers. And our guides at Maluku Divers love to rise to the challenge. As the last days of their diving drew near, the star-guests checked off 99% of their wish list (sounds more like a shopping list, doesn’t it?), but the last item on their wish list remains: stargazers.

Stargazers are nocturnal fish. But since our guests prefer to spend their nights catching up with old time friends—each other and the bed—how about stargazers in the day, they asked. Norbert ‘s impression helped make sure our guides knew exactly what he was looking for!

Luckily the divers were not to be disappointed: our eagle-eyed dive guides, Semuel and Nus, found them not one, but five stargazers in the shallow waters of Ambon bay one morning, aided by our even more eagle-eyed boat crew, who helped to spot a few of the sand-dwelling stargazers from the boat! The find sent the pod frolicking underwater, apparent in this priceless shot of Norbert impersonating a stargazer next to the star itself!

What a stellar performance indeed!

Following the discovery of the stargazers by Semuel and Nus, our guides continue to find more stargazers within 20 metre proximity to the first ones. And we found that the stargazers in Ambon bay belong to 3 different species: white-margin (Uranoscopus sulpheurus), reticulate (Uranoscopus sp.) and whitespotted (Uranoscopus polli) stargazers! Below are some great pictures of the trio shared by one of our guests from nearby Singapore, Martin Sequerah:

So as the saying goes, ‘If you [ask us] for the stars, you might not quite get one, but you won’t end up with a handful of mud, either.’

Looking forward to seeing you all at Maluku Divers

Brief Encounters of a Strange Kind

Upon arrival at the Maluku Divers Resort, guests often ask to dive the “Twilight Zone”. The dive site, named by the King of Muck Diving, the late Larry Smith, sits between two jetties normally lined up with fishing boats docking after bringing in a few days’ catch. The light generated by the boats overhead enhances the suitability of the name, captured in this prize-winning shot by Resort Manager Mr Marcel Hagendijk. 

In the past seasons, the Twilight Zone has become a hotspot for mass critter congregation, making it our divers’ favourite muck site for both day and night dives. For those ‘young’ enough to have caught the American television series, “Twilight Zone”, in the late fifties and revival series in the early eighties, memories of the characters fading mysteriously into the dimming light send chills down their spines as they dive into the Twilight Zone in Ambon bay for the first time. They can almost hear the eerily lingering theme music and a deep voice saying, “You’ve just crossed over into… the Twilight Zone…” Looking at a few more of Marcel’s images, they’d be excused for thinking that…

Even for those who have already savoured the wonders of Ambon’s muck scene, occasionally, there may still be brief encounters of a strange kind. Bob and Jayne Bruner, Maluku Divers’ repeat, repeat, repeat guests, for instance, were stunned by a 3 metre hammerhead shark that whizzed past him in the shallow waters of Twilight Zone during the night dive on his 76th birthday this year. Li Li Tey, dive guide and instructor at Maluku Divers, was also taken aback when she sighted a 2.5 metre long bull shark there too.

When they occasionally break away from their critter tunnel vision to look out into the deep blue, MD dive guides and divers have witnessed schooling dolphins, eagle rays and mobula rays in Ambon bay. Perhaps such encounters with big ocean dwellers should probably not be all that surprising, considering that Ambon bay is 563 metres deep and 8 kilometres wide.

Another encounter occured last week, when Marcel caught sight of a two metre mola mola swimming up behind one of our dive guides. Marcel only managed to muster a murmur into his regulator before the mola mola pulled up short and swam away, but luckily (or as Marcel would put it, with considerable photographer’s skill) he managed remove his assortment of diopters in time to snap a picture of the surreal ocean giant for the sceptics.

This “sub-standard” (not quite his words) Hagendijk shot was only handed over to us under duress, so give Marcel some credit!

So, to quote from the famous series, when you come to Ambon, “You’re travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”

See you on the other side…

Acknowledgement: We would like to thank Bob Bruner for giving this article its title!

Stonner’s Pet Shrimps

The youngest member of Maluku Divers’ dive guide team has beautiful, dreamy eyes laced with lush eyelashes adorned on a boyish face that would melt any girl’s heart. But his charm is not limited to young girls; his quiet, humble demeanour finds its way into the hearts of our divers too.

But to attribute his popularity among our guests at Maluku Divers to his good looks would be to underestimate his prowess in critter-hunting. In the last 10 days during Bob and Jayne Bruner’s umpteenth stay at Maluku Divers, Stonner held the highest record of bagging tiger shrimps, bumble bee shrimps, hairy shrimps and elusive boxer crabs—all high on muck lovers’ wish list. His success rate was so high that Bob and Jayne said they had to exercise more than a little self-restraint not to appear too excited after their dives so that “we can keep Stonner as our guide.”

Most divers arrive at Maluku Divers with a wish list of critters , but as Bob and Jayne have visited so many times, it’s often a challenge to find something new on each occasion and frequently fish and critter ID books are used in the search for new and interesting subjects. During one such browsing session, Stonner saw Jayne’s interest in tiger shrimps, and, using just the habitat as a guide, found two specimens on the very next dive. These critters are pretty small, and with the usual generous helping of humour, Bob revealed “Stonner has dug out some wonderful creatures for Jayne that they both have enjoyed seeing after editing.”

Stonner (yes, this is the name given by his father) Dolongseda was born on the island of Sangihe in north Sulawesi 25 years ago. Shortly after his family moved to Lembeh where Stonner eventually found employment as a boat crew in Thalassa Dive Center in Manado at 19 years old. Since then, he has guided muck divers to many of the region’s best muck sites, such as Lembeh Straits, Togian islands, North Maluku, and now, Ambon.

First here as a temporary replacement in October 2010, Stonner showed himself to possess keen eyes for the smallest critters and good interpersonal skills. As Maluku Divers was looking to boost its dive team in anticipation of more divers discovering about Ambon after its opening in Laha in 2009, Stonner was readily recruited. Although he is the youngest among the four dive guides in the team, it didn’t take him long to prove himself to be a good teamworker and to be accepted by his seniors. Other than English, Stonner is also adept at speaking Italian, and so he is always the dive guide of choice for our Italian guests, such as Marco and Donatella Boncompagni, who were full of praise for Stonner during their stay here in May last year.

Jayne is happy to share the photos taken last week of the three ‘holy grails’ of muck diving that Stonner found for her in Ambon bay. Enjoy the pictures, and be sure to book your next muck dive trip to Ambon, and don’t forget to request a dive with the dreamy eyed critter hunter, Mr Stonner!

Rudy’s Randalli (Sylvia and Tom’s too!)

As many people will tell you, the Twilight Zone on the slopes of Laha Ambon are pretty much full of frogfish. Not only do we have our very own species, the Maluku Frogfish, (Histiophryne psychedelica) which our team discovered in 2008,  we have a huge array of other species ranging through clown, painted, striatus, hairy, giant frogfish to tiny, huge, fat, thin, lazy varieties. if you’re interested in seeing more, we have a dedicated residents page showing many of the individuals you’ll find here in Ambon, but of course we’re always looking for more. (click here to see our frogfish gallery)

As a rule, if you can think of a species of frogfish, we probably have it in Ambon.  Often, they’re hanging around in groups, and as a result there are times when we can see multiple specimens on one dive. The resort record is 17 individual frogfish on one dive, but maybe with all of our dedicated dive team on the case, we can go for a record breaking dive!

Two Hairy Dudes, Marcel Hagendijk

Rather than us telling you all about our frogfish and how our experienced guides will go to any length to help you to find them, let’s have someone else take the stage today.  Here’s a report from one of our repeat guests, Mr Rudy Hayat, who had a great froggie experience on his most recent visit to Maluku Divers in September 2011;

Antennarius Randalli (Randall’s Frogfish) and its little family touring in Ambon bay :

I have forgotten my mask at the resort and thought i could not go for the diving. I was already mad because I just came for the week end. But Stoner, one of the dive master, has been  kind enough to lend me his mask.

Hence, i have been able to dive on this Saturday 17 September morning and thanks to Stoner i had one of my best exciting dive.

Indeed, I do like the muck diving but what I like the most is seeing some unforeseen critters.

We were diving with  Tom & Sylvia from Netherlands and thanks to Sylvia’s extremely-sharpened eyes, we have been able to see  a frogfish that we did not know was hanging around in Ambon Bay.

The story is really stunning : First, she has found a tiny baby frogfish. Not a regular one but at the time of the dive, we just were not sure about the species. Then, she found a bigger one which was probably the Mama  and another tiny baby. This was already incredible because it is very seldom so see several of them at the same place, so there was a total of 3 frogfishes close to a soft coral (Goniopora sp.) and then few minutes later, she has found a 4th one ! I can guarantee you that she was very excited and we can understand her!!!

Antennarius-Randalli,  Rudy Hayat

These frogfishes belongs to a very cryptic species and is known under the latin name of Antennarius Randalli or Randall’s Frogfish.

It can be brown or cream but the very specific key-signs to recognize the species is that it is very thin (such as a leaf fish) and has moreover 5 little white spots & 1 larger black ocellus (that we cannnot always see). 

So Thanks again to Sylvia for your skill and Stoner for his Mask, this has made a very enjoyable week end for me !

As you can tell Mr Rudy was as happy for Sylvia to find the frogfish as he would have been to find it himself. That’s one of the great things about Ambon, there are so many specimens to see, it’s a really enjoyable and social experience to scour the unique habitats with the experienced guides and other divers all searching for the best and rarest critters. As you can see from the images here, there is often a lot of success.

See you in Ambon!

Soleman’s Colemans

Quality dive guides are essential at a location such as Maluku Divers where so many subjects can be found, it can make for a photographer’s dream trip. Recognizing Ambon’s rise to the top of the ‘must visit’ list of Indonesia critter and muck diving, Maluku Divers has focused on assembling a dedicated and experienced team.

One of the members of the team, Mr Soleman, is a very popular guide at the resort. His years of experience diving in Lembeh, mean he is well suited to searching out and identifying the habitats of the premium critters.

Upon check in at Maluku Divers, our divers are all encouraged to suggest a list of particular species that they like to see during their stay, this quite often results in a mini competition within the guide team to find the best critters, often with very impressive results. 

This week Mr Soleman was set a challenge by Mr Tilo, a guest who had popped over from Singapore for a few days diving over the Idul Fitri public holidays. “Find me a Coleman shrimp”! Tilo was the one remaining guest of a dive group who had been searching the shores of Laha and the world famous Twilight Zone, and despite seeing an abundance of critters, three different rhinopias, countless ghostpipefish, frogfish, nudibranchs and octopi during their stay, one specimen remained elusive. The normally guaranteed Coleman shrimp (Periclimenes colemani) was playing hard to get. 

So, it came to the last dive of Mr Tilo’s stay and with the pressure of the shrimp hunt on his shoulders, Soleman was offered additional incentive of a nice new 5mm wetsuit as a reward! Having searched numerous fire urchins, the Coleman shrimp’s only habitat, at every site across Ambon bay, Soleman decided to try one last time at the dive site Kampung Baru, as it is usually home to a large numbers of fire urchins. With the pressure on and the dive nearing the hour mark, finally, success! A solitary Coleman was then followed up with a pair. After much excitement and some great photos, it seems that Mr Soleman will be snug in his new wetsuit throughout this critter season. If this becomes a regular occurrence, then the team at Maluku Divers may start to get a bit suspicious of the new equipment being sported by the MD guides!

See Mr Tilo’s Coleman shot here, (as well as the rhinopias and ghostpipefish above)  he dedicates the image to Miss Nuria and Mr Ramiro with the quote – “you should have stayed longer!”

As the new season gets under way, Maluku Divers welcomes back an old friend to the dive team, Nus Fadirsair, one of founding members of the team at MD when the company first opened in 2004. Nus’ experience and dedication to finding unique critters in Ambon, fully compliments the other members of the resort’s dedicated dive team.

So why not drop us a line to arrange your stay at Maluku Divers, the guys are waiting your wish list.

The 2010 – 2011 Change of Season Report

Sorry that we’ve been away from Twitter and Facebook for the past few weeks. Maluku Divers is enjoying the natural break of the Maluku rainy season inAmbon right now, watching the islands return to a blend of beautiful shades of green. The low season sees us open this year for the first time, with special rates for diving within Ambon Bay. During the past few weeks many divers have enjoyed some of the most peaceful opportunities diving with our critters, a little rain never hurt anyone, right?! (Contact us if you’re interested in finding out more about this opportunity)

As we take stock of the past year, we proudly look back over what has been achieved at the resort in the last 12 months. it’s always fun to enjoy how far we’ve come developing the only dedicated diving resort on the remote island of Ambon.

In the 2010–2011 season, the second full season Maluku Divers has been at home in our new resort in the village of Laha, we have welcomed more amateur and professional muck divers and avid photographers than ever before. We have been delighted to host many familiar faces as repeat guests such as the dashing Tony Wu, Bob and Jayne Bruner, Kathy Carl, David Bierman, Obata san from Japan and many others who made their annual ‘pilgrimage’ to their new Mecca of muck diving. New friends, including the Wetpixel crew, Reef Fish Identification books authors Ned and Anna DeLoach, Diving4Images and Shannon Conway also discovered that there is a lot of diving on offer at Maluku Divers. Other groups included SeaParadise, the first group of critter enthusiasts we’ve hosted from Thailand, along with a huge number of individuals and small groups from the USA, Germany, the UK, Spain, Holland, Italy, Brazil, Cuba, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada to name but a few! Maluku Divers’ Muck Diving has gone global!

In October 2010, the Maluku Divers team readily rose to the challenge of hosting a “Night Safari” dive trip by Team Wetpixel, during which our efforts were warmly appreciated by organizers, Tony Wu and Eric Cheng, with the promise that they would be back soon. There were some incredible images taken during the Night Safari, participants put all of their equipment (and there was a lot of it as you can see above) to very good use.

As for the critters we’ve seen, well, really there are too many to mention in this update (!) so to read more about the assortment of rhinopias, blue ringed octopus, harlequin shrimps, pygmy pipedragons and of course the Maluku Frogfish, you’ll have to look back over the weekly updates, Facebook and Twitter comments and galleries on the website to whet your appetite for more diving in Ambon. While you’re there, you’ll have already noticed the new look of Maluku Divers’ website, created in 2011 to enable more muck enthusiasts to find us. The site has several new features, most interestingly the new weekly update, discussing topics about the resort, the team, but predominantly the variety of marine creatures we have discovered for our divers’ cameras. You’ll often find an image of an interesting subject and a snippet about the photographer who took the shot. The website also provides useful information on dive and accommodation packages, what to bring, FAQ’s and other details to help you prepare for your time inAmbon.

You can also have a look for information and videos about the fascinating freshwater Eels in Larike and King of Larike Mr Hafes, who happens to be the Restaurant Manager at Maluku Divers, as well as other options for land tours that allow guests to know Ambon beyond its intriguing waters.

This season, we have also seen new additions to our dive team: Soleman and Stonner, both of whom, like many of our guests,  left their old stomping grounds of Manado and Lembeh to enjoy a change of scenery and a break from the hoi polloi. Together with guide extraordinaire Semuel Bukasiang—whom many of you would have had the pleasure to dive with since our opening— Soleman and Stonner have been making waves in the hunt for the strangest and most sought after creatures such as rhinopias and blue-ringed octopus in the Ambon bay, much to the delight of visiting photographers.

Divers have also enjoyed more opportunities to interact with our friendly local team as more of them have picked up basic English words and sentences, after private lessons conducted by the lovely Miss Li Li.

On the non-diving front, this season guests have been treated to mouth-watering fusion Indonesian-Western three-course meals presented by our new chefs, Balinese Chef Dewa and Javanese Chef Udin. The starter and dessert menus have come in for special appreciation. Chef Udin’s assortment of European cream soups and Asian soups (Thai Tom Yam Gung and Indonesian Soto Ayam) are so scrumptious that he prepares sufficient for the obligatory second helping, no exiguous entrees at Maluku Divers! Chef Dewa regularly serves up a local specialty, rujak (a fruit salad laced with yummy peanut sauce), that is as good as—if not better than—the famous Natsepa rujak, named after the famed beach where the (previous) best rujak in Ambon can be found. Due to our great service team at the resort, you don’t have to go far to immerse yourself in a gastronomic adventure ofAsia’s best culinary dishes. For those whose taste buds long for something close to home during your stay in the far East, you can be assured that a variety of familiar comfort food such as local steak, grilled tuna, sautéed potatoes, and good-old fish and chips are a regular feature in our menu. 

Facilities-wise, the resort now has a large ocean front patio with a selection of chunky benches enjoying the summer sun, along with fresh ocean breezes. There’s also a common lounge area furnished with huge sofas and cushions for our guests to stretch out on a lazy afternoon ,to read a book or to enjoy a beer while socializing before dinner. We have also added an array of new dive paraphernalia for rental and accessories to meet the occasional emergency with faulty computers, pressure gauges and broken fin straps.

Besides ensuring that our guests are well taken care of during their stay here, we are also exploring new frontiers in the dive scene. In October 2010, dive manager Marcel Hagendijk and a tech-diving buddy, Andreas de Beer (who supplied and installed the Maluku Divers NITROX system) uncovered the true identity of the 137 metre shipwreck resting in 20 metres at thevillageofWayame. The shipwreck, just 20 minutes away by boat from our resort, had been thought to be sunken in World War II by the locals. However, during one of their exploratory dives into the wreck, Marcel and Andreas uncovered an encrusted water heater plaque from her engine room and after consulting the records and measuring the wreck, it was eventually identified to be a cargo ship christened the Duke of Sparta sunken in 1958. Read more about the wreck on our website.

As with every low season, our perspicacious team uses the time for the continuation of planned refurbishments at the resort, regular maintenance and upkeep is continually required for a convenient waterfront location such as ours, in addition we continue to look for ways to improve existing operations to create a more efficacious experience for divers. As a result several projects are underway, some of which are direct suggestions from our divers; A new entrance road, further refinements to the bungalows to bring new levels of comfort and relaxation and we have even extended the restaurant roof in order to improve the run off when it rains. There has also been a focus on enhancing the systems in the dive department, with development in the equipment area facilities,  tiling and demarcating the locker, service  and equipment hanging areas. Improvements to the dive showers and a couple of adjustments to the rinse tanks will further tweak the already impressive facilities. Despite being the only dedicated dive resort on the island, we’re always busy making things better!

After all these new improvements to the Maluku Divers resort, we hope to welcome our repeat guests again, as well as even more new guests throughout the season. Already we are looking forward to Ned and Anna DeLoach’s return with more friends, Alan Markis and his Deja Blue Divers, Don Silcock is leading a Photography Workshop in conjunction with Equator Diving, EJ Im is bringing a photography group, Scott Gietler from Underwater Photography Guide is planning a workshop, Mike Bartick from California Diver Magazine will also be making movies at the resort.

Last but not least, Howard and Michelle Hall will be joining, Doug and Emily Seiffert. Ron and Valerie Taylor to explore the slopes of the region, RED in hand! These are just the confirmed divers visiting Ambon…

Looks like it’s going to be a fun season at Maluku Divers! So if you haven’t already booked your stay with us, don’t wait any longer, drop us an email and arrange your visit, info@divingmaluku.com