Diving in Southeast Asia. David Espinosa
but water between Sumba and Australia’s northern shores, this place has become a haven for surfers. However, several sites, including Magic Mountain and Marlin Rock on the offshore reefs, hold the promise of pelagic action. If the opportunity should arise, the local villages, throwbacks to a feudal time, merit a visit.
—David Espinosa/Sarah Ann Wormald
Feather stars vary in color according to species.
Komodo
Acclaimed as Some of the World’s Best Dives
Access 5–10 minutes by tender from liveaboard; 1 hour from Labuanbajo
Current Variable, from 2–50 meters
Reef type Can be extremely strong, up to 5 knots
Highlights Superb, with a good mix of hard and soft corals
Visibility Sloping reef and some walls
Coral Excellent
Fish Rugged terrain, komodo dragons, encounters with a variety of large pelagics
Diving Komodo is like stepping on a Jurassic gyroscope, tilting and spinning at uncontrollable speeds. There are times when guests have been perched in a 2-knot current, holding on for dear life, mouthpieces vibrating, watching a halimeda ghost pipefish while their buddy gesticulates wildly, trying to gain their attention to point out a hovering manta ray. Dives like this are common. It is hard to know where to look and what to focus on. Welcome to Komodo!
Komodo, as well as the other islands between Sumbawa and Flores, belongs to another time and place. Rugged, dry, covered in scrub and borassus palms, it is just a few degrees south of the equator and represents an arid anomaly in the lushness of the monsoon-fed islands of the Indonesian archipelago. But it is the perfect habitat for one of the world’s most awesome animals, the Komodo dragon.
Komodo is famous for its huge manta rays.
BIOLOGICAL RICHES
The wild Komodo area offers just about every imaginable type of diving, from current-swept sea mounds patrolled by groups of sharks, tuna and other big fish to plunging walls covered in impressive corals, to calm reefs alive with invertebrates and hundreds of colorful reef fishes. The water temperature varies from a chilly 22° C to 30° C bath water. Visibility ranges from a clear 25–30 meters to a dismal 3 meters when clouds of tiny fish and plankton allow only macro photography.
The variety of marine life in the Komodo area rivals the world’s best. There are deep seas both north and south of the narrow straits running between the little islands. Strong currents and upwellings bring nutrients and plankton, keeping all the marine creatures well fed.
While the Komodo area is well explored and a popular liveaboard destination, because of its vastness it rarely feels crowded aside from at one or two of the most popular of its numerous dive sites. In general, there are two habitats and two seasons for diving Komodo—the winter for the cooler, temperate water southern sites, and the summer for the warmer, tropical north. The main factor in enjoying diving Komodo is visibility, and the north is the more predictable in this regard.
Komodo is a unique region because it offers divers the choice of both tropical and temperate diving within the scant space of 10 kilometers. The volcanic thrusts and limestone uplifts combined with a half meter differential between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean have created a topography conducive to wild and unpredictable currents. Upwellings from the southern seas add to the unique mélange of planktonic life found here, hence the unimaginable, prolific and dense marine life that characterizes Komodo! If you can find shelter from the tempestuous currents, you’ll discover an astounding array of rare and unusual critters to photograph and to marvel at. That’s what Komodo is all about—the rare, the unique, the special, and the colors are out of this world!
DIVING THE SOUTH
South Komodo is undoubtedly a diver’s dream come true and from late October through early May is when it has the most to offer. Then the sky is blue, seas are calm and there is enough of a breeze to cool sunburned bodies. Between November and January visibility (10–15 meters) is as good as it gets in such plankton-rich seas, and the soft coral, invertebrate life and fish are nothing short of spectacular. South Komodo is difficult to dive from May through September due to the southeast trade winds, which generate huge swells and howling winds. The south used to be accessed by liveaboards only, but since more land-based operators with powerful boats have opened up in Labuan Bajo, such as Blue Marlin Komodo, three dive day trips covering all areas of the park are now possible.
Some of the best dive sites in the south are found in the horseshoe-shaped bay between Rinca and Nusa Kode, such as Yellow Wall and Cannibal Rock.
Yellow Wall is actually two walls, one atop another, the second of which is an overhang that plunges 50 meters to the floor. The site is covered in yellow soft corals and is rich in invertebrate life—yellow pygmy seahorses, colonial blue tunicates, myriads of nudibranchs and blue ringed octopus. Yellow Wall faces west and the light is best from midday onwards.
Cannibal Rock is a more versatile site and can be dived from sunrise on through the night. The site, which is at the doorstep of a small promontory, is sloping and features mini-walls, huge boulders with valleys and giant terraces at 30 plus meters. There are 2-meter red gorgonian fans that periodically host red pygmy seahorses and ghost pipefish, typically during cold water upwellings. The rare lacy scorpionfish has been sighted nearby. Cannibal Rock is covered in sea apples, a rare and brightly colored temperate sea cucumber in hues of purple, green, blue, red and yellow, and a truly fascinating sight when its feeding tentacles are extended. There are also three species of venomous urchins found on the rock, one of which hosts up to five different species of commensals. When the current runs, the fish school, and there have been sightings of mantas, large sharks and minke whales.
Komodo is not just about big fish. There is immense diversity of all marine species, including invertebrates such as these cuttlefish.
Other sites in Horseshoe Bay are Crinoid Canyon, Boulders, Pipe-dream and Torpedo Point, renowned for its torpedo rays and frogfish.
South Komodo has other distinctive dive sites off the islands of Padar and Tala. Pillarsteen is off south Padar and is a topographer’s dream, with huge chunks of rock buckled into channels and canyons, caves, swim-throughs and chimneys. This dive is totally different from other diving in Komodo. It is fun and action-filled when the currents are running. W Reef, a few hundred meters to the north of Pillarsteen, is a series of four underwater pinnacles extending perpendicularly from the island to a depth of 30 meters. This structure is covered in pristine coral and regularly buzzed by mantas and schools of bumphead parrotfish. Off northwest Tala is The Alley, which features large lazing schools of manta rays November through March. Langkoi Rock is fully exposed and so buffeted by strong current, which explains the regular presence of large pelagics. It is reputedly a mating site for grey sharks in April. Lehoksera is a high-voltage dive on the southeast tip. The dive begins mildly enough, with a gentle current that allows divers to get ready with reef hooks, gloves and other accouterments. The current picks up faster and faster until divers reach a slot created by the main reef and a smaller pinnacle offshore. In the middle of this slot, there is a small bommie at 30 meters, which is buzzed by large groupers, turtles, sharks and schools of every fish imaginable. The current spits divers out onto another gently sloping reef, which is very rich in soft corals and hard coral formations.
Exploring Komodo by liveaboard opens up many hard-to-reach spots that have the best diving.
DIVING