• Photo by Rantje Allen

  • Photo by William Tan

  • Photo by Rantje Allen

  • Photo by William Tan

  • Photo by Rantje Allen

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Tag Archives: Sulawesi Diving

Fin whale startles crew

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Fin whale surfaced right next to one of our staff while he was fishing for yellowfin tuna. Tomini Bay where we dive is over four kilometers deep. So, large cetaceans are part of the marine environment in Gorontalo.

Surprise Encounter

Boka, one of Miguel’s Diving dive masters, headed to deep waters offshore. On his day off, he decided to fish for yellowfin tuna. Local fishermen use traditional handlines. This method is ecologically sustainable.

Identification book for whales

Suddenly, a large whale surfaced only a few meters away from his outrigger canoe. Then the whale exhaled, sending spray into the air.

Boka’s outrigger canoe measures five meters in length. He estimates the fin whale that surfaced next to him to be twelve meters. That means this particular whale was still small. Adult fin whales can reach 22 meters in length. This species is the second largest animal on planet earth, after the larger Blue whale. The cetaceans we see tend to be young. That includes whale sharks, orcas, and whales. It seems that the deep waters of Tomini Bay are a prime location for young cetaceans to grow into adults.

Fin Whale in the Southern Hemisphere

Although fin whales live in all the world’s oceans

, they are mostly sighted in the southern hemisphere. When a fin whale surfaces, its dorsal fin appears right after the whale blows. The dorsal fin is quite small and points backwards. Its flukes are rarely visible. Most notable, it is large size. Also, fin whales ignore boats. This is what happened when Boka encountered one.

Fin whale sketch (c) NOAA

The fin whale used to be hunted commercially. This is now banned. As a result of over hunting, this species is considered endangered. The population of the southern hemisphere has been particularly slow to recover. Balaenoptera physalus is the scientific name.

Fin whales are filter feeders. Those in the southern hemisphere feed almost exclusively on krill. They can also eat plankton, small schooling fish, and squids. Their only known predator is the Orca or killer whale. In Gorontalo we see orca annually, usually in January and February.

Although scuba divers are not likely to see a fin whale in Gorontalo, whale shark sightings are common. So, please make your dive reservations directly with Miguel’s Diving.  

DXI2023 marks Miguel’s Diving return

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DXI2023 or DEEP EXTREME 2023 marks Miguel’s Diving return to Indonesia’s prestigious diving expo. Other adventure sports are also represented there.

Joint Promotion with Tourism Department

Gorontalo Provincial Tourism Department invited Miguel’s Diving to join its booth. We are most grateful for their support. The booth location was D10. Two of Miguel’s Diving staff attended DXI2023. They were Yunis Amu and Maman Abdullah. Other dive staff remained in Gorontalo to take guests diving.

As in many previous years, DEEP EXTREME Indonesia 2023 held its exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center. The dates were June 1 to 4. The expo combines scuba diving with extreme sports, such as rock climbing. It is now the largest expo of its kind in Southeast Asia. At DXI2023, Miguel’s Diving offered a discount dive packages exclusively to visitors to our booth.

our dive boats
Our custom-built dive boats

We also promoted our custom-built speed boats. The larger one holds a maximum of fourteen divers. It comes complete with a marine toilet. The smaller speed boat can hold eight divers, but we prefer to limit the capacity to six guests plus dive masters. Both boats provide canopies for complete coverage from the sun. We built both specifically for divers rather than renovate boats built for fishing. No one else offering diving in our area has the facilities that we have.

Friends Old & New

The Gorontalo booth for DXI2023 contained a variety of underwater photographs from Gorontalo. Gorontalo is a great place for underwater photos, whether wide angle or macro.

After taking a pause from diving since 2020, many divers wish to return to Gorontalo for our great diving. The Jakarta dive show was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with longtime friends and to make new ones.

Mr. Fadel Muhammad vists

One visitor to our booth was our representative to parliament, Mr. Fadel Muhammad. He is Wakil Ketua MPR for the current period. He will be up for re-election in 2024.

If you could not meet us in person, please book your dive trip with us.

Reticulated puffers delight divers in Gorontalo

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Reticulated puffer is a clumsy, clownish swimmer that delights divers who chance to see it. This puffer lives throughout the Indo-Pacific tropics

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, including Gorontalo.

A Distinctive Network of Lines

reticulated puffer
Arothron reticularis in Gorontalo

The scientific name for this fish is Arothron reticularis, which is a fitting name. Reticulated means arranged like a net or marked like a network. Only the Reticulated puffer has the network of white lines around its face and belly. It sports white spots on its body. But so too does Arothron hispidus

, another puffer species that lacks the network of lines. The body color for Arothron reticularis range from brown to grey.  

Puffer fish have quite distinctive bodies. This includes tough skin and a dental plate in their beak-like mouth. What they lack is more notable. They lack fin spines and ribs. As a result, they can inflate their stomachs with water when afraid. Moreover, their skin, gonads, and liver contain two toxins. These are tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin. Some species are more toxic than others. Because different puffer species have similar body shapes, identification is most accurate when using color patterns.

So, the reticulated pattern makes the Reticulated puffer easy to identify.

Facing a Reticulated Puffer

Typically, puffer fishes are occasional in the marine environment. However, Miguel’s Diving staff know of one dive site in Gorontalo where Reticulated puffers are likely to be seen. Moreover, this species of puffer fish also exhibits the ability to recognize humans. Certain puffers at that dive site swim right to our dive masters.  

reticulated puffer smiles
A Reticulated puffer smiles for the camera

The face of a Reticulated puffer makes a delightful photo. Besides showing the distinctive reticulated pattern, the eyes are especially beautiful. Encircled with white rings, the eyes have brown irises and dark pupils. The eyes have great range of motion. This puffer fish smiles for the camera with its four teeth plates. These continually grow. The fish will keep them worn down by eating shrimps and crustaceans. On the snout and between the eyes are twin, forked tuffs. These are actually olfactory organs that allow the fish to smell its watery environment.

Divers will notice that the body of this fish is often sprinkled with sand. During the day, puffer fish often hide in sandy bottoms. They use their pectoral fins to throw sand onto their backs. Their maximum length is 45 centimeters.

Proper Behavior for Divers

Divers should never catch or grab puffer fish to make them inflate. This action frightens the fish

, causing stress. Like many puffer species, the Reticulated puffer is covered with defensive spines. These short prickles are only visible when the fish is puffed up in a defensive posture.

Although our Reticulated puffers know some of our dive staff, they do not like to be pursued with cameras. Instead, for guests who want a souvenir photo of this cute fish, we recommend approaching patiently. If the fish starts to swim away, leave it alone. Given time, it will return. A photographer’s random behavior that ignores direct pursuit of the fish will calm it down, allowing a closer approach for a photograph.  

For your chance to see this delightful puffer fish in Gorontalo, please make your dive reservations directly with Miguel’s Diving.  

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