• Photo by Rantje Allen

  • Photo by William Tan

  • Photo by Rantje Allen

  • Photo by William Tan

  • Photo by Rantje Allen

Loading content - please wait...

Monthly Archives: December 2017

Orca Video from Gorontalo, Indonesia

Orca video by one of Miguel’s Diving staff is now available for viewing.

Orca Video from Gorontalo

Waters off most dive sites in Gorontalo plunge to hundreds of meters. These deep waters bring large cetaceans close to land. Miguel’s Diving staff have discovered the ocean paths that large sea creatures use.

For the first time this dive season, Miguel’s Diving staff watched a pair of orca cruise just off the wall. Judging by the height of the dorsal fin, the one seen in the orca video is a young male. Watch as he passes the dive boat, breathing and sending spray into the air. Not visible in the orca video is his companion. She is more timid than the male. Perhaps they are in Gorontalo’s calm blue waters for a honeymoon.

Miguel’s Diving staff have actually seen them during several months of 2017. Those sightings were in January, February, June and now December. However, this is the first time that someone was able to shoot a nice video. The original orca video is complete with the sound of the orca breathing and excited human voices in three languages.

Distinctive Form

orca video still
A male orca surfaces to breathe in Gorontalo

Orcas are also called killer whales. Their scientific name is Orcinus orca. They are mammals and the largest member of the dolphin family. Male killer whales are easy to identify. Their dorsal fin is very tall and straight. The body color is jet black with the familiar pure white patches. Females have smaller, curved fins but retain the white patches. Usually orcas swim together in pods.

Marine Predator

Orcas are active marine predators. Orca will eat many things, including squid, fish and sea turtles. They also will eat birds, seals and dolphins. A pod of orca often coordinate their hunting. They will even kill and eat large whales. There are no reported killer whale attacks against divers in the wild.

Diving in Gorontalo is exciting because of the unusual marine life found here. For your chance to experience the beauty of Gorontalo, please book your dive trip with us.

Plastic Bottle Recycling with Miguel’s Diving

Plastic bottle recycling is part of Miguel’s Diving company ethos. It is both environmentally and socially proactive.

Safe Drinking Water on Board

To ensure safe drinking water on board our speed boats, Miguel’s Diving provides bottled water for its guests. The water comes in a 600 milliliter plastic bottle. The water itself comes from the mountains around Manado in North Sulawesi Province.

Avoiding Plastic Bottle Wastage

plasticbottle refill
A guest refills his bottle

Miguel’s Diving also has a strategy for avoiding plastic bottle wastage. Before diving

, guests often want a quick drink of water. We provide a marker in the coffee and tea tray. A guests writes his or her name on the plastic bottle. After enjoying the reefs of Gorontalo, divers see several plastic bottles on the benches of our dive boat. The water in these bottles is only partially drunk. However, divers immediately know which ones are theirs. This avoids wasting the contents of those water bottles.

Moreover, we provide filtered water on board. Divers can refill the plastic bottles. This is local, Gorontalo water. Numerous depots provide refills for 19 liter bottles.

Go Green with Recycling

plastic bottle recycling
Giving away a sack of used plastic bottles

Despite our careful use of plastic bottles, every day the dive boat arrives at our dock with many empty ones. These we give to people looking to supplement their income. Although a single plastic bottle is not worth much, avid recyclers can collect and sell them. The local recycling center buys them by the kilogram. Our neighbors also like them. They reuse the plastic bottles as containers for home-pressed coconut oil, which sells for a good price.

The way Miguel’s Diving handles the need for clean drinking water is both environmentally and socially proactive. We encourage our divers to support this Go Green strategy by writing their names on their water bottles. Please contact us for your diving booking.

mgd-logo-block