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Komodo National Park is one of Indonesia's most popular destination for underwater lovers. Discover what lies below this fabulous destination. Abundant marine life and clear water, make diving and snorkling here highly enjoyable. The island's volcanic slopes are covered with flamboyantly coloured soft corals, sea apples and masses of tropical fish.In the north you experience the warm waters of the Flores Sea. The marine life here is similar to that found in most tropical seas wordl wide. Its hard coral reefs are extensive and largely pristine. The water is clear with great visibility. Discover a haven for nudibranranchs, pigmy seahorses, rare invertebrates, pipefish and tiny frogfish.To the south one encounters cooler water conditions, typical temperature of the Indian Ocean. Upwellings, caused by deep ocean currents colliding with the continental shelf, force an endless supply of planktons into the water column and result into an explosion of marine life. The invertebrate and fish life found in south Komodo is diverse, dense, prolific and brilliantly hued. Many rare and unusual species, large pelagic fish, mantas, whale sharks, dugongs, green and hawksbill turtles are commonly sighted here.Komodo offers a complate range of diving conditions, gentle drift dives to strong current dives, monumental boulders, caves, colourful reefs, seamounts and pinnacles. You will explore the Komodo's exceptionally beautiful sights underwater aboard our superbly comfortable liveaboard vessel, the Baruna Adventurer. Discover a magical dive and snorkel cruise with the Baruna Adventurer in these magnificent trofical island paradise, Komodo.
Orange Grove a gentle slope runs the length of this dive site with an orange soft coral garden changing to hard coral along towards the end of the slope, lots of schooling fusiliers, usual to see a lot of Hawksbill turtles and white tip reef sharks, lots of Mantas in the rainy season and a huge variety of beautiful coloured nudibranchs.
Manta Corner another nice coral covered slope with the hope of spotting mantas in the rainy season, nice coral with leaf scorpion fish, blue ribbon eels, turtles, white tips and lots of nice coral heads in the shallow to check out the smaller critters.
2.Tatawa Kecil
A small island that is in an area that gets a lot of current in Komodo so not an easy site, but it's another that is among one of the many world class sites here, schools of pelagic fish patrol the waters, a huge school of bat fish live here near a coral encrusted overhang, Napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrot fish with nurse sharks and bamboo sharks found hiding in cracks and crevices in the coral encrusted boulders, the shallows again are a vibrant colourful picture of hard corals that hide the sea snakes, coral file fish and baby sharks.
3.Batu Bolong
A small rock outcrop with a hole through it is the surface mark of another world class site, these giant slabs of rock which disappear into the depths are an amazing sight to see, covered with every form of marine life and patrolled by giant trevally, Napoleon Wrasse, sharks and turtles with many pelagics sweeping in to check out the divers.
4.Batu Samsia
This is one of a series of large underwater ridges in the middle of the channel between Siaba (north of Rinca) and Komodo. We had checked out the site twice before, but there was just too much current, but we saw 4 manta rays from the surface. The third time we were lucky and the currents calmed down for an hour. We dived on a long slope with several mini walls. The fish life was just amazing, specially a huge school of rainbow runners. Mackerels, giant trevally, Napoleon wrasses and tunas were mixing with unicornfishes and doctorfishes. We saw several turtles , sharks and really large groupers. A great dive! When we surfaced the currents started again and when we left the place was again closed for diving.
5.Batu Tiga
3 huge rocks in the middle of the strait between Rinca and Komodo island marks the spot of this site, current swept, it offers the chance to see everything from tiny pygmy sea horses to sharks and barracudas, not a site to be taken lightly and sometimes totally un-diveable, but well worth it if you can get in, the topography of the site is really amazing to see and covered in short encrusting coral, no other coral could take the currents, this I think is the most challenging site to dive in park, situated in the strait between Komodo, Padar and Rinca it gets water movement hitting it from many different angles. Two huge fish eagles have their home on the rocks.
6.Pantai Merah
There as a great variety of fishes here and also a good selection of critters such as leaf scorpionfish, blue ribbon eels, crocodile fish, nudibranchs, and more. Visibility varies but is best during falling tide. This is the most frequently visited site in the Park for snorkeling and diving. Snorkeling is excellent from the beach and there is a very good dive around a small area of reef around a steep rocky wall which is visible from the surface of the water at low tide. This site is also a very good night dive and offers excellent macro-photography opportunities. Several mooring buoys are stationed at this site.
7.Pulau Damar
A slope covered with small corals and sponges. There are some very interesting tunicates (Neptheis sp.) growing here. Instead of covering rocks with their colonies, they form a colony that looks like a grape with a stem.
8.Tanjung Lelok Sera
Large pelagic fish like dogtooth tuna can be seen circling off the point and around the pinnacles. Turtles and large fish such as monster- sized giant trevallies, potato cod, malabar grouper, schools of bumphead parrotfish, napoleon wrasse, manta rays and much more can be seen along the wall. Superb diving all along the southern point of Loh Sera, or off the point towards underwater pinnacles. Due to potentially strong currents only experienced divers should attempt to swim to the pinnacles. Beginner divers should stay along the wall. Great snorkeling along the northern shore of this cape.
9.Batu Gajah
This is a sharp edged rock formation and the diving takes place in the calmer are between these formations because as soon as you dive too close, the water turbulence such as down currents, whirls are soon just too much. We saw a huge grouper (about 2m), several turtles, rainbow runners and a large group of bumphead parrotfish.
10.Toro Bendera or Colleen's Corner
also called Colleen's Corner, a reef slope with blocks of rock and a lot of whip corals in the deeper areas.
11.The end of the world
which lies close to Tala island.This dive site is a sheer wall of black rock that goes down to about 100meter.
12.Manta Valley
We dived early in the morning and just before the high tide, when there was little currentand the light was just beautiful over the coral reef. We stayed in shallow water all the time and just floated a couple of meters below the surface. Immediately the manta rays appeared swimming close to the surface and then swept past us several times. At one point a manta swam directly towards me, did a flip and passed me so close, that I could have touched it. After about half an hour they all disappeared and we continued our dive by looking at all the small stuff you find here also. The reef is beautifully covered and large schools of yellow snappers are everywhere. We also encountered some sharks and turtles and just before we surfaced, a manta came back as if to say good by to us!
13.Toro Moncong
You dive on a slope with some larger coral blocks on 25 to 30 meters. There is a very nice miniwall on the uppper part with cracks full of colorful glasfishes. The landscape underwater is beautiful with table corals, small sea fans and a lot of small fish and large schools of batfish. A place to relax and look for small animals. I was lucky and found a yellow baby warty frogfish (A. maculatus) only about 5cm large and on another dive a pair of tiny shrimps living in black corals and a rare nudibranch, Notodoris gardineri. The bay Teluk Toro Monco is a good place for a night dive.
14.Batu Toko-Toko
Curious batfish as well as schooling barracuda, trevally and mackerels swim at 30- 40m depth. At approximately 20m depth there is excellent soft coral growth and numerous seafans that host pygmy seahorses. The top of the rock is a good, calm place to explore during safety stops. This site usually has excellent visibility but is prone to strong currents. The current usually flows eastwards and is much stronger at the surface than in the deeper water. However, the top of the rock, which is approximately 3 to 4m deep, also offers shelter from the current; hence the name “Castle Rock”.Recommended dive entry point is in blue water approximately 50m up-current from the shallowest point of the reef.
15.Gili Lawa Laut
Gili Lawa is located on the northern coast of Komodo Island. A few best dive site on this island will include ‘Crystal Bomie’ and ‘GPS Point’ Dive site is beautifully covered by the best quality of marine life both coral and fish. This place is well-known as the place where Pigmy Seahorse (hippocampus Bargibanti) were first founded. This a great opportunity to see big fish such as sharks, groupers, octopuses, schools of batfish,mantas and many more. Season of October-November will be the aggregating time (mating season).We could also go out for the muck dive of searching for Mandarin Fish (synchiropus Spendidus) inside the bay where it is often found.
16.Kerita Tol
lies east of Gili Motong (also called Gili Mota) in the Molo Strait. From what I heard you might see mantas and sometimes whalesharks here. It is supposed to be very cold (upwellings) and visibility not always very good.
17.Apple Orchard
Both Cannibal rock and the Apple orchard are also literally covered with the colorful filter-feeding sea cucumbers called sea apples (Pseudocolochirus violaceus). This sea cucumber is round and of a bright red and purple color with white or yellow stripes. It holds on to the substrate with tiny feet (it looks like a colorful sponge) and stretches its tentacles into the current for planktonic food. It is rarely seen but here in the Komodo islands they are very abundant. Cannibal rock is well worth doing several dives because of the abundance of life here. On every dive we saw several species of rare nudibranchs, special crabs like Zebra crab or sea urchin shrimps, frogfishes and scorpionfishes. On the reef top there are a lot of anemones with their host anemone fishes, I recon there are at least 5 different species close to each other. The only disadvantage - the water here is really, really cold!
18.Canibal Rock
This was one of my favorite dive sites in the south. An underwater mound covered with soft corals, sponges and hard corals. On every available surface there are either feather stars, brittle stars, sea cucumbers or sea stars.
19.Overhang
Overhang and Crinoids point (No. 20) are quite similar - walls covered with feather stars and sea cucumbers - and a short distance out the open ocean lies another excellent dive site, the Pyramid. To some divers feather stars might all look the same, but here you can really observe many different species! These dive sites are specially cold, since the water comes from the open ocean south of Rinca. Specially good for nudibranchs (I saw 8 species on one dive!), special shrimps like Vir philippinensis or the needle shrimp which lives between the spines of the sea urchins. On one dive there I even saw the extreemly rare Coleman shrimp on one of the colorful toxic sea urchins.
20.Crynoid Point
Quite similar with no.19
21.Chinese Mount
lies in the north of Rinca and the coral cover is similar to other northern dive sites. A slope with overhangs and small caves and bowls. We saw up to seven Napoleon wrasses together and also two sharks. There were a lot of angelfishes around and under the overhangs were several of their colorful juveniles.
22.Lohkima/ Buaja
On my fifth trip to the Komodos I didn't feel like going on land to see the Komodo dragons, so I made a dive close to the ranger station in Rinca. First it didn't look very promising - lots of dead corals and low visibility, but then we started to discover things - nudibranchs, some of them only a centimeter long, three types of mantis shrimps, banded pipefishes and to top it off several Mandarin dragonets hiding under the large black sea urchins! So next time there I want to do an early evening dive because then the Mandarin fishes come out for foraging and mating.
23.Pillar Steen
Very interesting reefscape. Large schools of fusiliers can be found here along the reef slope, which is covered in an interesting variety of soft corals. Sharks and the odd turtle are often encountered. Pillaarsteen is a rock pinnacle located on the shore of a small island east of Padar Besar. Best diving entry is just off the point below the rock where there is a nice wall. Continue swimming to the west towards interesting caves and swim-throughs at different depths. Diving is particularly good at around 30-40m depth. This site is a good choice when other sites have too much current. This area may be effected by surge when there are swells from the southwest.
24.Three Sisters
These are three large rocks connected to each other, nicely covered with corals and just teeming with life. Around 30m are two smaller boulders that are specially nice. We saw several species of nudibranchs, small seacucumbers and a special starfish. You dive in the shade of the current and finish the dive on the peaks which top at 6,7 and 8 meters respectively.
25.Tondok Rasa
The fierce currents that can develop here give this dive site its name. Actually on one of our dives we startled a shark which was laying in one of the crevices and even he started to struggle getting swept up and down until he managed to get around the corner to calmer waters! The conditions made for a exhilarating dive. On another dive we had so much up current, that we were swept dangerously fast up form about 18m to 8m and had to finish the dive early out in the blue - there was no way we could have gotten back to the reef.
But this dive site is also the place I saw the largest group of sharks while diving in the Komodo area. There is an impressive area with large blocks of rock and a deep canyon between them around 45 meter depth. On the way up I had just spotted three large whitetips below me, when a large gray shark appeared in the somewhat murky water (visibility around 15m) and swam directly towards me. Suddenly there loomed another gray just behind him and they started to circle. I had to go up, because my computer showed me deco approaching fast, when suddenly five whitetips joined the grays. Great!
26. Tanjung Tondok Rasa
The large bay (tanjung) between GPS-Point and Tondok Rasa forms a protected area ideal for a night dive. On one dive we so saw so much, we didn't want to leave the water! It started with a small black frogfish perching on a red sponge, then a real stonefish, large nudibranchs and several species of colorful flatworms, crabs and shrimps and to top it off a sleeping shark.
27. GPS-Point
is a submerged sea mound and lies some distance north of Banta in an exposed area. This dive was recommended to us by several fellow divers and it lived up to our expectations! Currents were moderate (but our dive guide said, they can be fierce!) but we saw eight whitetips, a large school of barracudas, several groups of king mackerels and dogtooth tunas and a large turtle. But even with relatively calm waters it was amazing how just a couple meter over and closer to the reef there were strong whirls and eddies.
28. Galley Rock (Ghally's Rock)
When we arrived by boat we circled around the rock and tried for some fishing. Looking at the surface current it seemed a dangerous place to dive. Everywhere whirls and the water crashing against the jutting rocks. Several times the whole boat was slightly turned by the strong current. Then our dive buddy (an Englishman who actually likes to cook, specially if it is freshly caught fish), who was fishing caught something so large, that it got off the hook again (there went our dinner - sigh!), we decided this had to be a great dive area. When the current calmed down some time later we jumped in the area just in-between the two arms of current running against and around the rocks. A great dive with sharks, large tunas, yellowfin barracudas and several Wahoos. The dive area is first a gentle slope but then changing to a wall, then around 30m it is relatively flat with large sponges. You can dive both the north and the south side depending on the currents. Actually there is a difference in the type of animals living on each side, similar to the differences observed when diving in the northern or southern part of the Komodo islands. What was not so great here - it was 24° C- f... cold!
29. Batu Baso
This partly submerged rock lies smack in the middle of the Sape strait, a short distance south of Banta. This strait is a major throughflow for water coming from Sulawesi in the north and flowing to the Indian ocean in the south. Currents mostly flow north to south and around an obstacle like Bato Baso. From the boat we could see whirls and whorls trailing the rock for hundreds of meter! We dived both sides before and after the change of tides. This is such a great place! On our first dive we saw a marble ray that must have been more than 2 meter in diameter and a huge school of rainbow runners and several Spanish mackerels. On the second dive there were so many sharks (small and middle size, whitetips and greys) that I gave up counting. Deep down, large schools of bannerfish and damselfish were doing a syncopated dance for us.
30. Sebayur Kecil (Southwest of Labuan Bajo )
Walls and slopes of every kind of coral you can imagine, with a wide variety of marine life to be seen at this site, a great place for macro photography with leaf scorpion, Ornate ghost pipe fish, robust pipe fish, banded pipe fish, blue ringed octopus, crocodile fish to name a few.