Tag Archives: lombok

World Ocean Day on Gili Air, Gili Islands, Indonesia

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The 8th of June was a beautiful day. It started as a normal day, between 7 and 8 oclock in the morning people were waiting for their boat going to Gili Trawangan, or Lombok.

But around 9 more and more children came to the harbor, all the children of the village of Gili Air came to the meeting point to join the World Ocean Day games organized by the local community and Wild Life Society.

During the day there were competition in drawing, swimming, kayaking, collecting rubbish, tug ‘o’ war and beach and reef clean ups.

Hunderds of people were joining the day. Most of them were local. It is a great initiative, and the local population of the Island starts realizing how the important the oceans is for them and for the world.

Hopefully there will be a great event like this next year

Facts about Black Marlins

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Black marlin (recently reclassified as Istiompax indica, after formerly being known as Makaira indica) are considered by many authorities to be amongst the world’s premiere game fish. They certainly have size on their side, with the all tackle world record black marlin weighing in at 1560lb (707.6kg) taken by Alfred Glassell way back in 1953 off Cabo Blanco, Peru. Experienced skippers have reported seeing, and sometimes becoming connected to, black marlin that were probably even larger than Glassell’s catch, perhaps even approaching the size of some of the biggest blue marlin (Makaira nigricans). The latter have been caught on rod and reel up to 819 kg and are known to grow to at least 900 kg and possibly over a tonne, based on commercial catches of fish over this size.

Genetic evidence suggests that black marlin are more closely related to striped/white marlin than blue marlin, the latter being more closely related to sailfish. Compared to other marlin, black marlin are more solidly built with a relatively short bill and a lower, rounded dorsal fin. Black marlin can also be easily distinguished from other marlins as they are the only marlin that have rigid pectoral fins that cannot be folded flat against the body.

This oceanic pelagic species is distributed throughout the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans and is found in surface waters above the thermocline at temperatures from 15 to 30°C. A few days ago 6 Black Marlins were spotted between Gili Meno and Gili Air, Lombok, Indonesia. Black marlin migrate huge distances and relatively small tagged fish have been recaptured after travelling over 8000 km. Occasionally they will enter temperate waters, and small numbers sometimes stray into the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Cape of Good Hope, although the existence of Atlantic breeding stocks is unlikely. Despite their oceanic environment, large back marlin can sometimes be encountered very close to land, particularly near offshore islands and coral reefs, while juveniles commonly range closer inshore and can even be caught by landbased game anglers at specific locations when conditions are right.

Like other billfish, black marlin are apex predators that feed mostly on small tunas, but also other fishes, squids, cuttlefishes, octopods, and even large crustaceans. What is defined as “smaller fish” is relative, especially when you consider that large marlin over 500 kg have been found with tuna over 50 kg in their stomachs. Research off Australia’s east coast suggests that catchability of black marlin increases around the full moon and the week afterwards as its prey species move deeper out of the surface layers, forcing the marlin to forage over a wider area.

Black marlin grow very rapidly. Juveniles reach around 15 kg in their first year, 50 kg in their third year, and given sufficient food supply, a “grander” female black around 450 kg is possibly as little as 10-12 years old. Males and females are indistinguishable externally, but females attain a much larger size with males seldom growing more than 2.7 metres long and 200 kg. Marlin do not change sex like some other fishes, but sex ratios vary with area and season, suggesting that movements of male and female black marlins may differ. Age at first maturity is not known exactly, but from Taiwanese data the length of males at first maturity is around 140 cm (approximately 2 years old), for females around 230 cm (4-5 years old).

Known spawning areas for black marlin, based on the presence of larvae and juveniles, are restricted to warmer tropical areas when water temperatures are around 27-28°C. Spawning occurs at specific times in specific regions in the western North Pacific, in the Indian Ocean on the northwest shelf off Exmouth and, most famously, in the Coral Sea off the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns during October and November. Here suspected pre-spawning behaviour has been observed with “grander” females being closely followed by several smaller male fish. Egg counts from ripe female black marlin can exceed 40 million per fish.

Turtle release Gili Air, Lombok, Indonesia

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A few days ago Oceans 5 dive resort released 10 Hawksbill sea turtles. These were the last ones of the big group of sea turtles were Oceans 5 were taking care of. The turtles were released in front of the dive shop in the harbor of Gili Air, Lombok, Indonesia.


Oceans 5 is taking care of injured turtles or little turtles that didn’t went straight to the ocean.

Oceans 5 is definite not buying eggs from locals. Buying eggs is against Oceans 5 principles, because people who do something illegal, collecting eggs, will get rewarded by a payment.

Now at this time Oceans 5 has 6 turtles left, 5 little Hawksbill sea turtles and 1 big Olive Ridley sea turtle. The Olive Ridley is a little bit our problem child, this one has an air bubble between the shell and the body and this causes that the turtle can’t dive or stay for a long time underwater. If Oceans 5 will release it now this turtle will not survive.

 

If anyone has some information how to help this turtle it should be great! Information can be sent to info@oceans5dive.com.

Facts about Moray Eels

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Moray Eels (Muraenidae)

Moray Eels are common inhabitants of coral reefs, like the reefs around the Gili islands, but most species are cryptic and seldom seen unless chemical ichthyocides are employed. The family contains about 15 genera and 200 species worldwide. They occur mainly on coral reefs, but a few species are found in rocky habitats of temperate seas.

Muraenids are extremely diverse with regards to head shape, dentition, colour pattern and maximum size. All species lack pectoral fins, but there is a great variability in the height and extent of the dorsal and anal fins, which are continuous around the tail.

Colour patterns of individual species are very diagnostic, but there are often dramatic changes between juvenile and adult stages.

Moray eels are one of the most important groups of predators in the reef fish community, relying on keen vision and an excellent sense of smell to find their victims. They are especially adept at ferreting out wounded or stressed fish that may be hiding in the reef. Their solid wedge shaped head, muscular and flexible body and slimy mucous coat are highly advantageous for negotiating crevices and cracks of the reefs inner sanctum.

Morays exhibit a wide range of reproductive modes compared to many fish families. Most species are either synchronously hermaphroditic (functioning male and female at the same time) or gonochoristic (born as male or female and maintaining their birth sex for life)

Facts about Emperors

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Emperors (Lethrinidae)

Emperors are conspicuous inhabitants of Indo Pacific coral reefs, like the coral reef around the Gili Islands, Lombok, Indonesia. They are medium to large sized perciform fish related to sweetlips and snappers. Diagnostic feautures include a terminal mouth with relatively thick lips, stout canine teeth at the front of the jaws and either conical or molariform teeth at the side of the jaws, no teeth on the roof of the mouth, a scaleless cheek, continuous un-norched dorsal fin with X spines and 9-10 soft rays, anal fin with III spines and 8-10 soft rays, and an emarginate to forked caudal fin.

Most species occur on the sand/rubble fringe of reefs where they actively forage on sand dwelling invertibrates such as gastropods, polychaetes, crabs, prawns and chitons. Various echinoids such as sea urchins, heart urchins, crinoids and starfish are also consumed. Larger species regularly feed on smaller fish.

Many emperors are nocturnal and spend daylight hours sheltering among coral or in crevices.

Facts about Goatfish

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Goatfish (Mullidae)

Goatfish are common in all tropical and warm temperate seas, like around the Gili Islands, Lombok, Indonesia, forming an integral component of the reef fish community throughout the Indo Pacific region. Their distincive appearance includes a slender shape, relatively elongate, pointed snout, a small. slightly ventral, protrusible mouth with maxilla partially hidden under the preorbital, finely ctenoid, moderately large scales, two well separated dorsal fins ans a pair of barbels or chin “whiskers”.

The latter feature is equipped with special chemosensory cells and is used for detecting food.

Goatfish are usually seen alone or in small groups except for species of Mulloidichthys, which sometimes form large schools with hundreds of individuals.

They are generally carnivorous feeding on a range of mostly benthic invertibrates, especially worms, crustaceans, brittlestars, heart urchins and small mollucs.

It uses its long barbels to frighten small fish from their hidden places in the reef and once exposed they become easy prey.

Although a few species are nocturnally active, most feed during daylight hours abs are commonly seen foraging over sand and rubble bottoms. Many, if not most species, exhibit a highly blotched colour pattern at night, which typically consists of red bars and blotches.

Facts about the Blue Ringed Octopus

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When we were diving the Biorock around Gili Trawangan, we found a little creature: a Blue Ringed Octopus.

What is a blue-ringed octopus?

The name octopus comes from the word Octopoda, which means ‘eight-footed’. All octopuses have eight arms. They are molluscs and, along with their close relatives the squid and cuttlefish, are the most highly developed invertebrates (animals without backbones), with a well developed brain and eye structure. There are several species of blue-ringed octopuses living around the WA coast including the southern blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa).

What do they look like?

These animals are rarely more than 12 centimetres long. They are normally well camouflaged, with yellow, brown and grey bodies. There are dark brown blotches and bands on the arms.

Where do they live?

Blue-ringed octopuses live in reef flats and tidal pools, where they may inhabit dead shells. They secrete themselves in rocks and other debris and in crevices, so be extremely cautious when handling dead shells or discarded cans and bottles and when turning over rocks in the shallows. Always wear gloves when diving or snorkelling. Blue-ringed octopuses are found in all WA marine parks but are hardly ever seen because they are so skilled at hiding and camouflage.

What they eat and how?

They feed mostly at night, on fish and crustaceans. Blue-ringed octopuses kill their prey with a potent toxin injected with their bite.

Threats?:

There are no known threats to blue-ringed octopuses.

Behaviour?

These remarkable and spectacular creatures deliver a warning before they bite. When irritated or disturbed they rapidly develop brilliant blue rings. In such cases, you should admire their extremely colourful appearance from a safe distance. They are extremely venomous and, although such cases are rare, can cause human death.

Breeding and caring for young

The female lays eggs and carries them under her arms for about six months until they hatch. Once this happens the female dies.

Gili Air has a new Clinic

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Gili Air has it! A new clinic!

Just next to the office of the head of the 3 islands there will be a new clinic. The building is still under construction. Next to the new clinic is a temporay clinic. This will be closed when the new building is totally finished. The new clinic will be finished in a couple of weeks.

There are signs all over Gili Air to point where you van find the Clinic. The clincic will have 3 doctors and they rotate shifts. The clinic will be open 24 hours 7 days a week. The doctors have got their experience from other clinics like the clinic of Villa Ombak, Gili Trawangan.

The new clinic will be massive improvement for Gili Air. Now people with injuries on Gili Air have to go or to the clinic at Villa Ombak on Gili Trawangan or to one of the hostiptals in Lombok. For all the people of the island and all the visiting tourists it will be fantastic to have a clinic now on Gili Air.

Bleaching Alert Lombok Indonesia

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When you were diving around the Gili Islands was the water nice and warm. But is warm water good for our corals?

The Indonesia Bleaching Alert program summarizes information on coral bleaching risk for Indonesia from the NOAA Coral Reef Watch website (using E50 models): http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov and compiles reports of bleaching from around Indonesia. This information will help increase our understanding the link between increased SST and bleaching and can be used to alert reef managers so they can respond when bleaching events are likely. The is bleaching alert is distributed in March-May and October-December corresponding to the seasons of the warmest SST in Indonesia.

When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white or bright colours

Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.

In 1998 and 2010, the Indonesia was effected by bleaching and a lot of its coral reefs in one year due to a massive bleaching event.
Not all bleaching events are due to warm water.

In January 2010, cold water temperatures in the Florida Keys caused a coral bleaching event that resulted in some coral death. Water temperatures dropped -6.7 degrees Celsius (20 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than the typical temperatures observed at this time of year. Researchers will evaluate if this cold-stress event will make corals more susceptible to disease in the same way that warmer waters impact corals.

Sea Cucumber Facts

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There are some 1000 over species of sea cucumbers and most of them are shaped like soft bodied cucumbers, thereby giving them their name of sea cucumbers. Around the Gili Islands ,Indonesiayou will see for sure different kind of sea cucumbers. On everey divesite around Lombok they are there.

All of them are ocean floor dwellers, with many of them living in extremely deep waters. In fact, sea cucumbers form up to 80% of the entire animal mass that occupy the deep ocean floor.

Sea cucumbers feed on tiny little particles; some of them are filter feeders, filtering tiny particles in the moving water with their feathery feelers and some of them clean sand particles of any algae or organic material for food and these are further digested by bacteria in its gut to recycle nutrients back into the sea when the sea cucumber excretes them.

There are few marine animals that feed on sea cucumbers, particularly since almost all sea cucumbers have some form of chemical defence that makes them disgusting to their predators and sometimes dangerous as well.

However, that didn’t prevent humans from becoming the single largest predator of sea cucumbers. In fact, some species of sea cucumbers have been so over harvested by humans that they face dwindling populations and some becoming endangered even.

Sea cucumbers can reproduce very well; even in the absence of other sea cucumbers, they can reproduce asexually. In places where human activity has not impacted sea cucumber populations, sea cucumbers flourish, especially in the deep oceans. Sea cucumbers usually reproduce sexually though, but they do so by releasing their sperm and eggs into the water in large quantities as do most echinoderms.

The egg is fertilized when it meets a sperm in the water, but in certain species, fertilized eggs are taken into an adult sea cucumber body and develops within it. When the young sea cucumber grows large enough, they are expelled from the adult.

Sea cucumbers are much more motile then their relatives the sea urchins and starfishes, so most people can appreciate that they are animals rather than plants. But like their relatives, sea cucumbers don’t have a brain and they actually have a pentagonal symmetry. It sure doesn’t look that way, but that is why sea cucumbers are a special lot among their family.

Like its relatives the starfish and the sea urchins, sea cucumbers are a subject of much interest, from its strange anatomy to its legendary healing powers.

Many of these sea cucumber facts are so fascinating that they border on the edge of myth and legends. However, some of these “myth” do have their truths or at least half truths contained within them.

Sea cucumbers are said to be hollow tubes without substance inside, they can squeeze through holes smaller than themselves by turning into liquid and reforming again. They can also live without any organs and reproduce asexually by themselves.

In reading the above, one would find it hard to believe that sea cucumbers are actual living creatures. So how much of it is true?

Sea Cucumbers do not have a Brain

Sea cucumbers and starfishes belong to the same class of organisms known as Echinoderms. Like starfishes, sea cucumbers do not have a brain. Instead, they have a ring of neural tissue surrounding their oral cavity that functions in-lieu of a true brain. However, experiments have shown that the sea cucumber is still about to function normally if this part of the animal is removed, showing that it doesn’t serve a central control function and is therefore not a real brain.

In fact, sea cucumbers not only can live without a brain, they can also live without any organs.

Sea Cucumber can Survive without any Organs

Sea cucumbers have amazing regenerative powers and one way by which this is demonstrated is by being able to replace lost organs. A sea cucumber sometimes defend itself by violently contracting itself and expelling its organs, yes, you got it right, its own organs onto a predator. The predator becomes stunned and confuse, allowing the sea cucumber time to get away. If you were the predator, you would be stunned too.

So how does a sea cucumber live without its organs? Sea cucumbers have relatively simple internal organs and can actually live without them for a period of time. If that’s not fantastic enough, they actually grow back those organs after a while.

Sea Cucumbers can Squeeze Through Holes Smaller than itself

Sea cucumbers have been said to be able to liquefy themselves and flow through cracks, and remarkably, this is actually true. Sea cucumbers have something called the catch collagen that forms their body wall. This can be loosened and tightened at will, so sea cucumbers can in fact liquefy its body and “flow” across cracks smaller than itself. In fact, sea cucumbers can not only liquefy themselves, they can also harden themselves to resist attacks from predators using the same catch collagen.

Sea cucumbers are found commonly in restaurants and also in medical halls as an important ingredient in many Chinese traditional medicine formulas.

Sea cucumbers are said to have excellent healing properties, in part due to its ability to regenerate loss organs. Many traditional medicine are founded on basis of like begets like, meaning animals like sea cucumbers with their incredible regenerative abilities are thought to be able to impart similar healing properties to those who eat them.

Although the basis may seem unscientific, the fact is recent scientific studies on sea cucumbers show that extracts from sea cucumbers have shown to contain active ingredients that promote cell growth and regeneration.

Traditional medicine in East Asia and South East Asia all use various species of sea cucumber as medicinal ingredient. Pharmaceutical companies have begun to make sea cucumber extraction into oil or cream as beauty products.

Chinese culture typically marries food and preventive medication into a set of lifestyle and philosophy. The Chinese believe in eating as a form of maintaining good health and it is very common to see food items with medicinal value. Sea cucumbers form one part of such food items and such food items usually have a price proportional to its purported medicinal benefits.

Sea cucumbers are considered high end delicacies in Chinese cuisines, testament to their status in both Chinese food and Chinese medicine. Consumption of sea cucumbers go a long way back in Asia and in the old days before refrigerators were invented, sea cucumbers were dried as a means of preservation so that they can be transported inland where they fetch even higher prices.

Sea cucumbers are usually found in Chinese restaurants where they are cooked with Chinese flower mushrooms, also known as shiitake, as well as Chinese cabbage. It is cooked in a relatively thick oyster sauce.

Another popular way which sea cucumbers are consumed is by brewing them in soup. They are usually cooked with a concoction of other medical herbs and usually chicken broth to form a medicinal soup.

Sea cucumbers by themselves do not boast of any special flavor or great taste. In fact, sea cucumbers are described as tasteless, therefore requiring them to be cooked with other ingredients with a strong aroma, like oyster sauce or chicken broth which imparts to the sea cucumber their flavor.

The texture of sea cucumbers is described as spongy and fairly tough, so they usually need to be cooked under high heat or cooked for long hours to be palatable. However, sea cucumbers are not valued for their taste but for their health benefits, therefore they continue to remain as expensive delicacies despite not having an exceptional taste to boot.