Plastic bags , old boots and discarded beer bottles are commonplace , and the first time you roll off the boat here you realise the dives are quite dark , which to a UK diver feels all too familiar .
This darkness is in part due to the black volcanic sand , typical of the area . You would think that this doesn ’ t make it sound like an appealing diving location but it ’ s truly incredible . You will hear stories from divers that they have been returning year after year for decades because there truly is no other place like Lembeh . This small area probably generates more competitionwinning underwater images than any other location in the world .
Critters on demand
There is a running joke that every dive briefing in Lembeh is the same - jump in , descend to about 20 metres and zig-zag back up the slope . It ’ s not completely true but very close to it . You need to hunt for critters and they are often very small , so the best way to do this is to cover as much of the seabed as possible .
I often thought that the dive guides here were magicians conjuring up incredible animals for me to see but much of it is understanding a bit of marine biology . You don ’ t really hunt for the critters themselves but their habitat . For instance , Coleman shrimp will only be found safely hiding behind the venomous spines of a fire urchin ; porcelain crabs live mostly on carpet anemones and super tiny Shaun the sheep only lives on one specific kind of algae . With the naked eye , this nudibranch just looks like a dark speck and it isn ’ t until you magnify them you can see their amazingly cute faces .
Tiny yellow gobies occupy a bottle
Everyone wants to see a hairy frogfish
Hypselodoris apolegma nudi laying eggs
Mantis shrimp in bottle
Shaun the Sheep nudibranch
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