19 Sept 2025
I’m still consistantly waking up around 0530, but it means I’m always up for sunrise!
Today is another 4-dive day:
(hops on a beach=hopping onto the beach for a bit, not beers on the beach, though you could grab a drink to bring along if you’d like)
I thought we’d be making our way down further into the Banda Sea, to those little islands in the south:
But it seems like we’ll be spending most of our time here in the north:
Dive #20 – Lava Flow
It’s a bit hard to see from this picture, but there’s a black streak running down the right side of the volcano Api- that’s the old flow from when it last erupted in 1988 and where we’ll be diving today:
Blacklip butterflyfish:
Double-saddle butterflyfish:
Yellowtail wrasse:
Triangle butterflyfish:
Phantom bannerfish:
Cleaner wrasse:
Psuedobiceros bedfordi:
Many-spotted sweetlips:
Not the best shot of this spotted boxfish, but the pattern on this coral-encrusting sponge is pretty cool (minus the fact that it’s killing this coral):
Eeltail catfish:
Bandcheek wrasse:
Panda butterflyfish:
Slender grouper:
Oval butterflyfish:
Black-and-gold chromis:
Foxface rabbitfish:
Arrowhead soapfish:
Two-spined angelfish:
Slingjaw wrasse:
Spotfin lionfish:
Pinktail triggerfish:
Redtoothed triggerfish:
Juvenile midnight snapper:
Staghorn damselfish:
Lined bristletooth:
One of the divers on my boat had been here before and was incredibly vocal about how he thought this was a terrible dive site, but I have to disagree- this was a great dive! Such a great variety of fish life- I’d happily dive here again any day!
It may not look like much from this view, but this little island, Nailaka:
looks like a dolphin from above:
(another reason for me to get a drone!)
Welcome to Nailakka:
I had seen a few birds on our approach- they kept doing this thing where they’d stick their wings straight up and run, but of course they stopped doing it as soon as I pulled out the camera:
Pacific reef heron:
Learned that Cedric can juggle:
Looking back toward Run:
Back in the day, this island was held by the British as they tried to break into the nutmeg trade. I don’t remember all of the details, but eventually it was traded for the island of Manhattan.
We only stayed ashore for a short while before heading back to the boat to do some diving- our next dive will be in the reefs surrounding this little island.
Dive #21 – Nailaka
It doesn’t come across great in still photo- video would be better here- but this is an electric clam:
Jorunna funebris:
Clown triggerfish:
Not a great picture, but check out the lips on this little Bicolor fangblenny!
Crinoid shrimp:
Threespot dascyllus being cleaned:
Blackback butterflyfish:
Map puffer:
such an odd, lumpy fish!
Checkerboard wrasse:
Saddle butterflyfish:
The little not-Nemo kept trying to burrow further into his anemone:
A whole pack of Threespot dascyllus:
Scorpionfish #1:
Scorpionfish #2:
and a small school of Striped bream (plus a couple Yellowfin goatfish):
Dive #22 – Broadway
ooo! Barracuda!
Not the best shot, but I love the dark rainbow on this Tricolor parrotfish:
Longnose hawkfish:
Another fish I’ve been trying all trip to capture, the Slingjaw wrasse:
…not sure why he tipped over, but he rubbed his side on this rock then swam off:
Strange.
Threespot dascyllus cleaning station:
I may have started getting hungry on this dive (my guts are doing better and the tea and toast I’ve been living on for the past couple days isn’t quite enough fuel), so I decided to focus on fish eating 🙂
Blacklip butterflyfish (top/right) and Vagabond butterflyfish (bottom/left):
This anthias isn’t in my fish book…
Scythe triggerfish:
Lined bristletooth being cleaned:
Scrawled butterflyfish:
Scorpionfish face:
Hypselodoris tyroni:
Shadowfin soldierfish:
We headed back toward the Banda Islands for tonight’s dive and the top of volcano Api was finally visible!
Goodnight, Banda Sea!
Hello, night fish!
Dive #23 – Green Light
One last night dive! I was hoping to start down in the sand, because that’s where the fun critters are, but my group started on the wall instead 🙁 Still found some neat things like this little trumpetfish:
A chunky Jorunna funebris:
Solor boxfish:
One of our guides pointed to this and signaled ‘nudibranch’ and I though she crazy- to me, it looked just like a piece of schmutz. It was all of maybe 5mm, which is pushing the limits of what my camera can do, but I took its picture anyway and sure enough- it’s got gills and rhinophores (tail feathers and antennas) and little oral tentacles!
I couldn’t find an exact match in the fish book, but it’s pretty close to a Trapania sp. 7, so I think it’s at least in that family.
A pack of the smallest Eeltail catfish I’ve ever seen- they were maybe 2″/5cm long!
Juvenile batfish:
Cuttlefish!
This poor guy had been spotted by another group first and was definitely over being harassed by our lights, so I just snapped one picture then let him be.
Scorpionfish, not at all hidden:
If I hadn’t seen one of these guys before, I would not have believed it was a nudi:
I mean, techinically, it’s a sea snail, a Coriocella nigra, but his shell is inside and anything slug-like falls into the “nudi” category as far as I’m concerned.
(I’m also not sure which end is which- I’m really hoping this isn’t the butt…)
A snail with an external shell!
Phyllidia elegans:
Little Twinspot lionfish:
He also has some interesting pectoral fins:
Lunker crab!
Hermit crab with a fun spiral shell:
Hairy Reef lobster:
Slipper lobster:
Lizardfish:
they have such creepy mouths!
Banded coral shrimp:
Another bold crab on the move:
Damselfish in the ‘sleeping’ coloration:
AHH! my favorite- a sleeping Redtoothed triggerfish! They dive headfirst into their holes but always leave their tails hanging out!
And now, even though it’s late (like 8p, which is almost my bedtime), it’s time for a BBQ! They set up a grilling station on the dive platform:
and cooked up so much tasty food!
I tried to sample a little bit of everything, but even with just a small portion of each, I was so stuffed! A seriously delicious meal!
It’s dark out here- almost no light pollution (though we’re anchored near Banda Neira so there is some now), but tonight is the first night I’ve been able to get a mostly clear shot of the stars (with the outline of the volcano Api below):
Good night!