Not many people feel the urge to go diving on underwater rubbish dumps or in areas of silt and rubble underneath busy fishing jetties and piers or for that matter on black sand slopes, to the untrained eye like barren deserts seemingly devoid of life.
See below a short 5 min. film by All4Diving’s Justin Anderson based around the muck diving environments to be found in Ambon, Maluku Province to get an idea of what lays in store for the adventurous diver looking for that totally different thrill.
Well all of these environments in Indonesia attract divers from far and wide as it is in these surprising places, far from the postcard image of sun dappled coral reefs bordering palm fringed tropical coastline teeming with colorful fish, that you can find the most unusual and beautiful marine creatures that are attracted to the rubbish, rubble, weed, and black sand.
Divers and photographers make dedicated trips to Indonesia to dive in places like the Lembeh Strait and Ambon in hope of catching glimpses of these unusual underwater critters such as the amazing and mesmerizing Flamboyant Cuttlefish, the Mimic Octopus, the Wonderpus, crazy Frogfish, Rhinopias and many many more. It seems these creatures can only be found with some degree of certainty in these very muck habitats.
The thrill of finding the weird and unusual creatures is like an underwater treasure hunt, flying slowly over the black sand slopes completely focused, utterly consumed in concentration, eyes scanning every rock and patch of weed, for the critters that may be camouflaged amongst them, breathing slow, buoyancy perfect, a perfect meditation and then a spike of adrenaline as a rare creature jumps into focus……
All 4 Diving Indonesia travel team can organize dedicated muck diving safaris around Bali as well as Liveaboard trips starting or finishing in Ambon and the Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi.
