Fri 1
Sep
2006
Just wanting to share this picture with all of you….
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Re: Safety and code of conduct for divers @ Manta Point Nusa Penida
Friends of the ocean, I write this post to seek your comments on the current situation @ Manta Point, Nusa Penida. I’ve spent 17 days diving at this site to catalogue the mantas and also observe the relationship between eco-tourism and the number of mantas coming in daily.
On one ocassion diving there, I witnessed a dive operator moving his/her boat just above the cleaning station with live engines running, picking up their divers even though there are other divers below the boat at 5metres. This is very dangerous for any divers there and we as customers should advise the dive operators to inform the divers to swim out further before being picked up by their respective dive boats. This is an accident waiting to happen should this practise keeps occuring.
The other situation was while observing mantas coming in to clean, a group of chinese divers swam up to the top of the cleaning station and stayed there with the manta. One diver / guide even pushed himself/herself up and touched the manta’s underside, scaring it away. It might not mean anything to the diver but to the mantas this might just scare them away and they may never return again.
Should we wish to see these majestic gentle giants in our future at the same dive site, we should preserve what we have now. Educate safe diving practises and refrain from touching mantas. We can have a future together.
Cheers
Ivan Choong
Flying Manta Project Researcher
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5 Responses to “Mola Mola - Crystal Bay & Diving @ Manta Point”
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September 1st, 2006 at 12:10:02
Ivan.. I agree with you! Education is the key.. We have to do this for the future. Some people did something ‘wrong’ coz they did not know the effects. People who knows (having enough knowledge about this) should tell them. I myself want to know more about manta and mola-mola.
Please let me know if there is a project to do this. I would love to support and help.. I love these majestic giants; the manta and mola-mola too (I’m still curious with moli-moli that u told me
) and if I could I want to save their future..
September 2nd, 2006 at 00:10:05
Amen! In America we always have to swim back to the boat, no one picks you up. Very rare that they do. They put out a few hundred foot lines you can grab. Indonesia is the best place in the world to dive, just hope it stays that way. So many places have gone down hill since I leant to dive 30 years ago. I used to go to the Caribbean all the time and now it is just a bath tub to me. Takes everyone to care about the marine life and other divers.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:13:29
Yes, I couldn’t agree with you guys more about, education is the key. In Bali sometimes there’s a turtle satay vendor and usually their customers are just some ignorant tourists. I must admit that I found myself guilty a couple years back. I purchased and ate it
but that was way before I become a diver.
Now, I always try to redeem myself by giving an explanation to my friends why they shouldn’t eat it. Of course not everybody has the same awareness like we do but I could only hope that if we try to spread the message so that everyone will know better then the practice will stop by itself.
Anyway.. nice pic on the mola2. Too bad I didn’t get a chance to see it on my last trip.. maybe next year.
January 31st, 2007 at 13:22:47
Ivan, what strobe did you use to take this picture? This is a good sample of how a compact (prosumer, though) can produce a good underwater picture.
January 31st, 2007 at 23:42:09
This was taken with Dual Inon D2000W TTL strobe. Thank you for your comments.
I will be heading to Bali in August this year to carry out Phase II of my Manta Research.