Diving At The Ring Of Fire

Eastern Indonesia and the area between Bali to Papua is also know as “The Ring of Fire”. Famous for lots of volcanic activities which have created some unique underwater seascapes and inhabiting marine life.

The Banda Sea is famous for steep walls covered in soft corals, sponges and sea fans. Warm, clear blue waters full of smaller schooling fish is what attracts divers pretty much all year around. In the months of September, October and early November however, there might also be some bigger surprises passing by – schooling Hammerhead Sharks have been spotted in this area! Although we only get to see what might be the “left overs” from the big aggregations, it is still exciting to have a few of those shy and weird looking sharks right in front of us for a few seconds.

Whereas we were hoping if not expecting to see some bigger fish, we were certainly not
counting on a whale shark to pass by! This “little” guy, only a baby of around 4 m length,
surfaced right behind the boat as the last group of divers was coming back. Needless to say that everybody was back in the water with mask and snorkel in record time. For a fair few minutes the biggest shark in the world was hovering near the surface and gave us the opportunity to get real close – absolutely breathtaking!

Mermaid 1 Maumere-Alor-Banda Sea-Ambon Cruise
Oct 24 – Nov 4, 2016

by Sonja Geier
Videographer