Ambon
AMBON-
a beautiful city located in the province of Maluku, far in the eastern side of
Indonesia. Despite of its relatively small size, the city is shared peacefully
between the friendly local citizens as well as the diverse marine life
surrounding Ambon. With no sandy beaches and only pebbles as sturdy grounds,
Ambon is not exactly the ideal location for sunbathing or any typical relaxing activities
in the sun. In fact, Ambon offers much more than that, the biodiversity of marine
ecosystems invites many local as well as international. From ashore, the water
may seem a bit murky and perhaps the least place you would expect to be rated
as one of the world’s top dive sites. However, beneath that murky and lifeless
looking surface of water, is actually home to many of the world’s strangest and
most interesting creatures; who are just eager to welcome you into their
habitat.
We stayed in the one and only dive resort in the whole of Ambon 'Maluku Divers'; they have the friendliest and most welcoming dive instructors, who are very kind and helpful. In addition to that, Maluku Divers serve the most delicious meals ever, they have such yummy food to fill the huge appetite you have after diving.
Diving in Ambon is mainly muck diving where you may find lots of interesting critters, including the leaf scorpion fish, it has a very thin and widespread body, and when you swim by, it is possible to mistakenly refer it as to only being ‘a leaf’; hence the name. However, if you look more carefully amongst the yellow halimade weeds, you will soon notice a pair of strange eyes, lurking mysteriously from side to side. Another critter that can be found swimming around the halimade weeds is the halimade ghost pipefish. Similar to its cousin, the ornate ghost pipefish, they like to play hide and seek, going in and out of the weeds. Once you’ve found them, don’t ever take your eyes off of them, as the moment you look away, they would retreat into their safety zone and disappear into their natural habitat. Pygmy seahorse is another lovely critter which may cause some trouble to find. They station themselves in a large sea fan, where they wrap their tails to one of the branches. Problem is, pigmy seahorses have an average height of only 2.5cm, their skin colour and texture does not help either as it looks identical to the branches of the sea fan. However, the pigmy seahorse is a really amazing and interesting critter, and it is definitely worth the search.
Other fascinating animal found in Ambon’s water includes frogfishes, which are quite rare in the world. Creatures that are less difficult to find, includes flounders or stonefishes. Stonefish is a very common animal in Ambon where you can find them lying lazily on the sandy seabed. You may have seen it many times, but you may not even notice its presence. This is mainly due to its bulky and rounded body shape, sandy skin and the lack of movement this animal makes; creating a close impression to a typical rock; camouflaging itself very well to the many stones and rocks occupying Ambon’s seabed.
Diving in Ambon is mainly muck diving where you may find lots of interesting critters, including the leaf scorpion fish, it has a very thin and widespread body, and when you swim by, it is possible to mistakenly refer it as to only being ‘a leaf’; hence the name. However, if you look more carefully amongst the yellow halimade weeds, you will soon notice a pair of strange eyes, lurking mysteriously from side to side. Another critter that can be found swimming around the halimade weeds is the halimade ghost pipefish. Similar to its cousin, the ornate ghost pipefish, they like to play hide and seek, going in and out of the weeds. Once you’ve found them, don’t ever take your eyes off of them, as the moment you look away, they would retreat into their safety zone and disappear into their natural habitat. Pygmy seahorse is another lovely critter which may cause some trouble to find. They station themselves in a large sea fan, where they wrap their tails to one of the branches. Problem is, pigmy seahorses have an average height of only 2.5cm, their skin colour and texture does not help either as it looks identical to the branches of the sea fan. However, the pigmy seahorse is a really amazing and interesting critter, and it is definitely worth the search.
Other fascinating animal found in Ambon’s water includes frogfishes, which are quite rare in the world. Creatures that are less difficult to find, includes flounders or stonefishes. Stonefish is a very common animal in Ambon where you can find them lying lazily on the sandy seabed. You may have seen it many times, but you may not even notice its presence. This is mainly due to its bulky and rounded body shape, sandy skin and the lack of movement this animal makes; creating a close impression to a typical rock; camouflaging itself very well to the many stones and rocks occupying Ambon’s seabed.