Derawan
Derawan located near from Balikpapan, Kalimantan. Derawan island
have much terrain varied, from walls and fringing reef to caverns,
big Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas), whitetip, leopard and nurse
sharks, schooling barracudas, napoleon wrasses, cuttle fish, spanish
mackerel, jacks and batfishes, and ornamentalreef fishes hang out
in record densities and diversity.
At the base of the wooden pilings, which are swarmed with schooling
bait fish, there is wealth of reef fish, big and small. In five
meters of water diver might find crocodilefish, juvenile boxfish,
nudibranchs, ribbon eels and more common angelfish and Octopus.
The reef slopes gently down to 20-plus meters, where it is common
to see turtles, schools of humphead parrotfish and reef sharks.
Here I have found some of the most mind-boggling and bizarre critters
i have seen in years; luminous multi coloured dumpling squids, pairs
of 3 ft (1 meters) crocodile fishes, finger-sized purple sea horses
and unidentified species of worms, tunicates and dwarf scorpiofish.
The quality of diving around Derawan is indeed what divers dream
about I have been back four times and i will be back again, again
and again.
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