Tatawa Island
Tatawa Besar (Big Tatawa) and Tatawa Kecil (Big Tatawa) are two
bare rock in close proximity and exposed to the full of the currents
thar rage through Linta strait.
The first stage of your dive can happen rather quickly and will
require all of your attention as you are hit with an up-current
just before you reach the split in the current. Then you'll descend
down the endless sloping reef of orange soft corals that runs along
the western coast of this island, to around 20 metres.
Turtles seem to be everywhere and you can expect to see many as
you navigate the site. Before you leave the currents behind watch
out for the blacktip reef sharks, giant trevallies, great and black-tail
barracudas. Manta rays also make occasional guest appearances.
Once you round the southern corner, the rollercoaster is over for
this dive and you'll have time to appreciate the remainder of your
stay at this beautiful Komodo scuba diving site. Bumphead parrotfish
are resident here and you're likely to meet quite few of them in
loose groups.
Further south and slightly west of Tatawa Besar is a rocky islet
called Batu Besar, meaning big stone, and this is the location of
a dive site called 'Current City'. Diving in Komodo often takes
the form of drift dives. East of the Batu Besar, as the name suggests,
currents can regularly exceed 3 knots, making for some serious drift
diving. If the current is this strong along the east face however,
it is usually fairly calm along the west.
The west face of Batu Besar offers a series of steep drops to about
30 metres, and several interesting coral caves. The soft coral cover
is very good, and there are lots of fish, including large schools
of sweetlips. Sharks are again common here, as are turtles and very
large fantail stingrays.
Also to the south of Tatawa Besar is Tatawa Kecil ("Little
Tatawa"). It's best to dive the west coast of this island to
explore its vibrant shallow coral gardens full of anthias. Its caves
and boulders are perfect harbours for larger groupers. There are
also large schools of humpback snapper, titan triggerfish and the
occassional orange-spotted trevally.
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