Komodo National Park – Day 6: Shark Soup
KOMODO NATIONAL PARK
Day 6: Shark Soup
May 20, 2023
PART I
I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and the realisation that I’d probably get to watch the Grey’s Anatomy finale once we’d reach civilisation again, considering the download was still at 43%. You have no idea what that means to a die-hard Grey’s fan and being unable to watch the culmination of an entire season. You have no idea…
Luckily, I did have a good distraction – another day of diving awaited us. Our first one would be Crystal Rock – a sea mount featuring one of the most beautiful coral gardens in Komodo. We descended straight down, with a whitetip reef shark furrowing in between a school of fusiliers being our first sight. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this site was the variety and quantity of fish, with huge shoals of fish of all kinds everywhere you look – fusiliers, damselfish, glassfish, anchovies, anthias, barracudas. Much like in Mayhem back in Raja Ampat, it was also quite chaotic, with reef sharks and giant trevallies swimming amongst them, then speeding up out of the blue to catch their prey, resulting in the immediate dispersal of the others. Smaller groups of surgeonfish, bannerfish, batfish, and sweetlips, on the other hand, hung out next to them undisturbed, without a care in the world.
As incredible as it was, I found myself endlessly fascinated by two whitetips and a giant trevally circling around this one big rock. They’d do this repeatedly until at one point, they’d break away on opposite sides to corner some unsuspecting fish lying in between the ferocious beasts. This, Indra told me, is a common hunting technique employed by these fish resulting in a more successful hunt. So friggin’ cool! It only took one thing to ruin their strategy though – Anurag chasing them with his big ass camera. This guy…
Castle Rock
Next up was a Komodo favourite – Castle Rock. This dive site is infamous amongst divers as being one of the coolest and most challenging, with Daniel telling us his friend got lost from his group a week previously, only to be found after an hour or so.
As such, the briefing for this one was a long one too – with Chen Yang having to translate everything all over. The rest of his cohort seemed as uninterested in the Chinese version as they did during Darmin’s explanation, always on their phones or staring blankly into the apparent nothingness. Not only did it seem disrespectful, it also seemed to spell disaster. Meanwhile, I tried to absorb every single piece of information – I’d had enough diving incidents in my logbook to last me an entire lifetime!
After this, we all proceeded to the diving deck to get ready for a promising dive. Here, the current would be super strong. We were each given a reef hook, something that would definitely come in handy. Never having used one before, I did feel a bit nervous about using it for the first time in such conditions. As they say, experience is the best teacher. And so, after taking the plunge, we found ourselves atop the seamount, with Indra immediately pointing us towards the desired location. Only to get there, we had to swim against the current – and this one was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. It was definitely stronger than that in Shotgun.
We kicked and kicked, making little distance despite our best efforts. Meanwhile, Indra looked as if he was gliding easily, seemingly unaffected by the current. I swear, that guy must’ve been a manta in another life. Truly impressive… When we got to the area Darmin had described, we each made use of our reef hooks, Coxswain-style, finally allowing us to catch our breath and relax as we hung there suspended in the big blue. It was this weird mix of exhilaration and fear standing there doing nothing with the current trying its best to sweep us away. Never having used a reef hook before, I wasn’t quite sure how much I could trust it to hold me in place, but thankfully, it did. And so, I could enjoy the spectacle unfolding in front of my eyes.
It's Shark Soup Out There!
No wonder this is one of the most popular dive sites in Komodo. Once you get to the edge of the sea mount, you just lay there and lay witness to dozens of sharks as they go about their hunt. I’m not kidding, we must have seen at least fifty of them by the end. It was a shark soup down there!Â
Tons of whitetips, a few blacktips, and then, the crème de la crème; a grey reef shark! Whilst the visibility here wasn’t the absolute best, distinguishing the latter from the rest was an easy task, with the unmistakeable beast having a broader body and a more sinister look to it. In a way, it kinda looked like a mix of the other two species, with its dorsal fin tipped by a dash of white and its tail similar to that of blacktips. Whilst they are not usually aggressive, there have been reports of grey reef sharks exhibiting a threat display when cornered by divers – lowering their dorsal fins and arching their backs in preparation for an attack. As cool as that might be, I was grateful we didn’t get to see that.
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After some fifteen minutes, Indra then signalled us to unhook and swim towards a calmer area where we’d be doing our safety stop. Once at the surface, we were once again aware of our luck, with two other groups having failed to get to the site because of the current, aborting their dive after a few minutes. The other group, on the other hand, had a ton of technical issues, with their divemaster having to use one of the clients’ air after running low whilst trying to hook everyone to the reef – the rocks they had attached their hooks on being loose. Must’ve been a nightmare for the poor guy! At least he did a great job and the rest of his group got to enjoy the view.
PART II
Defeating FOMO for a Study Session
Up until we had lunch, the staff still hadn’t figured out where the third dive would be – given the variability of the currents. And so, when the damned bell convened us for the briefing, you can imagine our surprise when they announced where we’d be going… Drum roll…. Shotgun! Yes, again.
Turns out, the other sites had unfavourable conditions and it wouldn’t be feasible to sail elsewhere for the time being. After two weeks of constant diving, interrupted only by a few days of exhausting travelling, I took this opportunity to skip out on the dive and actually get some rest and catch up with my studying. I mean yeah, visiting the same site doesn’t mean I’d get to see the same exact thing, but with this one focusing more on the thrill of the current, I figured I wouldn’t perish under my usual FOMO.
And so, I finally had an afternoon to myself. Well, okay, not entirely to myself, considering the Chinese gang skipped it too. But at least I did have a nap and I covered as many pages as I otherwise would in a couple of days, so I guess it was time well-spent. And the rest said the current was less strong and they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I guess it was a win-win for me.
Night Dive at Gili Lawa Darat
And that left us with the night dive. After the previous one, you can imagine how excited I was for this one. Darmin lowered our expectations a bit, affirming that here in West Gili Lawa Darat, we were likely to see less stuff and that blue-ringed octopi are exceptionally rare. That said, my enthusiasm wasn’t quite curbed.
He was right though. It was a pretty uneventful dive, save for a twinspot lionfish I found hidden inside a recess within the reef. Beautiful, gorgeous little thing. Reminded me of a Japanese geisha! Other than that, it was mostly sea cucumbers and reef crabs.
Having said that, it was an incredibly pleasant dive – relaxing and calming, a much-needed one after all those tiring dives amidst the strong currents!