I heard about some sightings around October. There are probability (bell) curves around any chance of seeing seasonal things. If I want to see one after travelling half around the world, I would like to be there at the peak of the season (the peak of the bell curve). I have tried to see them in October, November, December, June and July with no luck. The best one for me was in August during full moon. I saw 9 of them.
They are not easily found. I learnt the trick in how to find them on the last trip. DM told us to cruise in the shallow (~ 20m) along the edge of the wall with the wall on our left shoulders, while he was on the lookout to the blue at depth (~30m). Visibility was great, ~ 30m or more. There were 2 groups of 6-8 divers in front of us at 30m depth searching for them too. As soon as I saw my DM gave a sign for Mola Mola, I finned towards him. The 2 groups in front of us missed the sighting completely and kept on cruising.
By the time I was with the Mola Mola, the depth was 42m. When we were done enjoying the scenery and went back to the boat, I still had 1000 psi (68 bar) in my tank.
Depends on which curve you're talking about and what you call the peak of the curve. Observations from the last ten years show that if there is any curve, it could be a very flat and broad one, not all observations follow a centered reduced Gaussian law.
On the other hand, there's a kind of bell curve of sighting occurrences
within a season that can either start early or late, from July to the end of august. For instance this year the season seemed pretty late, for the unfortunates like me who dived Bali until mid/end august, they had very few chances to spot molamolas while it suddenly triggered in september.
i wouldn't be surprised if molamola reports were to be seen until the end of november.
In my last ten last years diving Bali I've seen molamola mostly end of august/september but also because I was there at the time, sometimes I had viewed on the net images of them a month before, and so often long after I was back home. There were also years were molas completely ignored the fact they had to show up in "peak season" while I was there too... but they still didn't, for my sins...
I strongly believe Molamola predictions follow the same pattern as a short time weather prediction : that is to say, you have more chances seeing them or not if they'd been spotted or not the day before.
The only correlation I'd seen so far is that you have to be freezing your butt and you should follow the bannerfish, I haven't noticed any other correlation with the moon cycle like for instance hammerhead sighting at some other place. I've seen Molamola on any phase of the moon, but it was always cold, there was a flock of bannerfish and also... I was there...
The tactics you describe with the guide exploring further down is also the one the guides of operation I'm diving with use on the wall type of diving like in Crystal bay for instance, (providing you get there early before the crowds who will do everything to frighten them), but it will be different on different bottoms such as Mimpang or Tepekong stations, or at Manta Point, Manta bay, etc. Sometimes you don't have to to be diving that deep to meet them typically, Mimpang is 25-28m.
I asked the question here before going to Facebook, no need to be aggressive... He is mentioning a dive site called "Gatal Point" but I don't find this site anywhere.
I'm just curious about where it is located.
He saw them for sure as he is sharing some videos, but again, I didn't hear or meet anybody during my 8 days at Nusa Penida seeing some.
Mmmh...who's agressive there, are you having a lower tolerance threshold case?
Yansu made his reply clear for all the questions, it's a new site he branded so no need either to be "surprized" you didn't hear about it nor nobody told you about. He manages an operation from Tulamben, Tulamben guides usually talk to Tulamben guides, as well as Padang Bai guides will talk to Padang Bai guides.
