Trip Report BANDA SEA DIVE SITES - WHAT TO EXPECT TO SEE - 4K HDR Video Report

[Dan]

On my trip we started with 2 dives in Ambon since the departure was in the afternoon and I was there early and those 2 dives held out some great macro subjects. Of course I'm a fiend for macro, I showed up 2 days early to do some diving in Ambon specifically.

BTW, Bandaneira also has a great muck diving site, Mandarin Slope

 

[JonnieB]

Nice video. With the exception of the healthy hard and soft coral variety, and the Napoleon Wrasse and Clown Trigger Fish, everything in this video can be seen on a $30 shore dive from Kata Beach, Phuket.

Shore Diving Kata Beach/Reef - Varied Marine Life

There is an amazing variety of marine life literally meters offshore from Kata Beach...the hard coral garden and sandy bottom in Kata Bay hold a myriad of marine life from schools of barracuda to moray eels to deadly stonefish to cute seahorses and everything in-between. In this thread I'll post...

scubaboard.com

 

[Dan]

Nice video. With the exception of the healthy hard and soft coral variety, and the Napoleon Wrasse and Clown Trigger Fish, everything in this video can be seen on a $30 shore dive from Kata Beach, Phuket.

Shore Diving Kata Beach/Reef - Varied Marine Life

There is an amazing variety of marine life literally meters offshore from Kata Beach...the hard coral garden and sandy bottom in Kata Bay hold a myriad of marine life from schools of barracuda to moray eels to deadly stonefish to cute seahorses and everything in-between. In this thread I'll post...

scubaboard.com

Not whales, I bet.

 

[Joneill]

Nice video. With the exception of the healthy hard and soft coral variety, and the Napoleon Wrasse and Clown Trigger Fish, everything in this video can be seen on a $30 shore dive from Kata Beach, Phuket.

Shore Diving Kata Beach/Reef - Varied Marine Life

There is an amazing variety of marine life literally meters offshore from Kata Beach...the hard coral garden and sandy bottom in Kata Bay hold a myriad of marine life from schools of barracuda to moray eels to deadly stonefish to cute seahorses and everything in-between. In this thread I'll post...

scubaboard.com

Great - but completely off-topic as the thread is about the Banda Sea…

 

[CWK]

This 4K HDR video is about our experience of diving in the Banda Sea during a 10-day scuba diving trip through the Banda Sea, Seram Sea and the Misool in October 2022. The video will give you an idea what to expect to see diving in the Banda Sea.

Happy New Year!

Nice video. What boat were you on? Thanks

 

[JonnieB]

Great - but completely off-topic as the thread is about the Banda Sea…

It is topical because of the cost in time and money to dive the Banda Sea, and if someone likes what they see in this video, there are cheaper options.

 

[Dan]

It is topical because of the cost in time and money to dive the Banda Sea, and if someone likes what they see in this video, there are cheaper options.

Banda Sea offers more than what has been shown in the video. It’s unfortunate that @Laval didn’t see what I saw in 2019 & in 2022. Besides the usual fishes & critters in western Pacific, I saw several whales, schooling hammerheads, two kinds of sea snakes, schooling Banda Sea snakes, Rhinopias, Orangutan crabs, Pygmy Seahorses, Bumphead Parrotfish, other endemic fishes & critters that I doubt to see in Kata Beach.

Here are some of what I saw in 2019 in Banda Sea, to give you a different perspective of what Banda Sea can offer. Having the right dive operators that know where & when to take you to see those fishes & critters are also important.

I’m from USA. The cost to go to Thailand vs to Indonesia from USA is about the same.

 

[matts1w]

Nice video. With the exception of the healthy hard and soft coral variety, and the Napoleon Wrasse and Clown Trigger Fish, everything in this video can be seen on a $30 shore dive from Kata Beach, Phuket.

Shore Diving Kata Beach/Reef - Varied Marine Life

There is an amazing variety of marine life literally meters offshore from Kata Beach...the hard coral garden and sandy bottom in Kata Bay hold a myriad of marine life from schools of barracuda to moray eels to deadly stonefish to cute seahorses and everything in-between. In this thread I'll post...

scubaboard.com

For sure. In fact, all of the diving off Phuket certainly rivals that of the Banda Sea.

 

[Luko]

Banda Sea offers more than what has been shown in the video. It’s unfortunate that @Laval didn’t see what I saw in 2019 & in 2022. Besides the usual fishes & critters in western Pacific, I saw several whales, schooling hammerheads, two kinds of sea snakes, schooling Banda Sea snakes, Rhinopias, Orangutan crabs, Pygmy Seahorses, Bumphead Parrotfish, other endemic fishes & critters that I doubt to see in Kata Beach.

Videographer Alex del Olmo won this year's DPG/Wetpixel masters with a video on Banda Sea.
Leaving aside the incredible quality of the footage he took, the diversity shown is simply fantastic.

I mean comparing it to a sandy shore dive on Kata is simply ridiculous.

 

[dirtfarmer]

Videographer Alex del Olmo won this year's DPG/Wetpixel masters with a video on Banda Sea.
Leaving aside the incredible quality of the footage he took, the diversity shown is simply fantastic.

I mean comparing it to a sandy shore dive on Kata is simply ridiculous.

I met Alex in Anilao when he had quit his job teaching cinematography and was just starting on a round the world dive trip. After he told me what he was up to I said "i geuss after your trip is done your just going to have to kill yourself". He thought it was poignant and hilarious.
I wish I could say I taught him cinematography skills, but I did teach him how to exit a muck site and not kick up a sand storm after shooting a critter. He ended up as a CD on the Seven Seas in Indonesia and has been winning alot of medals for his videos.