Has anyone personally seen hammerhead schools in the Banda Sea?
- Thread starter Kelle
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To the op.....yes! Just returned home 3 days ago. On dusk dive saw a school of 300+ at around 120-150 ft deep, dawn dive smaller school 100+ at 90-120 feet. We were on B!he Manga Sorong to Ambon Oct 20th till Oct 31st. They did say previous trip the week before they struck out. Go early in season before water warns up. But it is a roll of the dice....Bill
billt4sf
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Dan
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Cool! Looking forward to my ROF 2019 trip with Blue Manta. I hope I'll be as lucky as you.
reubencahn
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Another data point. Just got off the Tambora. Over the past two weeks water had warmed significantly. Only a couple of schools were seen and those at a distance. Still saw a number of individual hammers including some very big ones. I guess the lesson is get there in late September/early October.
How deep was the thermocline? Below 30m?
reubencahn
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Varied widely. Sometimes just over 10 meters. Sometimes over 30. Above the thermocline, water was very warm, as high as 86 F and averaging 84F.
Dan
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I learnt the hard way last year. Couldn’t even go to Banda due to bad weather, Nov 20 - Dec 2, 2017 Ambon - Sorong Crossing Trip Report
We’ll try it again next year for September, Ring of Fire September 9-19, 2019
Dan
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I was able to get the picture of the Tiger shark that was taken by the diver who went to Cocos in August. Tiger shark made a flyby above the diver's head. You can see its eyes rolled up to protect them from getting poked.
After seeing that, DM pulled his poker out & called everyone to gather.
Hubby is home now after a month in Indonesia and yes they saw the large school of hammerheads in the Banda Sea at Nils Desperandum Reef. Chatting with other operators whilst at sea, he found out that the hammers school was also seen at Serua, Nila, Manuk and Karang Hatta just outside Banda Neira. There are many sites where the schools can be seen (also Nusa Laut) and whilst LoBs are increasing in the area and unfortunately some still jump in on you and crowd the site, for the most part everyone works together to give their guests the best experience.
Re Solitude... a pal was on a couple of their trips out of Ambon and saw loads of hammers (photos posted on facebook), so guess they know what they are doing ;-)
We thought about Cocos but the long crossing out there and colder water put some of our buddies off so we've just booked Samambaia for 2021 for an Ambon-Ambon trip that also goes to Lucipara and Gunung Api.... there's so much more to the trip than just the hammers though... such as the gorgeous reefs at Terbang, and the sea snakes in Manuk... only 3 years to wait!
Re Solitude... a pal was on a couple of their trips out of Ambon and saw loads of hammers (photos posted on facebook), so guess they know what they are doing ;-)
We thought about Cocos but the long crossing out there and colder water put some of our buddies off so we've just booked Samambaia for 2021 for an Ambon-Ambon trip that also goes to Lucipara and Gunung Api.... there's so much more to the trip than just the hammers though... such as the gorgeous reefs at Terbang, and the sea snakes in Manuk... only 3 years to wait!
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