Lembeh - are we doing it wrong?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Cetacean, I would never rely so much on my own memories in comparing dives now with 17 years ago. What is Peak-End Theory? A Psychologist Explains How Our Memory Fools Us
With all due respect, but 150 dives over such a long period is not really much more than an individual impression. By the way, we offer the very affordable service of a private boat. Some of our guests prefer to have an individual private guide as well. A guarantee to get as much as you can out of your dives here.
 
150 Dives over 12 trips over 17 years is a little more than that... and yes - I'm very familiar with how our memory works.

Lembeh is still very good - but not as good as it once was (due to a combination of diving pressure, increased run off/pollution, and construction). Still worth diving, but unless some serious conservation efforts are put in place 10 years from now it likely won't be (which would be very unfortunate).
 
W
150 Dives over 12 trips over 17 years is a little more than that... and yes - I'm very familiar with how our memory works.

Lembeh is still very good - but not as good as it once was (due to a combination of diving pressure, increased run off/pollution, and construction). Still worth diving, but unless some serious conservation efforts are put in place 10 years from now it likely won't be (which would be very unfortunate).

With all due respect to your opinion and personal experience, but that is what is is: an anecdote, not a scientific study. Many of our guests would not agree with you. Some of them diving here, at least one trip each year, since the early days of KBR and with us when we were still based at Benteng Resort. You are correct about that sedimentation, but the garbage from Bitung city is far less than 15 years ago; this is true for the oil spills too. And and over the years we found many new excellent sites. Most of all, the cumulative knowledge of all guides is much bigger now than in the early days. The days before we ever heard about a Pontohi Seahorse, when we did not know yet that the Mimic and the Wonderpus were not the same and nobody noticed there was such a thing as the Lembeh Sea dragon.
 
W
150 Dives over 12 trips over 17 years is a little more than that... and yes - I'm very familiar with how our memory works.

Lembeh is still very good - but not as good as it once was (due to a combination of diving pressure, increased run off/pollution, and construction). Still worth diving, but unless some serious conservation efforts are put in place 10 years from now it likely won't be (which would be very unfortunate).

With all due respect to your opinion and personal experience, but that is what is is: an anecdote, not a scientific study. Many of our guests would not agree with you. Some of them diving here, at least one trip each year, since the early days of KBR and with us when we were still based at Benteng Resort. You are correct about that sedimentation, but the garbage from Bitung city is far less than 15 years ago; this is true for the oil spills too. And and over the years we found many new excellent sites. Most of all, the cumulative knowledge of all guides is much bigger now than in the early days. The days before we ever heard about a Pontohi Seahorse, when we did not know yet that the Mimic and the Wonderpus were not the same and nobody noticed there was such a thing as the Lembeh Sea dragon.
 
Interesting comments from Cetacean and Indah. I recall also KBR when it was the only and a simple dive resort. Our first dive was with Liberty. On subsequent visits after a big gap, I thought that our favourite dive site from the first visit was not so populated - everyone at KBR was raving about Jahir on our first visit. But season, weather, current make a difference. Now the knowledge of variety is much greater and so rewarding. First dive with Divers Lodge Lembeh was just off the port. Horrendous rubbish but stunning range of critters/fish. I think the rubbish is decreasing - keep up the pressure Indah. Guides at DLL and NAD were excellent. Give the guides all the help you can by telling them, preferably when you arrive, of anything you particularly want to see, or don't want to see and the way you want to dive. Speak to them - they aren't clairvoyant, but take no nonsense like them taking photos. There are other better dive guides that deserve their job.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom