Negative Lembeh experience

[bingodongo]

Just finishing 5 days in Lembeh. First time back since 2017 or so. I had absolutely legendary dives back then. SO much life. I was left bummed with my experience & left wondering if there is a drastic reduction in wildlife or was it just me?
Did I chose a poor time after Xmas & new years?

Don't get me wrong, there was still some lovely things to see, of course. But the abundant life & diversity was nonexistent. I was left saddened.

Can anyone comment on experience?

 

[Indah]

Just finishing 5 days in Lembeh. First time back since 2017 or so. I had absolutely legendary dives back then. SO much life. I was left bummed with my experience & left wondering if there is a drastic reduction in wildlife or was it just me?
Did I chose a poor time after Xmas & new years?

Don't get me wrong, there was still some lovely things to see, of course. But the abundant life & diversity was nonexistent. I was left saddened.

Can anyone comment on experience?

Probably just bad luck. Our guests were amazed by the diversity in critters. And all high

 

[Indah]

highlights were there. Including all highly searched for octopusses, Rhinopias, Hairy frogfishes and much more.

 

[JustinJRL]

Maybe just luck? Did you set expectations too high? I was there for my first time in October, just a short stay. In 2 days of diving i saw everything one could hope for: blue ring octopus, hairy frogfish, pigmy seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish etc. I had a hard time imagining better critters dives, even though yes, there were sometimes 10 or 15 minutes before finding the next subject.

 

[bingodongo]

Maybe expectations were too high. There just wasn't nearly as much life.

We only saw long arm & standard octopus. Few & far between. Not even many scorpion fish. No rhinopias. Just the magic of lembeh wasn't on display. I was left wondering if it had gotten poached out for aquariums, even.

I'm just curious, I remember from previous dives basically nonstop action, weird critters around every corner.

I found night dives quite boring to be completely honest. I really hope I maybe had bad luck or cheaped out on operators, but we were at similar sites as guests staying at resorts

 

[Luko]

left wondering if there is a drastic reduction in wildlife or was it just me?
Did I chose a poor time after Xmas & new years?

Part of the experience relies also on your guide's skill at the moment.
I remember some years ago diving the same spot on the same boat with Lembeh Resort : me with an experienced guide seeing plenty while another misfortuned party came back complaining on a boring dive where they didn't spot anything, at least none of the marine critters I mentioned.
They were led by a newbie guide who after this episode, nobody wanted to dive with : he's now one of the senior guides at LR.

 

[diveUAE]

Maybe expectations were too high. There just wasn't nearly as much life.

We only saw long arm & standard octopus. Few & far between. Not even many scorpion fish. No rhinopias. Just the magic of lembeh wasn't on display. I was left wondering if it had gotten poached out for aquariums, even.

I'm just curious, I remember from previous dives basically nonstop action, weird critters around every corner.

I found night dives quite boring to be completely honest. I really hope I maybe had bad luck or cheaped out on operators, but we were at similar sites as guests staying at resorts

Who did you stay/dive with?

 

[Centrals]

Maybe expectations were too high. There just wasn't nearly as much life.

May be not.
You had done/seen it before and the novelty is gone.
I still remember my first whaleshark but have to dig up my log books to find the other sightings.

Thread 'Saronde island, North Sulawesi'

Friday at 8:33 AM

Saronde island is a relative new resort,founded by Anke, who was the owner of Blue Bay diver on Bangka island for 25 years.
The new one shows in every detail the great knowledge about the needs of diving guest.
From the spacy well equiped dive boats, over the dive mangement to the luxary Bungalows with a backdoor thru the big open bathroom to the 12 ! sockets for your electronic equipment.
Even an own litte Hut for rinsing and drying your dive gear is in every backyard.
All this with the stylish restaurant and great Buffet makes the price very reasonable.
Diving in small groups 2 to 1...

• Immeriswas
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Indonesia

• 

Try it next time.

 

[cozcharlie]

I wasn’t in Lembeh in 2017 ,but there were a tremendous amount of photo subjects in Lembeh last spring (2024). I was with a group of expert photographers who had been there many, many times before and I didn’t hear any complaints .

The volume of divers/guides your dive op is sending out that week actually matters. The more eyes in the water the more likely they are to know where the critters are that week (they share info during dives obviously, but also between dives so if someone sees something in the morning the group in the afternoon or next day knows where to look )