Seven Days on Alor - Part One: The Diving

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highdesert

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We did 24 dives on Alor, two to four a day, between October 27th and November 2nd. We spent our days aboard a boat, and our nights at a hotel in Kalabahi, the big town on Alor. This installment is about the diving and marine life.

While we found many reports prior to our trip touting Alor's excellent visibility, we found it to be similar to other areas of Indonesia ... some great, some soupy, and a lot of in between. The terrain is a mix of walls and slopes, with a sea mount or two.

As to the mix of swimming marine life, we saw a bazillion small reef fish, relatively few "eating fish" (10-14"), a couple dogtooth tunas, couple of Napoleons, one grouper, one turtle, and a handful of morays. A couple of sites featured schools of surgeonfish/unicornfish and fusiliers, but we were expecting to see more sweetlips, jacks, snappers, etc, and didn't. My guess, for what it's worth, is that the local population, who are excellent with both nets and traps, have reduced that mid-range, eating size fish, leading to the high numbers of little reef fish. This is not a marine park, and poor locals have to eat, so this is not unexpected, in my opinion.

No sharks, no rays save for a couple small blue spotted ones. We spotted two mola molas from the boat ... one a "smack" on the water and the other a fin tip. Always lots of dolphins present, but they're seen from the boat, not on dives. Several of our group spotted one whale departing the area as they surfaced from a dive.

We appreciate macro life, but don't dive just to see it. We spotted a few nudis, some ornate ghost pipefish, other odds and ends, but not a great number of macro critters.

As reported by others, the coral life is generally quite healthy, but not of the size and varied color we've seen in other areas of Indonesia. Lots of big sponges, barrel and otherwise, but few gorgonians. If pygmy seahorses exist there, they must reside on something else.

If you require a large helping of muck in your dive diet, it's my opinion that you should consider passing on Alor. Muck sites are uncommon, happening in the sound transiting to/from town, and are of questionable quality. Because of their location, they end up being dusk/night dives. We dived three muck sites a total of four times. Had you dived these sites in Lembeh, you'd be giving your dive guide a dirty look. We did, however, see one small, spindly octopus, which our guide had never seen in 23 years' diving there.

Currents are as reported, very Komodoesque. Lots of upwellings and some huge whirlpools during tidal changes, and slack periods on some sites can be very unpredictable. We were swept off of several sites near the end of the dive, knowing that would be the case. Water temps vary from 82-83F/28C to damn cold, maybe 68F/20C or so. For me, a full 5-mil plus hood wasn't enough on some dives. The cold upwellings literally cooled the breeze around the boat sometimes.

Kal's Dream is the supposed big draw there. It's a rocky sea mount with low coral growth, not stunning to look at, at least for me. The attraction is fish, and while we dived it twice, the assortment was about the same ... a mix of everything I mentioned above, but not in the sheer numbers you'd see on some sites in Komodo or Raja Ampat. I think you'd have to dive this site repeatedly, or hit it "just right," to get the full effect.

For me, Cathedral was the premier site. This is a stepped wall starting above the water, right from land, and dropping down to a beautiful swim-through. We hit it with the sun just perfect, warm water, and no current. Excellent growth on the wall and as fishy as any site we saw there.

Our next dive, following a motoring surface interval across the channel, was Clown Valley. This is a unique experience, an area much larger than you can cover on a single dive, covered solid with a profusion of anemones. I managed to not notice two nice fat air bubbles behind my WA wet lens for every shot I took there. Whoopee. I could have dived it twice, easily, but this was the coldest site of the trip, and no one was interested in splashing there again.

In general, I'd say it's like Komodo, except that it's different. Just a little different mix of stuff. I personally wouldn't say it's better than Komodo, but if working your way around Indo dive areas is what you do, it's a worthy trip. We both say we're glad we did it, but probably wouldn't repeat it ... though we would repeat Komodo, Raja Ampat, and Wakatobi for similar dive experiences. You be the judge.

Next installment ... the "not diving" part ... hotel, boat, dive op, etc.
 
Great trip report. Clown Valley is pretty amazing! We liked this site as well. It was FREEZING on all of the sites we did there. BRRRRRRRR!
 
I'd disagree with you assessment of Alor's muck sites...I'd put them just a couple notches below Lembeh, Ambon, Anilao. Staying at La Petit Kepa, we were close to the many muck sites in the bay and dove them frequently...in one weeks diving had 5 rhinopias, blue ring and mimc octopi, countless frogfish and uncommon nudis. We dove them at all different times of the day, not limited to dusk/night. I think it depends on who you dive with and their familiarity with the area..La Petit Kepa was outstanding in this respect...you must have dove with Thomas or the Australian operator that is based out of Kupang. I highly recommend Alor as a destination in general--but especially for muck diving.
 
I am just back from a liveaboard trip to Alor (Kupang to Maumere).Viss was similar to your report. My last trip to Alor viss was much better. We did not see much large fish either, no sharks or turtles in Alor, just 1 large grouper.

I thought there was some good macro dives and several great muck sites in Alor. We found 2 Rhinopea at Mucky Mosque (In k bay).However the better muck dives were all north west of Alor towards Maumere. I will do a trip report later
 
We also had some great dives on Mucky Mosque! Rhinopea, tons of ghost pipe fish and the rest of the usual suspects. On a previous trip we had what I feel was my best dive ever at a site we named "Beep Beep" ( long story) that was closer to Maumere on West Lembata! Looking forward to your trip report Kevster.
I am just back from a liveaboard trip to Alor (Kupang to Maumere).Viss was similar to your report. My last trip to Alor viss was much better. We did not see much large fish either, no sharks or turtles in Alor, just 1 large grouper.

I thought there was some good macro dives and several great muck sites in Alor. We found 2 Rhinopea at Mucky Mosque (In k bay).However the better muck dives were all north west of Alor towards Maumere. I will do a trip report later
 
We did 24 dives on Alor, two to four a day, between October 27th and November 2nd. We spent our days aboard a boat, and our nights at a hotel in Kalabahi, the big town on Alor. This installment is about the diving and marine life.

While we found many reports prior to our trip touting Alor's excellent visibility, we found it to be similar to other areas of Indonesia ... some great, some soupy, and a lot of in between. The terrain is a mix of walls and slopes, with a sea mount or two.

As to the mix of swimming marine life, we saw a bazillion small reef fish, relatively few "eating fish" (10-14"), a couple dogtooth tunas, couple of Napoleons, one grouper, one turtle, and a handful of morays. A couple of sites featured schools of surgeonfish/unicornfish and fusiliers, but we were expecting to see more sweetlips, jacks, snappers, etc, and didn't. My guess, for what it's worth, is that the local population, who are excellent with both nets and traps, have reduced that mid-range, eating size fish, leading to the high numbers of little reef fish. This is not a marine park, and poor locals have to eat, so this is not unexpected, in my opinion.

No sharks, no rays save for a couple small blue spotted ones. We spotted two mola molas from the boat ... one a "smack" on the water and the other a fin tip. Always lots of dolphins present, but they're seen from the boat, not on dives. Several of our group spotted one whale departing the area as they surfaced from a dive.

We appreciate macro life, but don't dive just to see it. We spotted a few nudis, some ornate ghost pipefish, other odds and ends, but not a great number of macro critters.

As reported by others, the coral life is generally quite healthy, but not of the size and varied color we've seen in other areas of Indonesia. Lots of big sponges, barrel and otherwise, but few gorgonians. If pygmy seahorses exist there, they must reside on something else.

If you require a large helping of muck in your dive diet, it's my opinion that you should consider passing on Alor. Muck sites are uncommon, happening in the sound transiting to/from town, and are of questionable quality. Because of their location, they end up being dusk/night dives. We dived three muck sites a total of four times. Had you dived these sites in Lembeh, you'd be giving your dive guide a dirty look. We did, however, see one small, spindly octopus, which our guide had never seen in 23 years' diving there.

Currents are as reported, very Komodoesque. Lots of upwellings and some huge whirlpools during tidal changes, and slack periods on some sites can be very unpredictable. We were swept off of several sites near the end of the dive, knowing that would be the case. Water temps vary from 82-83F/28C to damn cold, maybe 68F/20C or so. For me, a full 5-mil plus hood wasn't enough on some dives. The cold upwellings literally cooled the breeze around the boat sometimes.

Kal's Dream is the supposed big draw there. It's a rocky sea mount with low coral growth, not stunning to look at, at least for me. The attraction is fish, and while we dived it twice, the assortment was about the same ... a mix of everything I mentioned above, but not in the sheer numbers you'd see on some sites in Komodo or Raja Ampat. I think you'd have to dive this site repeatedly, or hit it "just right," to get the full effect.

For me, Cathedral was the premier site. This is a stepped wall starting above the water, right from land, and dropping down to a beautiful swim-through. We hit it with the sun just perfect, warm water, and no current. Excellent growth on the wall and as fishy as any site we saw there.

Our next dive, following a motoring surface interval across the channel, was Clown Valley. This is a unique experience, an area much larger than you can cover on a single dive, covered solid with a profusion of anemones. I managed to not notice two nice fat air bubbles behind my WA wet lens for every shot I took there. Whoopee. I could have dived it twice, easily, but this was the coldest site of the trip, and no one was interested in splashing there again.

In general, I'd say it's like Komodo, except that it's different. Just a little different mix of stuff. I personally wouldn't say it's better than Komodo, but if working your way around Indo dive areas is what you do, it's a worthy trip. We both say we're glad we did it, but probably wouldn't repeat it ... though we would repeat Komodo, Raja Ampat, and Wakatobi for similar dive experiences. You be the judge.

Next installment ... the "not diving" part ... hotel, boat, dive op, etc.


Hi hd, thanks for posting. Sorry your experience wasn't better. I was there 4 years ago and had a much better experience, though it was a few months earlier in the year. I really hope the lack of big fish was just bad luck. One of the reasons I picked Alor is because the geography makes it hard for commercial fishing boats with huge nets to come in and decimate the larger fish populations. I don't think the locals have the equipment or numbers to impact the population of larger fish the way commercial operations do.

I saw sharks-grey reefs, blacktips-everyday. It was my understanding from the dive operator that the biggest and best fish aggregations happen around the full moon. We were there opposite the full moon and it was still spectacular. Viz was really great everywhere, except the bay, and particularly up north, where it was 100ft +.

I've been to Komodo twice and would compare Alor to it favorably, but never saw viz as good as northern Alor, excpet on Banta, which is not in the park. Oh, and I heard dynamite fishing in Komodo more than once, not in Alor. We also came upon multiple small fishing boats in Komodo park, one of which had just spent a few hrs landing a huge giant trevally. The fisherman was from Bali and was exhausted from the fight and had been in the park for a week, so he told us... -Andy
 
I saw sharks-grey reefs, blacktips-everyday. It was my understanding from the dive operator that the biggest and best fish aggregations happen around the full moon. We were there opposite the full moon and it was still spectacular. Viz was really great everywhere, except the bay, and particularly up north, where it was 100ft +.

Don't get me wrong ... I didn't say it was a bad experience. We enjoyed the trip, and if we did it again (probably not, too many other places to see), we'd likely do it the same way. We've had some sucky dive trips, but this wasn't one.

The full moon happened three days into our seven days' diving, so we got the best of (worst of?) the current, which generally induces the pelagics, sharks included, to show themselves. We dived plenty of sharky looking sites, walls and steep slopes, but saw none. At the rate sharks are disappearing worldwide, with Indonesia as the biggest taker, four years could make a big difference.

Here's an interesting read about sharks disappearing ...

The Day All Of The Sharks Died. ( The impact of shark finning )
 
I passed through Alor on a live aboard acorss the Banda Sea in October, and we dived one day in Alor - Key highlights from our 4 dives there: a thresher shark at Kal's Dream, and two red rhinopias during the night dive. The diving in my opinion was on par with my extended stays several years ago.Sorry to read you were not blown away.
 
I had havent dived Alor but have Komodo and very interesting that ideal habitats for sharks yield sites sith very few sharks and Komodo is a marine park. I imagine with designated no take zones. Curious whether Alor has any sanctuaries or whether its a free for all the shark finners. Sipadan is a success story for shark populations why cant this be so in Indo I struggle with.
 
I passed through Alor on a live aboard acorss the Banda Sea in October, and we dived one day in Alor - Key highlights from our 4 dives there: a thresher shark at Kal's Dream, and two red rhinopias during the night dive. The diving in my opinion was on par with my extended stays several years ago.Sorry to read you were not blown away.

Hello ff, great to hear you saw a thresher at Kal's. Our dive operator had seen them south of Kal's during a drift dive in the blue in the middle of the channel at around 40m. Which liveaboard were you on? -Andy

---------- Post Merged at 02:49 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:22 AM ----------

I had havent dived Alor but have Komodo and very interesting that ideal habitats for sharks yield sites sith very few sharks and Komodo is a marine park. I imagine with designated no take zones. Curious whether Alor has any sanctuaries or whether its a free for all the shark finners. Sipadan is a success story for shark populations why cant this be so in Indo I struggle with.

Hello g13, Komodo is indeed a park and it is my understanding that only large scale commercial fishing is prohibited. However, this still leaves open the possibility of locals fishing, either for food or to sell in small quantities. Whether this qualifies as 'commercial' depends on who you ask. The real luck is that the area in and around the park is sparsely populated, otherwise I'm sure it would be in the same condition as the waters around Bali.

Indonesia is huge and full of poor, hungry people. The central government is weak enough that most islanders I have met feel themselves to be citizens of their home island, not a country called Indonesia. It's amazing there's any kind of a park at all in Komodo. By contrast, Malaysia is much smaller, has fewer dive areas and is thus easier to police. They also have a higher per capita income and some of the residents pay taxes, enough to pay for things like monitoring the park around Sipidan.

I saw plenty of sharks in Komodo, north and south, mostly around dusk and early morning, and mostly in places with lots of current and areas with cold up wellings-all favorable conditions for shark activity. It also helps to have a rebreather, which is the only way I dive now. I see sharks in places people haven't reported seeing them in years. They are almost always around, but are often wary of divers who make lots of noise with their bubbles. I highly recommend rebreathers, you will fall in love with diving all over again... -Andy
 
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