Trip Video - Derawan, June 2023

[CWK]

Before anyone goes to Derawan and gets disappointed I should note certain things.

Everyone saw Barracuda and whale sharks, but about half the boat didn’t see mantas, probably because the viz was 15-20m. Only about one third of the boat saw hammers, threshers, leopards or white tips. I saw the white tips but didn’t get good video of them, so I missed out on thresher and hammers.

There were 24 guests on my trip, organised into 6 dive groups and there were three tenders, so everyone was either in the first three tenders or in the second three tenders. I was not impressed by the way the boat organised group rotations. Whilst, the Blue Manta rotated dive groups on every dive, the White Manta only rotated groups daily. So if you were in the first group of three on one day, you would be in the second group of three on the next day. The hammers and threshers were on Kakaban where there is a wall and the sharks were deep and slightly in the blue. So if you were not just in the first group of three, but also in the first two of those three dive groups you would have the best chances of seeing the sharks. The noise and activity of the divers would drive the sharks away …… I would say don’t go with the expectation of seeing hammers and threshers.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I have seen barracuda on every trip to Sipadan. My tr trips are timed for full moon.

I didn't know any better back in the day.

I still saw hammerheads and a manta, plus swam in the schools of fish that almost blacked out the sun. Seeing the barracuda would have been icing on the cake though!

Happily, I've had the good fortune in a few other locales, to have had experiences with barracuda, such as you captured.

 

[CWK]

I didn't know any better back in the day.

I still saw hammerheads and a manta, plus swan in the schools of fish that almost blacked out the sun. Seeing the barracuda would have been icing on the cake though!

Happily, I've had the good fortune in a few other locales, to have had experiences with barracuda, such as you captured.

I’ve been to Sipadan a few times but have never seen the hammerheads there. But I also have not tried really hard to find them because I mainly prefer to dive Barracuda Point when I’m there. Sadly, it’s highly unlikely that I will ever return to Sipadan given the restrictions they now have in place.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I was there in 2004. It was just before the island accommodations shut down permanently. I stayed on the island before moving over to Mabul.

The hammerheads found us! First, it was 3 of them within a mere 3 meters or so. Again, since I didn't know any better, I squealed with glee through my reg, which scared them away.

Then below us appeared a flowing river of them, hundreds, perhaps more! What a sight to behold.

 

[Luko]

I still saw hammerheads and a manta, plus swan in the schools of fish that almost blacked out the sun. Seeing the barracuda would have been icing on the cake though!

Saw all of 'em in 5 trips -that was a while ago from 2004 to 2010- : huge hammer loner 40m deep on South Point (april) came to "sniff" us, manta on the next dive, zebra sharks.
Another time, hugest jackfish school I ever remember as you say it blacked out the sun and I coudln't even see where it ended.
That one trip with the huge jackfish school (august) was the only trip where I didn't see any cudas, while I came across the famous cuda school on all other trips (especially big in dec and feb).

 

[lattehiatus]

Wow this brings me back, thanks for sharing the video. I dove the Derawan archipelago 10 years ago in 2013, staying at the Derawan Dive Lodge for a week. Sadly it looks like there are a lot fewer corals on the reefs.

Did you get to see the jellyfish lake?

 

[Dan]

Seeing the barracuda would have been icing on the cake though!

Seeing hundreds of Barracuda in Maratua is just incredible. I was on White Manta too last August.

 

[CWK]

Wow this brings me back, thanks for sharing the video. I dove the Derawan archipelago 10 years ago in 2013, staying at the Derawan Dive Lodge for a week. Sadly it looks like there are a lot fewer corals on the reefs.

Did you get to see the jellyfish lake?

I didn’t go to the jellyfish lake this time. I went on my first trip to Derawan in 2018.

 

[Dan]

Kakaban in August last year.

 

[cetacean]

@Dan
Thanks for posting the video of your time diving Kakaban. Brings back memories... We dove it from Sangalaki ~24 years ago... it's changed quite a bit - jetty and boardwalk on Kakaban are two obvious bits (we had to climb up a rock face and then hike through the forest to get to the lake. Glad to see the jellyfish are still there...)

BTW - the lake supposedly has nudibranchs, although we did not see any in two trips to the lake. Also - in your video you have a clip of a snake - there is a species of sea snake in the lake, however there are also two species of tree snakes that hunt in the lake as well. In your video the tail of the snake is not flatttened, suggesting this was a terrestrial snake...