Paolo stayed with us again in Dec 2017 and has once again so generously donated his photos. These are some of the very best wide angle pictures we’ve seen of Triton Bay and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
To see the full set of wide angle pictures from Triton Bay click here, and his macro pictures can be found here.
Here are some of our favorite images from this past season, in no particular order. There are many more pictures that could have been included in this gallery as beauty is subjective and another person could have come up with 12 totally different pictures, but in the end these are the images which we believe show the very best of Triton Bay. We would like to express our tremendous appreciation to the guests who donated these stunning pictures!
Amanda Blanksby
Erik Leist
Kathryn Arant
Karsten Heinrich
Linda Pitkin
Marie Tartar
Paolo Isgro
Shannon Conway
Steve Eilenberg
Valerie Reid
In early February, our guests had the opportunity to observe a team from Conservation International (CI) mount a satellite tag on a whale shark. The satellite tags record location, depth, and water temperature, and transmits that data every time the dorsal fin of the shark breaks the surface. This information will allow them to monitor the whale sharks movements over the next two years. According to CI, their program is the only one of its kind in the world. They currently have tagged less than 20 whale sharks in Cenderawasih Bay and only 4 in Triton Bay as of Feb 2017.
Very little is known about whale sharks. CI’s monitoring and ID program here and in Cenderawasih Bay indicate that well over 90% of the 100+ individuals who have been identified so far are young males. They don’t know where the females or the adults are, and it is becoming apparent that Cenderawasih & Triton Bay must be some kind of nursery for young whale sharks. Of the sharks that we have seen ourselves here, most are between 3~9m. Our guests help contribute to the database by providing photos of the area around the shark’s left dorsal fin for identification.
Triton Bay Divers would like to thank Dr. Mark Erdmann, Abraham Sinapar, and the team from CI for the opportunity to observe them in their work. To learn more about CI’s whale shark monitoring program, please check out this link:
http://blog.conservation.org/tag/whale-sharks/
Triton Bay Divers has recently been featured twice in the Swiss Diving magazine Nereus! For those who read German, please check out the article by Andrea Rothlisberger in the June issue, and by Thomas Haider in the August issue (part 1). Additional photos from Thomas can be found on their website at this link. Photo above by Thomas Haider.
Above photo: underwater 360 degree panoramic of Christmas Rock, one of Triton Bay’s better known dive sites.
For German readers, below is an article by Connie Thieme in the most recent SilentWorld magazine about her stay with us earlier this year. Thank you Connie for sharing the article, and to AquaVenture for arranging her visit.
Connie missed almost a week of diving due to illness, but still managed to put together some incredible photos (including the picture above), which can be seen in our Guest Galleries or on her website Marine-Snapshots. Look for the black light (UV) shots of various marine animals and corals, and the photo of the Pontohi pygmy seahorse is as good a picture as you’re going to see of these elusive creatures.
We certainly had our hands full when our first guests arrived on Aiduma island, with our building contractors still hard at work and the restaurant not yet finished, but we got lucky with two fabulous and chilled out guests from Spain – Maria & Guillem and some lovely weather!
All meals were served on the beach in front of the guest bungalows under the sun and stars, with only one night of rain which was the night we finally had half the roofing on the restaurant, so luckily manged to stay dry. During their visit we also managed to go and experience an event which only takes place once every 2 years – the collecting of Conch or at least the Indonesian equivalent. And Maria and Guillen jumped in to give a helping hand.
This was followed by guests: Martin from Switzerland, Theresa & Joe from USA, my parents from the UK, Gordon & Ian from USA, Katherine, Lilly, Steve, Anthony and Telly from Hong Kong, Charlie from UK, Connie from Germany, Aurelio from Spain and finally Paul and Jenny from the USA…. Not a bad start and I’m pleased to say everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves with some great photos and video to show for it!!
We even managed to find some time to check out some new dive sites and had some great finds, including Harlequin Shrimp, the endemic Flasher wrasse to this region, Mandarin fish, hairy shrimp and Pontohi and Bargibanty Pygmy seahorse. We even spotted the blue ringed octopus on a couple of occasions.
But we should not forget our larger encounters. Our guest Charlie was the luckiest of all and spent several hours hanging out with 5 whale sharks at the local bagans in our area. One extremely lucky lady! We have also had close encounters with mantas, devil rays, eagle rays, mobular rays as well as lazy wobbegong sharks! On top of this the soft coral and marine life here still blows my mind even after all this time!
We are now closed for the East Monsoon season, carrying out some general maintenance and doing some landscaping etc and will be opening again in September. We are looking forward to calmer weather and warmer waters, so we can get out diving again and find some more new sites and great critters. And of course to welcoming our new guests to this little piece of paradise.
Thank you to everyone involved for making the first half of this year fabulous! And thank you to our guests for some great photos!
Triton Bay Divers had the pleasure of welcoming our very first “official” visitors at the end of February, Maria & Guillem, a very kind and understanding couple from Barcelona, Spain. Maria and Guillem, you will always be welcome back here if you wish to return.
Unofficially, our first visitors were Susan & Dana, a couple who first sailed here in October aboard their yacht, the Villa G. Susan & Dana then traveled Raja Ampat, met several people aboard other yachts, and brought everyone to Triton Bay in February. So we met some new friends: Jon & Sue aboard the luxury catamaran Ocelot, Peter, Melya & family aboard Per Ardua, and Patrick & Rebecca aboard Brickhouse. Unfortunately, Brickhouse had to leave early as their visa was ending so we could not get a proper photo, but below are some pictures of Maria & Guillem, Dana & Susan, and the yachts Villa G, Ocelot, and Per Ardua moored in front of the resort.
