It has been so great to see how fascinated our Snorkel Venture guests are becoming with frogfish. The frogfish was really not on the radar for many snorkelers. With muck snorkeling becoming ever more popular, the frogfish is starting to become a must find. With their incredible camouflage and bizarre looks it is great when we find them. For our best places to see them, Indonesia is definitely at the top. With great chances to find them in all our Indonesia Snorkel Venture trips.For me one of my favourite places to find them is in Alor. Alor is not only famed for its stunning reefs, but also regarded as one of the best muck areas in Indonesia. For those not sure what muck snorkeling is we have a great previous blog by Alex explaining (What is muck snorkeling) all about it. With eagle eyed guides we always hope we can find them on the reefs or in the muck. With them coming in all different shapes, colours and sizes. Frogfish are part of the Antennariidae family, which is a type of anglerfish that includes about 50 different species. They’re found in ocean waters all over the world and have a wide range of shapes and sizes. They have modified pectoral fins that resemble hands, which allow them to “walk” along the ocean floor looking for prey. The astonishing camouflage is called a type of aggressive mimicry, a strategy of resembling something else to gain an advantage over your prey. This means potential prey, like small fish or crustaceans, can pass by and never see the well camouflaged frogfish, allowing them to attack the prey at a close range. Frogfish have a dangling lure, which is a type of modified fin called an illicium. It can resemble a worm or shrimp
It has been so great to see how fascinated our Snorkel Venture guests are becoming with frogfish. The frogfish was really not on the radar for many snorkelers. With muck snorkeling becoming ever more popular, the frogfish is starting to become a must find. With their incredible camouflage and bizarre looks it is great when
Those of you who have been to Misool Resort in the last couple of years will have surely noticed a little stilted platform standing in the tranquil waters off of South Beach. Now, you might think that this is just a nice little structure the resort installed for resting snorkelers, paddleboarders, or kayakers. Or, maybe it’s a place to have a special dinner with your loved one! Nope, none of those ideas are correct. All wrong. “Then what is it, Alex!?” I'll tell you, that beautiful little structure is a fancy sea pen for a very special type of shark! Many many years ago leopard sharks used to cruise in the waters of Raja Ampat, from the very north and beyond, all the way down to the south in Misool. They were abundant. As they are a very docile species of shark that tends to spend the majority of their time resting on the bottom and doesn’t shy away from humans, their populations were decimated as a result of unregulated shark fishing and bycatch. Now, with the different MPAs (marine protected areas) in place and strictly enforced around Raja Ampat thanks in part to the Misool Foundation and other marine conservation agencies, these sharks stand a chance at recovering. However, as the leopard shark population was essentially wiped out in this region, there is just not enough of them to naturally repopulate. For example, prior to working for Snorkel Venture, I worked as an underwater videographer on a liveaboard for five years. I would average about three-hundred dives a year all around Raja Ampat. Not once did I, or any of the thousands of guests we took diving ever catch a glimps of a leopard single shark. So, since there is very little hope for the leopard sharks at repopulating
Those of you who have been to Misool Resort in the last couple of years will have surely noticed a little stilted platform standing in the tranquil waters off of South Beach. Now, you might think that this is just a nice little structure the resort installed for resting snorkelers, paddleboarders, or kayakers. Or, maybe
If you are not in the loop on sharks and their global well-being, they are not in a great way. Here are some quick facts to get you up to speed. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed each year Since the 1970s, 70% of the oceanic shark and ray population has been wiped out Sharks are killed as a result of overfishing, and bycatch, but mostly it's due to the demand for shark fin soup, a delicacy in China The top five shark fishing countries are: Indonesia Spain India Mexico USA So, as you can see, there is just an overwhelming amount of threats against them, especially when you also consider the fact that their food supply is decreasing and breeding grounds—mangroves and lagoons—are being destroyed. While it's not necessarily too far gone, there is some urgency needed when it comes to shark conservation. There are a lot of conservation groups out there, like Thrive Conservation, Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation, and the Misool Foundation—all of which we make annual donations to via our Every Trip Program, who are actively advocating for sharks on a daily basis and have achieved some landmark victories with projects like as the StaR project. So, aside from contributing funds to shark conservation groups like the ones above, what can you do as a regular citizen passionate about shark conservation? Here are a couple of things you can do. Stop Watching Shark Week (asking politely) Shark Week has become an annual event on the Discovery Channel that apparently originated as a way of helping correct the misconceptions about sharks with shark-based episodes. While that may have been the case, the episode lineup for 2023 involved titles like “Cocaine Shark”, “Mega Sharks of Dangerous Reef”, “Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks”, and “Monsters of the Bermuda Triangle”.
If you are not in the loop on sharks and their global well-being, they are not in a great way. Here are some quick facts to get you up to speed. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed each year Since the 1970s, 70% of the oceanic shark and ray population has been wiped out Sharks
For those of you reading this that have been snorkelling in Alor, you already know just how amazing that place is. By far one of my top snorkelling places in Indonesia, and trips we offer at Snorkel Venture. It is still one of those places that feels like a well-kept secret. We can spend a week there and never see another dive/snorkel operator around. Leaving us with the immaculate reefs to ourselves. We also have a great boutique resort we use, Alami Resort. Such a splendid resort and run so well by the managers Max & Rhome' (& Team). Giving this place that little extra feeling of paradise. When in Alami, we charter the whole resort for our group making it feel like a home from home. But what makes Alor super special, is the abundance of marine biodiversity it has to offer. We can go out in the morning and come across migrating whales. Then in the afternoon, we'll be muck snorkelling looking for all the small weird and wonderful critters. So there really is a huge range of marine life here. Something Alor can possibly offer if you are LUCKY!! Are some of the big sea creatures we don't see in other places. Being situated in the Savu sea above East Timor. With a very deep sea around the island. There is an oceanic channel that runs through there called the Wetar Strait. This is like a runway for migrating whales. Periodically through the year Pygmy blue whales pass through the Alor island chains heading north. I once had guests see them from the plane as we were coming into land. These giant gentle ocean mammals are a sight to behold. Only slightly smaller than their larger subspecies blue whale, they are huge at a whopping 24 metres.
For those of you reading this that have been snorkelling in Alor, you already know just how amazing that place is. By far one of my top snorkelling places in Indonesia, and trips we offer at Snorkel Venture. It is still one of those places that feels like a well-kept secret. We can spend a
In terms of sea conditions, there is very little difference between the snorkeling trips we would recommend for beginners and the snorkeling trips we would recommend for more advanced snorkelers. Regardless of if we are snorkeling in the Caribbean where the currents are mild to none, or Indonesia's Alor where the currents can rip like a river, the areas where we snorkel are essentially the same. Yes, in very specific sites there could be some current, but it's never the main current, we brief you fully before it, and we always drift with it. Any site we are taking you to, on any of our snorkeling safaris around the world can easily and safely be snorkeled by someone who's never snorkeled before. The biggest reason why the following list of snorkel safaris have received the “Advanced” rating has more to do with overall trip logistics than anything else. These trips are longer, might require a bit more domestic travel, and a few have slightly more basic accommodation as a result of their remoteness. While these tours are amazing, and we want everyone to join them, we just want to make sure that you don't bite off a bit more than you can chew, so to speak. Basically, the hardest part of these specific snorkeling tours are the flights. Alor & Komodo Safari | 14 Nights This is not a particularly difficult snorkeling trip, it's actually our most popular snorkel safari by far. We run anywhere from six to ten of these each year and have run these tours with everyone from advanced freediving folks to beginners without any issues whatsoever. The big reason why I say it's advanced is that it requires quite a bit of flying at uncomfortable hours. The snorkeling is as good as it gets in both
In terms of sea conditions, there is very little difference between the snorkeling trips we would recommend for beginners and the snorkeling trips we would recommend for more advanced snorkelers. Regardless of if we are snorkeling in the Caribbean where the currents are mild to none, or Indonesia’s Alor where the currents can rip like
