Lembeh Strait: First Muck Dive

Muck diving as defined by Wikipedia: "[muck diving] gets its name from the sediment that lies at the bottom of many dive sites--a frequently muddy or "mucky" environment. Other than muddy sediment, the muck dive substrate may consist of dead coral skeletons, discarded fishing equipment, tires, and other man-made garbage."

So, of course, I went in expecting to be diving among floating piles of garbage, gross water, and horrible visibility.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes, there are some garbage like bags of potato chips and some candy wrappers. And there's the occasional tires. But nothing too ghastly like the way I imagined it. Just for the record, I was thinking of plastic bags, cans, broken beer bottles, shoes, condoms (this would be more like diving at the sewer facility, I guess), etc.

The water: meh. I couldn't tell it was gross. Didn't look unsanitary or anything. I don't know what the big deal is. I've swam in worse.

Visibility isn't all too bad either. It's not like muck diving is for the scenery in the first place. Most of what you're looking for are macro lens worthy creatures. I could see the dive guide 30 feet away, and I'm happy with that. We're each scouring the ocean floor for any weird creatures anyway.

Please pardon my photography skills because I have none on land, therefore, less than none under water, but here are a few highlights from my dives today:

Two cool looking pipefish.

A pretty awesome pink nudibranch.

One wittle angry eel.

A cute and tiny (baby?) cuttlefish.
This little guy is literally the size of my thumb nail.

Juvenile panther grouper, which never stayed still.

And a blurry flamboyant cuttlefish at the wrong angle.

Hopefully my hands are steadier tomorrow. And I just changed the setting on the camera (it was on Auto), so that should help. :)

Dive Sites Today:
1)  California Dreaming - pinnacle, reef
2)  TK2 - muck, rubble
3) Serena Patra - muck, rubble