This trip is simply awesome. It validated my intention to visit Manado again, since my last visit here in 2002. I just kept dreaming of diving in Bunaken, the ship wreck, and muck diving in Lembeh. As I grow older, I really begin to appreciate every adventure as a blessing. The on-site encounter with these critters is truly a privilege.
The night dive in Bunaken, at the Lekuan site, I saw this pigmy sea-horse (Hippo campus). It is so tiny and vulnerable, as it latches itself onto a patch of sea-grass. It is pale, and made it a nightmare for photography. These tiny sea-horses hide themselves by turning its back, so that it is virtually impossible to recognize its shape. Now this cannot be a "conditioned" behavior, because at its size, it stands no chance of learning from past behaviors. And you really have to wonder, as you observe, how does it reproduce? and how far can it travel to find mates to expand the genetic pool of the specie? And I have heard that the same specie has been found at the Green Island near Taiwan. It is simply amazing how the existence of a niche for survival in a habitat, over time, produces such amazing adaptation. Are we observing a specie on the brink of extinction?
The night dive in Bunaken, at the Lekuan site, I saw this pigmy sea-horse (Hippo campus). It is so tiny and vulnerable, as it latches itself onto a patch of sea-grass. It is pale, and made it a nightmare for photography. These tiny sea-horses hide themselves by turning its back, so that it is virtually impossible to recognize its shape. Now this cannot be a "conditioned" behavior, because at its size, it stands no chance of learning from past behaviors. And you really have to wonder, as you observe, how does it reproduce? and how far can it travel to find mates to expand the genetic pool of the specie? And I have heard that the same specie has been found at the Green Island near Taiwan. It is simply amazing how the existence of a niche for survival in a habitat, over time, produces such amazing adaptation. Are we observing a specie on the brink of extinction?
