Our first couple of days has been dominated by Blue Whales and the Lucipara Islands. A wonderful journey as we travelled south from Ambon, finding no less than ten Blue Whales. Then on to the Lucipara Islands overnight to see reef fish populations the way they should be.
Blue Whales enroute to Lucipara
We departed Ambon almost as soon as we boarded the vessel and began the cruise south. There was a light wind but only enough to create a slight chop. The sea was nice and flat.
We saw the first Blue Whale about midday, a few miles out to sea. A lone Oceanic Manta Ray also breached nearby. There were a smattering of small seabirds including Wilson’s Storm Petrels. The Blue Whales were in an area with lots of Fish Attraction Devices (FADs). For the next few hours we encountered several whales including an area where there were about six feeding. While the water here was about 1,500m deep, there were almost certainly seamounts, as this is where the local fishers had anchored the FADs.
The ocean here comprises two layers. The top layer is very nutrientA substance that contains the raw materials for life. At a chemical level, these are contained inside compounds that are absorbed into the body and essential energy-containing molecules are extracted, so that energy can be transformed into other chemical processes that use the energy for living. More poor and comprises warm water that has flowed in from the Pacific Ocean. The bottom layer is rich in nutrientsEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More. Wind drives upwelling and this makes food for planktonA soup of micro-organisms. Usually refers to all the zooplankton and algae in the ocean but can also be used to describe tiny insects in the atmosphere (see aerial plankton). More along the margins. We counted the number of times that Blue Whales blow at the surface and this was about eleven. This indicates that they are feeding at about 300m.
The number of blows and the time they can spend feeding is tightly linked. It takes enormous amounts of energy to lunge up through the food layer multiple times. The Blue Whale in the next image is diving deep, as it has lifted its tail high up to make a vertical profile. This is what enables them to maximise their efficiency.
Bingkudu
Our day began an hour or so north of the Lucipara Islands, arriving near the island of Bingkudu at dawn. The journey had taken about 14 hours from Ambon. These islands are being considered as a marine protected area. They are some of the most remote islands in the Banda Sea and rarely visited by travelers.
Our first snorkel-dive of the trip was around the steep drop-offs and reef edge.
There were huge schools of unicornfish and surgeonfish on the walls. Colourful corals and bright orange Antheas adorned the reef tops. There were also lots of turtles, although they tended to be quite shy, as they are still hunted here.
While there is no permanent settlement at the Lucipara Islands any more, there is still some local fishing. There was one vessel present at Bingkudu when we arrived.
A fishing charter boat was also present, no doubt attracted by the abundant fish life. Because of its remoteness, the Lucipara Islands remain naturally protected. The large fish populations include Napoleon Wrasse (rare elsewhere) lots of Red Emperor and schools of trevally.
Turtles and Seabirds of Lucipara
The islands are also an important seabird and turtle breeding site. We could see a few turtle nesting tracks on the beaches from the night before. Unfortunately the tides were not favourable to go ashore and see this for ourselves. Maybe next time. Turtles nest on the sandy beaches and the treed vegetation has Lesser Frigatebirds and Red-footed Boobies. Flocks of both could be seen feeding on nearby upwellings.
Because the islands have trees, the predominant bird life are tree nesting. It’s possible the islands have rats but these birds would be more resilient.
The relationship between birds and fish life was apparent.
The frigatebirds and boobies need tuna to push flying fish nearer the surface and feed over the top. The nutrients the seabirds bring back to the island, however, seeps into the surrounding reef and doubles fish populations.
Protecting seabirds is critical to rebuilding tuna stocks and visa versa. It’s nice to be able to literally observe these dynamics in action, both above and below the surface.
Kadola
After lunch we took a cruise to the south to see if there were any whales or dolphins. There didn’t seem to be any sign of particularly interesting seafloors between the islands. There was little surface patterning, indicating that the ocean drops off straight to 2,000m. The water surrounding these islands might simply be too deep and without much variation in the water column. It’s still likely that there are a few resident deep diving species but probably not around this northern group of islands.
We stopped in the afternoon on the southern side of Kadola and did another snorkel-dive. This time we stumbled across a huge Napoleon Wrasse and were ‘buzzed’ many time by tuna.
Tuna are really important to Indonesia, as the country makes up about three-quarters of the world’s export.
There used to be a lot of illegal vessels visiting Banda Sea but they have all been destroyed in an effort to increase the populations again. Tuna use these islands like staging posts, where they can find reliable food including flying fish. We could see shoals foraging offshore with the seabirds and would come across them while diving the drop-offs too. Surprisingly, we didn’t see any sharks at all today. They were reported as reasonably common in 2019, so maybe they were down deeper during our visit.
