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Facts about Saylor Eyeballs

Sailor’s eyeballs are giant single-celled algae found in the Indo-Pacific down to 20 meters depth. They have other common names, such as bubble algae and sea pearl algae.

You will find Saylor Eyeballs everywhere in Indonesia. When you are diving around the Gili Islands, you will find them at Halik Reef, Sunset Reef, Hans Reef and Sharkpoint. You will find them in all diffent sizes.

These algae look rather like huge marbles, reaching up to 5 centimeters in diameter, and grow on coral and rocky reefs, attaching to the substrate by hair-like filaments called rhizoids.

Young plants are translucent with a bluish sheen, while older ones become encrusted, for example by coralline red seaweeds.

Sailor’s eyeballs undergo an interesting process of vegetative or asexual reproduction. Daughter cells grow inside the parent, which dies and breaks down, releasing the new plants

For more information: http://www.oceans5dive.com

Facts about Whalesharks

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The gentle giants of our oceans and seas has got to be whale sharks.

The biggest ever whale shark reached an enormous 13 meters in length, and these amazing creatures are not only the biggest sharks we have in the whole world, they are biggest fish of any kind.

The reputed maximum length of the fearsome great white shark only reached 7 meters, a dwarf in comparison.

Not unlike humans, whale sharks have a lifespan of 70 years on average, and they spend their days gently swimming about in the warm and tropical oceans of the world, mouth open to filter feed from the plankton and microscopic organisms that float in our ocean’s waters.

Whale sharks are unperturbed by human activity, and even allow divers to hitch a ride.

Their teeth are the size of match heads, and while no doubt their jaws could be powerful, they have never shown any aggression towards humans. Their teeth play no role in eating, as plankton does not need to be chewed.

Scientists are still learning about this amazing creature.

In 1996, a pregnant whale shark that was caught was found to be carrying 300 pups (the correct terminology for shark babies), and newly born pups measure up to 0.5 meters long.

Not much is known yet about gestation length, but it is believed that female whale sharks do not reach sexual maturity until they are 30 years old. This is the age they have to be before they can mate and reproduce.

Originating 60 million years ago, the whale shark has evolved little in that time. They, or their ancestors, must have been compatriots of the feared megalodon shark.

Whale sharks are to be found in numbers in the warmer oceans of the world and they are largely pelagic, meaning they are ocean going and prefer the deep waters of the open oceans. They tend to travel alone.

Several times a year they congregate together in certain spots (known as aggregating) where plankton is plentiful.

Those areas where whale shark aggregation occurs are all within a 30° north or south latitude from the equator.

So great a loss in numbers have they suffered, that whale sharks are now listed as vulnerable in the IUCN red list of endangered species.

Measures have been started to be put in place by some countries, to protect the whale shark from annihilation.

The Philippines, India and Taiwan have all banned the fishing, selling, importing and exporting of whale sharks for commercial purposes.

However, the law does not seem to be effective because the hunting and killing of whale sharks still goes on today, especially in Taiwan and the Philippines.

Facts about Fusiliers

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Fusilier
These streamlined blue and yellow fish are found around coral reefs where they feed on zooplankton.

Statistics
They are approximately 40cm in length.

Physical Description
This silvery-blue fish has a fusiform, streamlined body, long dorsal fin and a forked tail. Some species have yellow or pink markings. All have small eyes and a tiny, distensible mouth. Closely related to snappers.

Distribution
They are found in Indian and West Pacific oceans. Around the Gili Islands you will find them at Sharkpoint, Halik, Soraya, Deep Turbo etc.

Habitat
They inhabit coastal areas, mainly near coral reefs.

Diet
Unlike their predatory relatives, the snappers, fusiliers are plantivores. They form large, mid-water feeding schools.

Behaviour
These schooling fish are often found around cleaning stations or along reef slopes. At night they shelter within the reef.

Facts about Garden Eels

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Garden Eel (Heteroconger hassi)

Every diver usually remembers their first garden eel encounter. You are swimming near the edge of the reef, over the sandy bottom like Hans Reef Gili Air, Gili Islands, and you see a grassy area at the limit of your vision. As you move closer to the grass, it begins to shrink and eventually disappear! It turns out it is not vegetation at all, but garden eels! These animals use their rigid tail-tip to dig a burrow in the sand. They exude lots of mucus from the skin that helps cement the sand grains together so the burrow walls become stable. If danger approaches, they withdraw into their burrows, but when the potential threat disappears, the garden eels reappear.

They stretch out from their refuges to snag zooplankton (tiny animals like animal larvae, tiny crustaceans and eggs of various reef animals) that are pushed past in the current.

Facts about Unicorn Tangs

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Interesting Facts About Unicorn Tangs

Unicorn tangs or Naso unicornis are members of the family Acanthuridae commonly refer to as surgeonfish. There are 80 species in 6 different genera in this family. All have one distinguishing characteristic. They have sharp blades at the base of their tails (caudal peduncle) on both sides of their bodies that are used in self-defense. Seventeen of the 80 species are unicornfish. Here we will be elaborating on the unicorn tang. They are endemic to the Indo-Pacific from Indonesia and Christmas Island westward to the Andaman Sea, south to the eastern coast of Africa and east to the Hawaiian Islands. When you are diving around the Gili Islands you will find the everywhere.

Facts about Saltwater Crocodiles

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Earth’s largest living crocodilian—and, some say, the animal most likely to eat a human—is the saltwater or estuarine crocodile. Average-size males reach 5 meters and 450 kilograms, but specimens 7 meters long and weighing 1,000 kilograms are not uncommon.

Saltwater crocs, or “salties,” as Australians affectionately refer to them, have an enormous range, populating the brackish and freshwater regions of eastern India, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. They are excellent swimmers and have often been spotted far out at sea.

Classic opportunistic predators, they lurk patiently beneath the surface near the water’s edge, waiting for potential prey to stop for a sip of water. They’ll feed on anything they can get their jaws on, including water buffalo, monkeys, wild boar, and even sharks. Without warning, they explode from the water with a thrash of their powerful tails, grasp their victim, and drag it back in, holding it under until the animal drowns.

Facts about Black Marlins

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Black marlin (recently reclassified as Istiompax indica, after formerly being known as Makaira indica) are considered by many authorities to be amongst the world’s premiere game fish. They certainly have size on their side, with the all tackle world record black marlin weighing in at 1560lb (707.6kg) taken by Alfred Glassell way back in 1953 off Cabo Blanco, Peru. Experienced skippers have reported seeing, and sometimes becoming connected to, black marlin that were probably even larger than Glassell’s catch, perhaps even approaching the size of some of the biggest blue marlin (Makaira nigricans). The latter have been caught on rod and reel up to 819 kg and are known to grow to at least 900 kg and possibly over a tonne, based on commercial catches of fish over this size.

Genetic evidence suggests that black marlin are more closely related to striped/white marlin than blue marlin, the latter being more closely related to sailfish. Compared to other marlin, black marlin are more solidly built with a relatively short bill and a lower, rounded dorsal fin. Black marlin can also be easily distinguished from other marlins as they are the only marlin that have rigid pectoral fins that cannot be folded flat against the body.

This oceanic pelagic species is distributed throughout the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans and is found in surface waters above the thermocline at temperatures from 15 to 30°C. A few days ago 6 Black Marlins were spotted between Gili Meno and Gili Air, Lombok, Indonesia. Black marlin migrate huge distances and relatively small tagged fish have been recaptured after travelling over 8000 km. Occasionally they will enter temperate waters, and small numbers sometimes stray into the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Cape of Good Hope, although the existence of Atlantic breeding stocks is unlikely. Despite their oceanic environment, large back marlin can sometimes be encountered very close to land, particularly near offshore islands and coral reefs, while juveniles commonly range closer inshore and can even be caught by landbased game anglers at specific locations when conditions are right.

Do you like to dive in Plastic?

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If you have a choice to dive in a soup of plastic, the smell of petrol around you, seeing more rubbish than fish or diving in crystal clear water? The choice is easy isn’t it?

Marine debris also affects reefs in many areas. Marine debris is any human-made object that is discarded, disposed of, or abandoned that enters coastal and ocean waters. Debris may enter directly from a ship or indirectly when washed out to sea via rivers, streams, and storm drains. Hundreds of human-made items end up as marine debris, including plastics (from bags to balloons, hard hats to fishing line), glass, metal, rubber (millions of tires!), and even entire vessels.

Facts about Stonefish

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The Stonefish (Leptosynanceia asteroblepa)

The stonefish can go from appearing to be a simple, harmless rock lying on the ocean’s floor to a stone-cold killer in a flash, making it one of nature’s most amazing quick-change artists.

Known for being the most venomous fish in the world, the stonefish makes its home in the shallow water among the coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans off Africa and the Red Sea to Northern Australia. Here when we are diving around the Gili Islands you can find a few stonefish at the Biorock, Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia.

Are you enrolled for Gili Air’s Tug of War competition?

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Oceans 5 teams are preparing for the Tug of War competition!
The competition will take place in Gili Air Indonesia. In Gili Air’s harbor, just in front of Oceans 5 Resort. On the 30th of January. If you haven’t enrolled yet, contact us to enroll! Read more…

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Tag Archives: dive resort gili islands

Facts about Saylor Eyeballs

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Facts about Whalesharks

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Facts about Fusiliers

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Facts about Garden Eels

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Facts about Unicorn Tangs

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Facts about Saltwater Crocodiles

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Facts about Black Marlins

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Do you like to dive in Plastic?

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Facts about Stonefish

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