Indonesia - Komodo NP: Police Corner

Setting

Then went on to 30 m along near-vertical wall. 20 m viz at beginning of dive (among best of trip), 25ºC, cold, and dark. Swam through a series of cool overhangs. Very little relief, likely due to high currents most of the time (e.g., Image 3).

3

Went with current back into coral-dominated area.

General benthic features

Descended onto some of the nicest corals of the trip. Fluorescent green Seriatopora caliendrum. Less hard corals at depth. Some large, coral-encrusted boulders at 30 m. Some Seriatopora hystrix and Pocillopora verrucosa @ 30 m. Tubastrea. Many unknown plating species. Some Acropora. Plentiful CCA at depth. Stylophora pistillata. Nearly all encrusting species. One species of encrusting sponge also very common. At 15 m, more soft corals and hydroids, many unknown encrusting species, one of which looked like Isopora (are there encrusting isoporids?). At least 10-15 encrusting species @ 15 m (e.g., Image 2).

2

Seriatopora caliendrum, brain corals, Stylophora pistillata, 40-50% coral cover at 11-13 m. Very high coral diversity @ 10 m (e.g., Image 1).

1

Fire coral, Hydnophora, some Acropora. Slightly more relief at 9 m, at which point Acropora became more common. Nearly all Stylophora pistillata were green fluorescent. Galaxea relatively common at all depths (small colonies). Mix of hard and soft corals in shallows (very beautiful; got some great photos) (e.g., Image 4, Image 5).

45

Some small massive poritids in shallows, Montipora, some finger Porites. Amazing corals at 5-9 m. Platygyra, Plerogyra, P. rus, leaf scorpionfish.

Coral cover

Coral cover: 22% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 78 of Anderson's edited photographs (20 points per photo; water, fish, and obstructions excluded). Other computer-vision methods are listed in the method table. Coral cover=5.0-10% at 25 m. Coral cover @ 20 m was much more impressive. Coral cover @ 20 m: 30-40%. 50-60% cover, high diversity, reef fish community eventually became more impressive but still signs of overfishing. Anderson is still comparing computer-vision models, and these figures will be updated as the methods improve.

Stressors

No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores evident.

Fish and other fauna

Fish life unimpressive, though several nice angelfish. Finally began to see schooling fish. Snapper, batfish, encrusting Porites, Pachyseris, stinging hydroids (all over the place), Pocillopora acuta (uncommon). Few big fish with the exception of a small barracuda and some batfish.

Comparisons with other data

No independent survey was made at this exact site; the nearest ones are listed in the table below.

Dive record

2019-1-25 dive 1: Police corner (#24). 7:33-8:35 (62 min). Max. depth=32.6 m. Temp=25.6ºC. 30% oxygen.

Other notes

This was one of the best dives of the trip. 20 m viz at beginning of dive (among best of trip), 25ºC, cold, and dark.