Indonesia - Komodo NP: Tatawa Besar

Setting

24-25ºC (cold), 30% oxygen. poor viz=8 m, high particulate load, gentle current, a typical sloping reef dominated by a fluorescent orange soft coral, small massive Porites, Diploastrea, Pocillopora verrucosa, giant clams, small digitate Acropora, Platygyra, barrel sponges, Stylophora pistillata, high fish biomass, and diversity (though small mean size), P. rus (small), Pocillopora acuta, fire coral, some areas dominated by massive sponges, 2-3-m diameter manta, first Napoleon wrasse, Fungia, Galaxea, fairly high relief/structure compared to some reefs in the area (e.g., Image 1, Image 2).

12

Temp.=23.3ºC. 30% oxygen. 23ºC=easily the coldest dive of the trip. It is entirely possible that we were diving in the middle of an upwelling event given the poor viz (5-6 m) and cold temperatures (23-24ºC) (e.g., Image 4).

4

Water looked nutrient-rich, and fish life was more impressive than at many other sites.

General benthic features

Coral was very abundant. Stylophora pistillata=common, Hydnophora, Pocillopora eydouxi, Isopora, some table Acropora, finger Porites, Tubastrea (green), high Acropora diversity. Not much coral above 11 m. Seriatopora hystrix, fire coral, and soft corals all common in shallows. Large areas of rubble dominated by soft corals covering huge areas of 5-7 m, another manta at end of dive (e.g., Image 5).

5

Huge sponges dominated the habitat in many places. High coral cover and very colorful. Hard coral+sponge-dominated habitat for most of dive. Some coral rubble being colonized by CCA and other algae (e.g., Image 3).

3

Soft corals only dominant in shallows (3-5 m).

Coral cover

Coral cover: 22% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 155 of Anderson's edited photographs (20 points per photo; water, fish, and obstructions excluded). Other computer-vision methods are listed in the method table.

Stressors

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

Fish and other fauna

Black tip reef shark. Saw a turtle. High reef fish biomass. Dogtooth tuna (among few of trip).

Comparisons with other data

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

Dive record

2019-1-22 dive 3: Tatawa Besar (#14). 14:52-15:50 (58 min). Max depth=18 m. 2019-1-27 dive 2: Tatawa Besar round 2 (#33; my 30th of trip): 10:30-11:28 (58 min). Max. depth=18.3 m.

Other notes

Though a virtual repeat of our previous dive to this site, it was nevertheless lovely. Essentially shivered the whole time.