Triton Bay - Seruanus

Setting

Poor visibility: 7-10 m max with medium, variable current, occasionally with upwelling of cold (24°C) water. Whether these cold pulses were true upwelling was not confirmed. Site appears to be more conducive to soft coral growth: high flow, high turbidity, nutrient-rich seawater (e.g., Image 2).

2

General benthic features

Low cover of stony corals before 10 m (e.g., Image 3).

3

Soft corals impressive at all locations within site (back side of Little Komodo Island). Corals do not appear to have ever been common here before 7 m, though all substrate from base of island to 20 m was potentially of biological origin. High biodiversity of soft corals: gorgonians, encrusting soft corals (like in Balicasag), essentially every type of soft coral, sea whips (e.g., Image 4).

4

Acropora colonies healthy and fairly common at 5-6 m, though still not a major reef builder. Some massive corals growing up to 3- to 4-m in diameter. Unsure of species (separated corallites). Only one pocilloporid colony was seen, with very dark pigmentation and a branching form compatible with Pocillopora verrucosa (e.g., Image 20).

20

Reef strikingly colorful in 1-6 m, with corals growing to just below surface (e.g., Image 5).

5

Corals evident from dive boat.

Coral cover

• Reference: Claude CV point count (this site's photos)
• Coral cover: 9.1% — a blind Claude computer-vision point count of 66 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

Anderson photographed one recently dead plating colony (e.g., Image 22); its cause was not recorded.

22

One frame shows a dark sponge whose curled lower lip is bleached white (e.g., Image 21).

21

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

Fish and other fauna

Interesting marine life included a white nudibranch with fine black lines and spots (compatible with Chromodoris willani) (e.g., Image 18), an unusual black-and-white mottled sea cucumber (sea cucumbers were relatively common; Image 19), Plerogyra (rare), some encrusting sponges, and fewer barrel sponges; there was evidence of overfishing, though some large snapper and angelfish were seen occasionally.

1819

A small yellow sea cucumber covered in fleshy, conical papillae, which give it a nudibranch-like look (compatible with Colochirus robustus), was common at the site and was new to the observers (e.g., Image 9).

9

Comparisons with other data

We found no other surveys at this site as of 2026. If you would like to share yours, please email us.

Regional context, not a survey of this site: Bawole et al. (2026) report mean hard coral cover at 24 University of Papua monitoring sites in the Kaimana marine protected area around Triton Bay, surveyed by point-intercept transect at 8–10 m: 17%, 24%, and 32% in the no-take zones (eight sites) and 14%, 18%, and 13% in the use zones (16 sites) in 2012–2013, 2015–2016, and 2019. Cover differed significantly between zones but not over time (p = 0.828); these are zone means, not this site’s cover.

Dive record

Dive 1: “Seruanus:” The first dive of the Triton Bay-Raja Ampat trip. The dive computer recorded a single water temperature, 23.0°C.