This week in Bunaken… From having a couple of weeks of big stuff, this week has been one of awesome macro. Candy crab, crinoid shrimp, ornate ghost pipefish, painted frogfish, harlequin shrimp, tiger mantis shrimp and several types of  pygmy seahorse (Pontohi, Severn, Bargibanti) just to name a few. The seahorse in the picture is a Pontohi pygmy seahorse which was classified as its own species just seven years ago in 2008! Growing to a maximum size of 17 mm from nose to the tip of the tail we are happy our guides have the eagle eyes required to find them. Thank you Phil Clarke for the great photo!

We have also been happy to see some familiar faces this week. Lassi and Kossi from Finland as well as Lars and Patrik from Switzerland have all been here before, some of them a couple of times. So much fun to share a few “Do you remember that time when….” They have enjoyed a week of remarkably little or no currents and great visibility.

With a couple of new guides in training we took the opportunity to also brush up the other guides’ rescue skills this week. Since rescue skills, luckily, are rarely used it’s easy to become a bit rusty so it’s important to practice them on a regular basis. A few hours in the pool with plenty of people “panicking” and “drowning” gave everybody some good laughs, new knowledge and polished skills.