Gili Air, North Lombok we have had had a great week of spotting pygmy Seahorses. It is not often that we come across them, a bit up and down, they seem to like to move around the Gili Islands. Our spot was on a dive site called Gili Air wall. Kuss our instructor was the one who spotted it down at 18 Meters while taking his 4th dive of an Open water course. Around the Gilis we get both the common pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) and Denise pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus denise). The type Kuss spotted was the common seahorse. They are tiny with orange to red warts and spots. They live on sea fans the same colour as them to blend in and catch food from the water movement.
Other than the seahorses we have been seeing our local frogfish, pipe fish, Schools of trevally’s and barracuda plus we had a magnificent spot of 6 eagle rays at the beginning of the week plus our usual turtles which is pretty much a guarantee when we dive around the north gilis.
We are almost up and ready with our new location on Gili air. Our boat is getting finished off and building starting then away we go ready for the high season.
The water temperature around the gilis is still nice and warm and the visibility has averaged around 15 meters. Lets hope for the same conditions next week.