Pulau Weh 2011

A Mola-mole a.k.a Ocean Sunfish was spotted at 40m-47m

School of Jacks playing in the current, DM Yudi cling on to the reef..

Date: 29 Jan 2011 – 05 Feb 2011
Location: Pulau Weh, Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
Camera: Canon G10 + Canon Casing
Strobe: Fantasea Single Nano Strobe Set
Filter: NIL
Post editing: PS CS3
No. of dives: 7

My reason to go there:
Have been there once in 2009, miss the place, the diving, the people, the satay ….

Thoughts:
- Visibility was pretty good ranging from 15m to 25m, depending of the dive sites
- Coral reefs are healthy
- This place has the largest seafans to my opinion, rivaling the Similans
- Rich array of marine lifes … good mix of resident reef species and pelagics 
- The dive operator was easy going, but may be too easy going sometimes 
- Very happy to see so many dermatobranchus ornatus
- Extremely happy to see a Mola-mola, it was cleaning at 46.6m
- My first nitrogen narcosis, it was the 46.6m dive. My face and hands started feeling numb, and then a headache started to kick in, I knew it was too deep and too long for me, so after taking a few pictures of the mola-mola and a video, I started ascending slowly, the headache lasted for 30-40mins after the dive. But it was ok after that, I was able to do the next dive after the SI.
- There were fewer moray eels this time, perhaps they went hiding…
- Water temperature 26-27c
- There are 3 resident Leaf Scorpionfishes at Arus Paleeh now, we dive pass that location 3 times and on all 3 passes we saw the leafscorpion fishes
- Rough sea, it was hard for some of the divers to get onto the boat after some dives
- Was raining on and off for the first 2-3 days, and gradually got better and eventually all sunny before a day we left..
- Great dive gang, although they were all strangers from other countries.. . 

Bursting with fishes

Andaman sea have some of the largest seafans in this region

A Honeycomb Moray Eel, we don't see this species quite so often

dermatobranchus ornatus

dermatobranchus ornatus

Clark's anemone fish on fluorescent pink bubble anemone

dermatobranchus ornatus

Gorgonian Seafan

feather stars

Whip coral

A Mola-mola, a very very very lucky find

Common lionfish

Leaf Scorpionfish

Ribbon Eel

Common lionfish

Common lionfish

Tassled Scorpionfish .. looks those beard like looking tassles

Leaf Scorpionfish

a Crinoid Shrimp hiding amongst the tentacles of a feather star

phyllidia varicosa

phyllidiella zeylanica

A Commensal shrimp

chromodoris kuniei

phyllidia ocellata

chromodoris quadricolor

daddy if this kid caught a Orange-lined Triggerfish

Lots of other divers

Giant Trevallies

Chevron Barracudas, yeah like those we see at Sipadan

  Striped Large-eye Breams

Golden Sweepers .. like little glittering jewels

Penguin wing oyster

Pulau Weh 2009

Date: 22 Jan 09 - 28 Jan 09
Location: Pulau Weh, Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

Pulau Weh is a small active volcanic island to the northwest of Sumatra. It was originally connected to the Sumatran mainland and became separated by sea after the volcano's last eruption in the Pleistocene era.[1] The island is situated in the Andaman Sea. The largest city on the island, Sabang, is the westernmost outpost of Indonesia.
The island is known for its ecosystem; the Indonesian government has declared 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi) of inland and sea around the island as a wildlife protection area. A rare megamouth shark species was found on shore and the island is the only habitat for the threatened toad, Bufo valhallae (genus Bufo). Coral reef areas around the island are known for their large variety of fish species.
Weh Island is located in the Andaman Sea, where two groups of islands, the Nicobar Islands and Andaman Islands, are scattered in one line from Sumatra to the north up to the Burma plate. The Andaman Sea lies on an active moving small tectonic plate (microplate). A complex geological fault system and volcanic arc islands have been created along the length of the sea by the movement of the microplate.
There are four islets surrounding Weh Island: Klah, Rubiah, Seulako, and Rondo. Among those, Rubiah is well known for diving tourism, because of its coral reefs. When traveling to Saudi Arabia was only possible by sea, Rubiah was used as a place of quarantine for Indonesian Muslims during the Hajj pilgrimage season.

Dive information
Accessibility to dive sites: 8.8
Marine Animal Density: 7.5
Dive site terrain Quality: 8.8
Marine Animal Diversity: 7.8
Visibility: 6.8
Overall Score: 8.0
No. of dives: 11
Entry: Boat
Difficulty: OW - AOW
Dive Sites: Fringing reefs/Wall/Deep/Wreck
Favorite dive sites:
- Pantee Peunateung
- Canyon
- Batee Tokong
- Sea garden
Camera: Fujifilm FinePix F100 fd
Underwater casing: Fuji WP-FXF100 Underwater Housing
Underwater strobe: Fantasea Cool Flash Nano
Post editing: PS CS3
** Special Thanks to KL Tan who was generous enough to lend me her Fuji F100fd camera + underwater casing. My old friend the Canon Powershot A80 passed away 2 weeks before this trip, I was heart broken….. RIP my dear friend.

Cost:
Firefly: Penang-Banda Aceh-Penang - RM390.00
Dive cost - 11 dives: RM695.00
Food, accommodation, transport, tax, etc: RM410.00
** We saved a lot on accommodation, coz the beach hut cost around RM15/night. … food price was reasonable, we had all our meals on Iboih beach at “MamaMia”, run by an elderly couple who cooks splendid Acehnese dishes. Dinner was especially warm every night with the company of other divers and travelers, exchanging stories and experiences made dinner a time to look forward everyday…

Beach huts at Ibioh Beach – Fatimah’s beach huts, run by Mamamia’s sister; Fatimah
Guest house at Banda Aceh – Hotel Prapat , run by local Hakka Chinese, they speak Hakka, Hokkien(like Penang) and Mandarin, they are very friendly and helpful...
Dive center – Rubiah Divers, run by the legendary Pak Dodent and sons. Pak Dodent is the founder of scuba diving at Pulau Weh and has been diving there since 1987.

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