It’s been a great week for finding cuttlefish in Gili Air! Cuttlefish are spotted frequently around the Gili Islands, including the broad club cuttlefish above which was captures on camera on our House Reef this week by our guest, PADI Instructor John McDowell, visiting from the Bahamas.
Cuttlefish are not actually fish, they are cephalopods, making them closely related to octopus and squid. Unique to the cuttlefish, and the reason for its name, is a cuttlebone which acts a bit like an internal BCD. They use the cuttlebone to control their density (and therefore water displacement) in order to move up and down or maintain a perfect hover without taking the Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty course! One of the most fascinating things about the cuttlefish (similar to its octopus cousin) is its ability to change colour and texture instantly in order to camouflage, hunt, court or as an act of defense. With the funny arms on their faces and pretty skirt dancing around their bodies, I have often wondered “who was the first person to see a cuttlefish and think ‘that looks like good eating’???”
Not only are cuttlefish found on restaurant menus, their cuttlebones may look familiar to you if you have ever kept or seen caged birds. The bones are frequently placed in bird cages as a source of calcium. We prefer to see these strange hypnotic ocean dancers living their best lives in our oceans. Cuttlefish in Gili Air have much to be happy about – amazing reefs to inhabit and plenty of food! Despite there being no shortage of cuttlefish in Gili Air, due to their amazing camouflage skills, a sighting of a cuttlefish in Gili Air is always a special moment underwater!
Learn to dive at Two Fish Divers in Gili Air!
We’ve had another busy week here on Gili Air and that will continue as things ramp up ahead of the holiday season! Instructor Komang had his first PADI Open Water Course students this week, Tayla and Miki. These ladies worked very hard on a tight schedule to complete the course while overcoming some fears in the process! Congratulations and welcome to the dive tribe!!!
Equipment servicing workshop during the PADI Divemaster Internship on Gili Air
Our professional training program was full steam ahead with our DMT, Sara, smashing through the final week of her PADI Divemaster Internship in Gili Air! Sarah has learned a lot with us this week both in and out of the water. In the pool she completed her dive skill assessments, including a very relaxed equipment exchange! Out in the ocean we practiced a lot of briefings, guiding, problem management and rescue skills. On land Sara got hands-on experience servicing a set of regulators during our equipment workshop and filled her first scuba cylinder during our compressor workshop.
Our compressor workshop took us to mainland Lombok, where our compressor station is. After the workshop, we took the opportunity to dive at Seahorse Bay on the mainland for the first time for some of our team! Seahorse Bay is a shallow sloping bottom, mostly sandy with some seagrass. There have been some impressive efforts to generate coral regrowth with some metal structures covered in hard corals and some bright red/orange sea fans! Some of the exciting things we spotted included pontohi pygmy seahorses, great seahorses, banded sea krait and a warty frogfish waving around its lure trying to catch some food! We look forward to going back to explore the site some more and hopefully next time we will have a camera rather than just relying on our memories to review our fish identification books.
Checking out marine life sightings in Gili Air
As we reach the middle of December (how did that happen???) our calendar is filling up with fun divers and courses, but we still have some spaces available! What better way to spend the holidays than on the white sandy beaches of Two Fish Divers Gili Air and cooling off with some training or fun dives?
If you’d like to join us – and look out for the cuttlefish in Gili Air – then fill in the form below and we will get right back to you! Did you know it’s easy to combine diving in Gili Air with South Lombok, Amed in Bali and Nusa Lembongan too?
