Blue Season Bali

Blue Season Bali Goes ECO with the Project AWARE Go ECO Operator Campaign

Blue Season Bali is the latest PADI dive centre to be awarded with Project AWARE Go ECO Operator status in 2008.

Project AWARE Foundation, a non-profit environmental organisation working with divers to conserve underwater environments, launched the Go ECO campaign into the Asia Pacific region in 2005. The main objective of Go ECO is for dive centres to minimise their impact on the aquatic ecosystem whilst contributing to environmental, economic and cultural conservation. Dive centres are required to meet best practice environmental guidelines and commit to the Project AWARE Go ECO philosophy.

“Blue Season Bali is delighted to be awarded with the Project AWARE Go ECO Operator status for 2008. As a Go ECO Operator we are committed to providing dive experiences that enhance visitor awareness, appreciation and understanding of the local aquatic environment,” said Jonathan Cross

Joanne Marston, Manager, of Project AWARE Asia Pacific added, “We are pleased to recognise Blue Season Bali as a Go ECO Operator. We look forward to working with them to implement environmental best practices and educate tourists about how they can travel responsibly.”

Go ECO Operators also demonstrate a commitment to conservation and pledge to follow the Go ECO Operator guidelines.

For further information about Blue Season Bali visit www.baliocean.com or email info@baliocean.com

For further information about the Go ECO campaign visit the EcoTourism section of the Project AWARE website www.projectaware.org or email info@projectaware.org.au

About Blue Season Bali

Blue Season Bali is an International PADI Five Star instructor Development Centre 6570 and has been operating in Bali since 2001. Japanese and British owned, Blue Season Bali offers only the highest level in SCUBA diving services around Bali and the Indonesian archipelago.

About Project AWARE:

Project AWARE Foundation is a nonprofit environmental organisation dedicated to conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action. Project AWARE Foundation offices located in Australia, United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland combine efforts to conserve aquatic resources in 175 countries of the world.

www.projectaware.org

info@projectaware.org.au

Today is day four of the PADI IDC in Bali with Blue Season Bali.  We started the morning with the knowledge development presentations from the IDC candidates.  There are 9 candidates from many places such as Iran, Algeria, Argentina, Spain, England, Malaysia and Japan.  What a mixture of cultures!

This morning was the first knowledge development presentation for the group.  This afternoon we will go into the swimming pool for the PADI Rescue Diver workshop.  We will learn how to demonstrate and conduct skills from the PADI Rescue Diver course.

Over then next week or so we will be covering many aspects on how to become a PADI Dive Instructor.  Keep coming back for more info on what is happening.

The night dive in Puri Jatih is fantastic. From all the night dives that I did until now, Puri Jati is my favourite spot. It’s all just a mistery. You don’t know what to expect. Just like last time with my guest. We geared up at 7PM for the night dive. Torch? Check! Back up torch? Check! Whistle? Check! After the briefing we went into the water…

It’s amazing how underwater life can be so different during a night dive. Blue spotted stingrays that you don’t see that often during the day here at PJ. Well camouflaged decorated crabs, tiny cuttlefishes and as always many octopuses but now there was THE octopus that I always wanted to see during the night dive in Puri Jati. It’s quite amazing to see an octopus holding half a coconut shell on each side with 4 tentacles and walking on the sand with his two other tentacles just like a human being and from the moment that he stops he goes inside the shell and closes it! Next time I hope that I have a camera with me because it’s really unique. Before I just heard about it from other guest that went for a night dive with Blue Season Zen Resort but now I know it’s true!

Other things to see: Jawfish, Flathead, Whitemargin Stargazer, Margined Sole, All kind of Crabs, Pufferfish, Napoleon Snake Eel,…

Place: Puri Jati

Date: 10/11/2008

Max Depth: 9.1 meter

Water Temp: 31°C

Visibility: 10 meter

Dive Start: 07:03PM

Divetime: 62 minutes

Today our PADI Instructor, Phil from Newastle ( we wont hold that against him) has been conducting the PADI Oxygen Provider Course for our two Divemaster internships, Michael and Martin.

Michael and Martin are in the middle of completing their Rescue Diver course along with the EFR and Care For Children Course and then once they have completed the PADI Oxygen Provider course they will be ready to get on with their PADI Go Pro Internship.

In the PADI O2 course You learn how to

• Recognize diving illnesses treatable by emergency oxygen
• Properly setup equipment
• Administer emergency oxygen

Though suited for divers, this course has no prerequisites and doesn’t include dives, which means it is equally applicable to those who are around divers – boat crew, non-diving buddies, lifeguards, and shore staff. You don’t need any previous CPR or first aid training to take the course.

Michael and Martin will soon be starting their Divemaster course so keep an eye on our blog for more updates on how they are going.

Last week we went for a fundive with guests to a new spot in a place called Kalanganyar, 5 Km. westwards from Puri Jati. Always exiting to go to another place where you never dived before.

Mangku and me went down with our guest to max. 10 Meters… at least that was our intention. We didn’t go deeper than 4meters (!!!) on that dive. Mangku found probably a dozen Seahorses, all well covered in the sea grass. I saw the smallest Juvenile Pufferfish ever (not even a centimetre big), many different kind of Gobies, Octopus, Nudibranches, Pipefish, Leafy Filefish, Juvenile Batfish, Ambon Scorpion Fishes and many many more. There was even a guide that saw a Mandarin Fish but that would surprise me because you don’t have coral down there. Definitely a site to go to and explore when I have the opportunity.

Place: Kalanganyar

Date: 2/11/2008

Water Temp: 31°C

Visibility: 10 meter

Dive Start: 09:08AM

Divetime: 92 minutes

It’s already 4 months now that I stay here in Blue Season Zen Resort with more than 60 dives in Puri Jati on my dive computer.

Puri Jati (PJ) lies close to Zen Resort Bali and a short distance west of Seririt and 13 km west of Lovina. The dive site name changed to Zen Beach as the hotel was used to be called as Puri Jati. It’s a 6 minute picturesque walk from Zen Resort Bali to the actual dive site with beautiful rice terraces and vineyards on the pathway. Once getting there you have all the facilities that you need: Showers, changing room, some bamboo tables where you can put all your equipment, smiling helpers setting up your gear and 3 wash containers. A big one for all equipment and 2 small round ones to rinse your camera.

It is a good place to see small and rare animals so they told me. Without having big expectations about what to see down there, I geared up and went diving for the first time on this site. I still remember it as it was yesterday. I was thinking: “What the hell am I doing here??? This has to be like diving on the moon?!!” I didn’t saw anything at all during that dive. This has to be a joke! Anyway… after the first dive I couldn’t believe that this dive site doesn’t have anything to offer so the day after I went for another one and adjusted my ‘diving tactics’. Much slower pace, frog kick by frog kick, and all in a sudden you start to see some things like threadfin sanddivers, dragonets, razorfish, weird looking crabs and a flying gurnard! I was quite surprised that I saw a barracuda. I taught he probably lost his way.

After some dives here at Puri Jati I started to appreciate it more and more. Now it’s one of my favourite spots to dive without any doubt. You can do 4 exactly the same dive routes on the same day and see every time different creatures such as frogfishes, dragonets, seahorses, flying gunards, lots of octopuses hiding in small bottles or bamboo, cuttlefish, a variety of crabs, eels, various nudibrach, Ambon Scorpion fish, the smallest lionfishes that you ever saw, very small harlequin shrimp, Ornate and Robust Ghost Pipe Fish, porcelain crabs and many other interesting critters but the target of every day diving in Puri Jati is searching for the rare but intelligent Mimic Octopus. He can imitate certain fish such as a sole, a sea snake (don’t miss it on youtube!), jellyfish and sea anemones. It’s a delight to look at it!

To keep it short. You have so many beauties that you should not miss them. Also you should prepare for PADI Digital Underwater Photography if you are interested to develop your underwater camera skills.

It’s also a wide area that can take several dives to cover. Most of the things you see are between 5 and 15 metres so it’s easy to make long dives.

Anyway… you don’t here me saying that it’s just diving on the moon. The only comparison that I can make is that it is also a privilege to be here diving on such a unique place here in Puri Jati. Most of the people will be satisfied diving here like photographers and experienced divers but also beginners that want to learn more about Macro or Muck diving.

P.

We are coming to the end of another long and successful Mola Mola season in Bali.  The season has had some excellent sightings which have kept our Bali divers happy and wanting to come back for more.

Be sure to checkout Bali Sunfish later on for more updates on the 2009 season.  Remember to book your Mola Mola package well in advance as this year we were booked up to four months in advance.

Also take a look at the new Mola Mola code of conduct in order to give all divers an idea on how to interact with Mola Mola and also large pelagics in general.

A rather controversial subject for many but is it right to remove marine life from our reefs in Bali so that others in places like Europe and America can gaze at them in their fish tanks, or use them in the name of research?

The reefs in Bali and Indonesia are under tremedous strain as it is.  There is a huge amount of destructive fishing practices that destroy reefs and aquatic environments in the quest of selling aquarium reef fish to the rest of the world.

As divers and PADI members it is very important that we do everything we can to help sustain coral reefs and indeed all marine environments.  The removal of a boxer crab from a reef in Bali may not seem so important yet the amount of tourism created by these atractions is vital for the local community and businesses.  The USD1.50 earned by the seller is nothing compared to the dollars coming in from tourists to see these unique creatures.

Blue Season Bali encourages everyone to get more information about how they can help the aquatic world by visiting the PADI Project AWARE website.  We are also happy to hear any thoughts on this subject.

PADI IDC Bali - A huge congratulations for Jan, Kenta, Neil, Marina, Daisuke and Matoko who all passed their PADI IDC and PADI IE in Bali over the weekend.

The PADI IE was conducted by George Wegmann from PADI Asia Pacific who did a fantastic job for all the IDC candidates in Bali.  Thanks George!

Over the three days, all our Bali IDC candidates proved the fantastic training put in by our Course Director, SF Chong, and our Staff Instructor, Taka, was not wasted.  Superb performances from all meant that Blue Season Bali keeps their unique 100% success rate in all PADI IE’s in Bali.

The success of the latest bunch of PADI Instructors come as no surprise given the huge amount of effort put in by the PADI IDC Bali team of Course Directors and PADI IDC Staff Instructors.  For anyone out there who wants more information about the PADI IDC in Bali email us.

The PADI IE success was celebrated by all in grand style.  Just don’t remind Jan about it!  It is still too painful for him to remember.

Well I’ve been waiting to see my first mola mola and yesterday I was finally rewarded with one. The conditions were great the water wasn’t very very cold probably right around 24° at Crystal Bay on the first dive I got to see a shadow of a mola mola which was in the deeper water and then as the diver I had with me was low on air or we had to start heading back towards the boat. On the way back we got to see a flame angel fish which are always a favorite of mine. They are called flame angel fish because the middle of the fish is reddish orange and then it’s surrounded on the fringe by blue so it looks like a flame hense the name.

On the second dive as soon as we got out towards the canyon which is the reference point for you to start looking for the mola mola’s one of our very experience Indonesia dive instructors started rapping on his tank to let us know that there was something there, sure enough just a little bit deeper than we were was a mola mola being cleaned by some schooling banner butterfly fish and it was amazing as the sunfish made the butterfly fish look as if we were far away because of the enormity of the sunfish. When we got back on the boat the Indonesian dive instructor let us know that it really wasn’t even a very big one only around 2 m which only makes me want to go on Mola Mola dives in Balimore often so that I can go and see a really big one. As I understand it we can anticipate seeing many more mola mola’s as we are now in the mola mola season so sightings of the sunfish in Bali should be regular occurrences on the dives until the end of September. You know I remembered everything about that dive the only thing I forgot was a camera so really my first one doesn’t count as I don’t have proof I quess I will just need to get back out there and do it again!

Yesterday also was the end of the IDC and Blue Season Bali had the most instructor candidates in the IE and all of them passed so the 100% pass ratio for Blue Season Bali is still intact. The next IDC will be in September and I can’t wait to work with Chong as I will be a student learning to be a IDC staff instructor. So now that I have seen a mola mola the last thing I have that I really want to see scuba diving is a whale shark who knows maybe one will be sitting at Manta point watching a manta getting cleaned and have one bump into me while I’m in the water, or maybe I’ll be on a mola mola dive and a whale shark will come cruising through!