Life Finds a Way!
By Saeed Rashid
Lembeh Strait sits almost directly in the middle of the Coral Triangle and is a long narrow strip of water which separates the mainland of Sulawesi in Indonesia to the island of Lembeh. This small area is a mecca for all underwater macro photographers and is the capital of muck diving around the world.
Even before I had ever picked up an underwater camera, I heard tales of this magical place. These weren’t tales of amazingly clear, colourful coral-filled vistas but of the strange and weird creatures that inhabit these waters. So it had always been on my travel bucket list and I was over the moon when I finally had my chance to visit.
The thing that hits you when you arrive at this land of fairy tales and mythical creatures is that it sits right next to the busy container port of Bintung and if you have ever visited a port you know that they are not the most idyllic places. There are no pristine white sand beaches here (actually that’s not completely true there are a couple). Instead, you stand looking over the Strait and see old tin cans, plastic bags and food containers slowly floating by. It’s easy to be saddened by the state us humans have made of the area with little thought given to the impact our rubbish has on the environment here.
Image: Lembeh strait, the port of Bitung on the left.
Still, Lembeh draws thousands of scuba divers to its waters every year. When you enter the water for the first time you really wonder why. The visibility is generally poor and the black volcanic sand seems to suck all the light away making everything grey and dull. My first time reminded me of a gloomy English Channel dive and I really wondered why I had spent my hard-earned money to dive somewhere that looked like Swanage pier.
But (with a massive capital B), your eyes soon become accustomed to the poor conditions and slowly things start to stand out. The rock to your right suddenly gets up and runs away; the feathery stick in front of you disappears with a flash under the sand and a ball of weed opens its mouth and yawns. You are now in the land of the weird and wonderful – welcome to Lembeh.
Image: Moray Eel finds a natural home in an old coconut
Even with all the pollution and rubbish, this area has an extraordinarily high biodiversity. Some of the animals here cannot be seen anywhere else in the world and they have made this harsh environment their home with many seeming to thrive in the conditions here. This small area probably generates more competition-winning underwater images than any other location in the world.
Almost every bit of man-made trash seems to have attracted some kind of critter. A frogfish finds an old piece of carpet to hide underneath, floating islands of plastic waste become nurseries for juvenile fish.
Image: The beady eyes of a mantis shrimp stare out of its beer bottle apartment
A common pastime for the locals must be to drink beer on the beach and throw empty bottles into the water because the seabed is littered with them. If you carefully peek inside some of these bottles you’ll often find a little critter that has turned this discarded human trash into a home and these are often fiercely defended from would-be house thieves. No one does that better than the crazy-eyed mantis shrimp who will happily take on passing divers to keep them away from their five-star beer bottle apartment.
One of my images here shows two Yellow Pygmy Gobies in a plastic water bottle but these guys seem to have a doorman. A juvenile coconut octopus is helping to defend their home. Every time I approached the bottle the gobies would dart inside and hide behind their octopus friend who would puff himself up and block the entrance. They were really funny to watch. I returned several times over the coming days to see my friends living in the bottle and watch for a long time as they interacted together and often saw the octopus working with the gobies to clean out sand and pebbles from inside their home. The final time I visited the octopus had found a shell to use as a drawbridge helping to defend this small bottle castle.
Image: Juvenile Coconut octopus guarding his goby friends
These critters are just replicating their natural behaviour but instead of using a crevice in a rock or even a fallen coconut, they have found use in this old bottle. A line from the theme tune of The Wombles came to mind while watching them going about their life, “Making good use of the things that we find, Things that the everyday folks leave behind” this 1970s children’s television show taught us not to throw away our rubbish. I’m not sure everyone watched it!!
Soon the octopus would outgrow the bottle but for now these two different species seem to have found a perfect relationship living together in the trash that we have carelessly discarded into the sea.
When I look back at this experience it often gives me hope that sometimes, life does find a way.
Image: Coke – Any bottle will do
Saeed Rashid
Saeed is a well known photographer and journalist (underwater and on land). When he is not below the surface, he teaches photojournalism and is never happier than when he has a camera to hand. Saeed is also a fourth element Team Diver.
All images courtesy of Saeed Rashid