Bruce’s Stargazer

The tsunami warnings sent out to multiple countries and islands across the south Pacific on March 11, 2011 following the devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake in north east Japan left Maluku mostly untouched. Our hearts go out to Japan and all those affected by the tragedy. Thankfully, Ambon island, whose bay faces southeast, is sheltered by Ceram island in the north, and Maluku Divers’ guests went about diving with their usual intensity.

The highlight of the diving this week is this interesting stargazer which was found at the dive site, Air Manis, during one of our regular night dives, which can now be arranged at sites close to the resort, as well as our convenient house reef.

While the whitemargin stargazer (uranoscopus sulpheus) is regularly seen during night dives in Ambon, this particular stargazer, which has a brown base and distinct white spots all over its body, has not been seen here until this week, when two individuals were spotted by our eagle-eyed guides. We think they may be the tropical-dwelling white-spotted stargazer (uranoscopus polli), and although most of the fish identification sites we consulted have described them dwelling on sandy slopes beyond 20 metres/66 feet, these two were found at between 14–16 metres/46–53 feet. One of the first guests who came to the new Maluku Divers resort at Laha in November 2009, Bruce Shafer, shares his photo of this night-dweller, found during his second repeat visit here.  If anyone knows for certain what species this stargazer is, please let us know.

Bruce is, by the way, in the process of publishing his photos of underwater creatures in a coffee table book. We want a copy!