Li Li’s Pygmy Pipedragon
Li Li Tey is a big part of our team in Ambon. Her beaming smile and enthusiasm for life, both above and below the surface of Ambon Bay, has been a real breath of fresh air at the resort, earning compliments and praise from a whole array of Maluku Divers guests.
Li Li first arrived with us in 2009 and has been volunteering in Ambon on and off ever since. A skilled instructor, she has been putting this qualification to use in Ambon to encourage and educated new divers amongst the local community, in addition to several members of the Maluku Divers team. This is one way that Maluku Divers has identified to encourage a greater understanding of the importance of marine realm within the local communities. Li Li has learned Indonesian and assists the local crew with their course theoretical study as well as their underwater experiences.
On top of all this volunteering, Li Li somehow finds the time to work in the evenings on her ‘real’ job as a professional proof reader, (she was the catalyst behind the wifi system that was installed this year at the resort) and even manages to correct the terrible grammar on the Maluku Divers website. (who actually did write that?!)
Li Li’s zest for observing the marine life in Ambon has developed her guiding skills and, amongst other things, she holds the resort record for locating boxercrabs on the house reef. A great guide looks for habitat as much as an individual critter and Li Li has been researching what other creatures could be found in the unique environments of Ambon Bay. Her studies lead her to a recent spate of pygmy species that have been identified, with the belief that surely some of these new species could also be found in Ambon’s fertile waters.
So it was armed with these pygmy targets that Li Li approached the dives in Ambon, meticulously searching the habitats she knew may hide something interesting. During one particular dive in mid May at another of Maluku Divers’ recently pioneered sites at Amahusu, while guest photographers were shooting images of huge Saron shrimps, Li Li descended to check out some habitat which Ned Deloach had mentioned was sometimes home to a pygmy pipehorse.
The result? Only the first ever discovery of the Pygmy Pipedragon (kyonemichthys rumengani) in Ambon.
Li Li’s excitement at the time of discovery was clear for all to see and she happily shared her find with the other divers and guides in the water. Spending the rest of the dive with her new found dragon friend, Li Li also made sure to show the specimen to photographer Phil Hetherington so he could take the necessary identification shots. Now, the individual was not a particularly punctilious pygmy pipedragon and refused the head on images we were hoping for. However, the images were sharp and provided enough information for Pygmy Grand Master Doctor Richard Smith, former guest of Maluku Divers, to successfully identify the species.
Previously thought to only exist in the waters of Lembeh, the Pygmy Pipedragon has been seen around Wakatobi, Togeans, Onna-son, Okinawa (Japan) and Cabilao (Philippines) and now we have them in Ambon!!
After the discovery of the Maluku Frogfish in 2008, and now this Pygmy Pipedragon, it is clear that Ambon is a hotbed of critter discovery, so why not join us to see if you can also discover something unidentified.
Until recently, we thought Li Li’s talents ended at guiding, instructing, proof reading and controlling Marcel, but no, many of you will have heard her sumptuous soprano in the soundtrack of EJ’s vimeo of Ambon. http://vimeo.com/23938141
Thanks for all your hard work Li Li!
