Muck Diving Info?

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Peter Guy

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We will be off to North Sul. next month for a two week trip -- one week muck diving and one week wall diving. I have a question for those of you who have been there:

What should I expect for average depth for the "muck dives?" Is it pretty shallow (and thus a lot of available light) or is it below 40-50 feet (thus absolutely requiring strobe)?

My plan is to use my Point 'n Shoot with a single strobe and a macro wet lens.
 
Peter Guy:
We will be off to North Sul. next month for a two week trip -- one week muck diving and one week wall diving. I have a question for those of you who have been there:

What should I expect for average depth for the "muck dives?" Is it pretty shallow (and thus a lot of available light) or is it below 40-50 feet (thus absolutely requiring strobe)?

My plan is to use my Point 'n Shoot with a single strobe and a macro wet lens.

The muck diving is between the surface and 40 meters (130 feet). There's great critters to be found at any depth so it's basically up to you how deep you dive. At the moment there are a few Rhinopias in Lembeh and some of them as deep as 30 meters (100 feet).

For ALL your muck diving you'll need a strobe, regardless of depth. Visibility isn't all that great and the bottom is either black sand or grey silt.

For the walls (in the shallows) you can do some available light wide angle pictures and use a red filter.
:D
 
I agree with Bowmouth Peter. I always use strobes muck diving.
 
afraid to ask about Bali viz..break it to me gently...


I do love ambient light when you have it shallow...
 
Muck diving in Manado/Popoh and Lembeh, you can go down to more than 30m! In fact, there are more critters at the shallow.

bali vis should be excellent this time of the year till Oct. Vis at Tulanben and Nusa Peninda can reach more than 30m and beyond!
 
catherine96821:
afraid to ask about Bali viz..break it to me gently...


I do love ambient light when you have it shallow...

Good news, Catherine! You can get some great photos in ambient light at Seraya house reef (Secrets) if you stay shallow. It's not muck diving with a lot of particulate in the water like at Lembeh, but rather clean water over black sand near a fresh water source. The biggest problem I had with viz there was at less than 2 meters, where the wave action stirred up the sand near the shoreline. Take your strobe, though, and experiment. As for the Liberty wreck, you'll want the strobe for the pygmy seahorses on the deep sea fans, but there's plenty at the top of the wreck that can be shot with ambient light. Also some of the wide-angle wreck profiles are very effective with ambient light.

Peter: I agree that the strobe is absolutely necessary at Lembeh. Also a flashlight.
 
thanks, Quero and Liangness, you're the best.

I cannot wait.
 
I think some people imagine muck diving to be only in the shallows, near the beach, "in the muck", but actually the term is a bit vague. When I first heard the term I imagined diving in shallow mud pools with almost zero vis, but in fact, visibility can be fine in places like Lembeh, Mabul, Tulamben etc..just don't expect 100ft vis!

Some muck dive sites:

Lembeh Strait

Mabul
 

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