From calm and colourful shallow reefs alive with hundreds of colourful reef fishes and crammed with invertebrates, to current-swept deep water sea mounts, walls and pinnacles patrolled by sharks, tuna and other big fish – Komodo Island and National Park Reserve offer it all. Komodo does not have to dread the comparison with the world’s best dive destinations. Some even call Komodo the world’s epicentre for marine diversity. Fact is that you will see loads of stuff here on a diving cruise that you just won’t see anywhere. From whale sharks, sunfish, eagle rays, mantas to pygmy seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, clown frogfish, nudibranches and blue-ringed octopus. And to top it all these creatures call a spectacular range of colourful sponges, sea squirts, tunicates and corals their home.
Geologically, Komodo and Rinca are part of Flores, separated from Sumbawa to the west by the Sape Strait. While the bottom drops to almost 300 m in the middle of the straint, the many islands and relatively shallow seas between Flores and Komodo’s west coast mean very fast currents at tidal changes. There are deep seas both north and south and upwellings bring nutrients and plankton to keep the seas rich and well-fed.
Komodo has had a better fate than other parts of Indonesia as the reefs around the south of the islands have suffered relatively little damage from dynamite fishing. Much of the area now lies within the protection of the National Park. The shallow reefs between Flores and the northern region however, were bombed in the past but are now recovering their former splendour. The affected area covers around 15% of the archipelago, and even here steep drop-offs and current-swept points offer excellent Komodo diving.
The island is also famous for its Komodo Dragon monitor lizard, the largest lizards in the world; an alert and agile predator and scavenger that can reach 2.5 m in length and 125 kg.