Second dive of 2019-1-20 and sixth of trip: “Deep Purple” I didn’t notice is while on the dive, but the site does kind of have a purple hue when looking at the pictures in hindsight.

Dive site notes: 11:21-12:12 (59 min). Max. depth=32.3 m. 26.7ºC. 30% oxygen. ~8 m viz. fairly strong current. Complex, albeit scoured hard coral community @ 15-20 m. large Diploastrea, general lack of large fish (maybe due to proximity to Sumbawa), mating nudibranchs, Seriatopora caliendrum and S. hystrix both common. At 25 m it was very dark, even at 11:30. This resulted in darkly pigmented corals. Barrel sponges very common. Crinoids common at all depths. Temperature @ 30 m=25ºC. No coral at these depths. First octopus of trip. Corallimorphs common at all depths (very common in this part of the world in general). Green Tubastrea=common. 1 Culcita. Tons of beautiful nudibranchs. At 20 m hard coral was present, but average live coral cover (ALCC) was only 5-15%, some with partial mortality. Some areas with small massive Porites. More foliaceous/sheeting corals at 15-20 m. Pocillopora acuta (PA) rare. Euphyllia, 1 COTS eating a coral. Found some small areas dominated by Porites rus. Platygyra. Tons of small reef fish. At 15 m mostly plating, low-relief colonies with very few acroporids. High hard coral diversity at 15 m with 20% cover. Some Montipora. Ribbon eels (first of trip). Some areas with more Acropora @ 12-13 m. Pocillopora verrucosa (PV) relatively common. Stinging hydroids common at 5-10 m. More PV and Acropora in shallows. Algae also more common in shallows. High coral diversity at 5 m, though not high cover (5-10%). Instead, soft corals and hydroids prevailed.