IN THE COOL, nutrient-rich waters of South Komodo, Indonesia, is a unique dive site that, in this divers’ experience, may actually qualify as one of the single-most colourful places on the planet. Unimposing topside, just a wave-washed bit of rock breaking the surface of a channel’s greenish water, underwater, Cannibal is an extravagant surprise of Nature – a huge, rock pinnacle utterly buried under a layer, a metre or two thick, of the most exotic, outrageously-coloured life imaginable.
Huge, purple gorgonian fans, dark green stands of Micrantha corals, lime-green sea whips, spiral corals, soft corals of seemingly every colour of the palette, and thousands of rainbow-hued crinoids are just the beginning, for much of the effect is created by the combined mosaic of vibrant, small life crammed into every possible…
