Thursday, March 6, 2008

Makassar, Sulawessi Part 3!

For today, let's talk about the most popular place in Makassar, the marina.

A view of the loading docks. I took this picture from a balcony at the hotel I stay in. The marina is on the left side of this shipping yard.

Another view from the balcony of Makassar port. Note the beautiful islands in the background.

On any given day, the marina is a hangout for everyone. From young couples to families, they all come here to relax and enjoy the atmosphere.

It's a tough living. Children selling drinks and snacks is a common site.

Enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon, father and son try their luck at fishing at one of the docks. Note the guy is wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. I'm wearing shorts and a teeshirt and I'm sweating!

Fishing is popular at the marina. It gives the locals something to do and keeps the kids busy.

Here is what they are catching. They look like small jacks of some sort.

Check out this floating dock. It is made from these plastic squares that are rivetted together. Pretty cool considering it wasn't slippery.

A little boat ride that goes around the harbor is always fun for the family and kids!
Most of the people fishing were simply using hand lines. Check out the nice looking hotel in the background.

And now, more pictures of corals that I found on this trip!

Stunning blastomussa with unusual colors!

White base with lime green eyes. Makassar has the nicest favias!

Another beauty! This lobophyllia flaunts red, pink, and yellow - green. The picture really does not do justice!

Oh man, a pink alveopora! Again because of the unique water conditions, this area of Indonesia produces unusual color morphs of common corals.

Very nice red goniopora with purple centers. Another specialty from Makassar!
Of course this area sports the best yumas around. One of them opened up to 3 inches wide!

Killer blue ricordea yuma!

Elegance with pink and purple tips are abundant in this area. Eric Bornamen did a study of the elegance disease and used samples from this area. He also used samples from other areas of Indonesia too. From the hundreds of elegances I see, none of them show signs of this disease here. Every supplier has old elegance corals that they didn't sell and just sit there for months until they loose color, but still the disease is not present. However, I do see some sick elegances at the exporters. Personally, I think it is caused by stress during shipping from here to the exporters. Then even more stress from Indonesia to overseas.

A beautiful deepwater lobophyllia. I'm sure the orange would glow under actinics. Many of these pieces have green rims as well!

Oh man, are you kidding me! This trachy is beyond beautiful. Another gem from Makassar.

Sorry for the blurred picture. Acan echinatas are second to none from this area!
Small colony of blastomussa wellsi. Nice metallic red with green centers!

Metallic green cynarina desheysiana! Not red, but still very nice for a green coral.
A red oxypora - chalice. I found these only in Makassar waters. Many of them are marbled with white - sky blue patches. They color up to an intense red under low halides. A very easy coral to keep for beginners.

And now, the super find on this trip (besides the baboon chalice). Can you guess what species of acan this is? If you guessed acanthastrea bowerbanki, you are going to Disneyland! This coral just came from the islands and was very stressed. I will have to keep it for a while until it recovers before sending it. I have seen other acan bowerbankis from this area before, but never this color morph. The way you can tell a bowerbanki is that this coral always starts with one big mother head and small baby heads appear around it. This is a particularly a large colony, usually they are smaller. I have a few other pieces and I will post them later.

Stay tuned for tomorrow. I will share pictures of ACANTHASTREA MAXIMAS that I found on this trip!!

cheers,
Eddie

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Eddie, very nice to see your blog coming along well. I have been reading it for a while now and have posted it on my blog as well, www.islaescondido.com. I love your pictures and keep the posts coming. We only get to see what comes in the LFS or online, and now i can see how things are handled and SPECIAL ordered. ;)

Edward

Eddie H. said...

Thanks Edward. Actually my name is Edward too, but everyone calls me Ed,Eddie, Eddie spaghetti, your meat balls are ready, fast Eddie, and my nick name at Mickey D's "Eddie hana". Like Benny hana, because I was so fast with the spatula! Good thing spongebob wasn't around back then, otherwise, that would have been added to my list.

I was called Duece by many friends and little cousins after Duece Bigelo, male jigolo came out. Remember I was cleaning fishtanks for a living back then.

I checked out your blog, very nice pictures and info. I saw my post on there too. Thanks for putting it up. I'm going to add you to my favorites.

cheers,
Eddie

Unknown said...

THanks Eddie, i will do the same. You are too funny about your name! LOL!

Eddie H. said...

Hey Edward,

I'll tell you something really funny. My name is Edward Hanson. I'm Korean but I live with my aunt and uncle in the US. My aunt is Korean and she is married to a Swedish guy. I took their name because they legally adopted me when I was very young.

When I entered high school at 8th grade. (the school system was set up that elementary was up to 7th grade). The funny thing was that the high school had a principal named Hansen (just so you know, that Swedes spell the last name with "son" and Norwegians and the Fins spell with "sen". Hansen was very popular at the school because not only the principal was a Hansen, but a counselor was a hanson and two P.E. teachers were a Hansen! So word got out another Hansen was joining the school. There was another Hansen at the school, but he was a freshmen. Typical Scandinavian guy with blond hair! So I walked into all the classrooms and of course the teachers were shocked when I said "here" during role call. They would say "you're a Hansen?" I guess they were expecting a blond hair kid, not an asian dude. I can tell you so many funny stories about my name. One day I'm going to write two books. One called "from fishes to riches" (if I ever become successful) and the other one would be "as the burger turns". It would be an autobiography of my years working at McDonald's. Working at Mickey D's for 10 years, I can tell you that it is a soap opera. Managers having flings with maintenace guys, the crew falling in love with each other. Secret babies to love traingles, I've seen them all happen. The crew having crushes on managers (I was one of them - he! he!) And so on and son on...

cheers,
Eddie

Aquaculture Northern Bali

November Corals Collection Part. 1

November Corals Collection Part. 2

Aquaculture - November Shipment

Coral Showcase - September 2008 Inventory

Holding Facility's Corals Collection Showcase 2007