Komodo Dancer - Info - Live-Aboards.com

INDO AGGRESSOR (formerly Komodo Dancer), INDONESIA: General Info

"Komodo dragon," man alive, don't you just love to pronounce that phrase, jetting the air right through your front teeth -- Komodo Dragon! Fantasy becomes fact, & fact becomes the stuff of better fantasies in one of Indonesia's last frontiers of virgin scuba diving -- the central island groups surrounding Komodo, Bali & Flores islands.

Our friend Peter Hughes said years ago, & this gent has been scuba diving in some of the world's most remote & magnificent locales for decades -- "The lure of the unexplored is irresistible, & welcome to a brand new journey to the land of Dragons & Volcanoes, a real life 'Jurassic Park' above & below the surface of the seas. This is Komodo, Indonesia, one of the last frontiers of the underwater world. This 'Land That Time Forgot' is located some 200 nautical miles east of Bali, deep in the Indonesian archipelago between the islands of Sumbawa & Flores."

But those dinosaur-brained, bullwhip-tailed, razor-toothed, speed-waddling chunks o' mean street muscle -- the Komodo dragons -- are only a fraction of the bizarre & beautiful exotica to be found here in the central Indonesia Archipelago. We're coming here for the scuba diving, most of all, right? Right on, amigos del mar. Dragons & their delightful dragon breath are just frosting on the ol' Komodo Cake. On this the latest ace of Indonesia live-aboards, it's the scuba diving that tells the true tale, & brings adventure divers from all over the world to experience that "something new" we all crave continuously in the arena of adventure sports. Adrenaline + endorphins + pure sleep amines, that's the flow of brain chemistry on this Bali - Komodo - Flores romp!

Most world-class scuba diving sites are usually formed by either volcanic formations of undersea rock OR by massive amounts of unusual limestone (coral) deposits. This portion of the very large country of Indonesia is blessed by BOTH! You will see plenty of volcanic action as you explore the numerous seamounts in the area, with vast schools of jacks, countless pelagics of multi-hued & marvelous mien, mantas like mad, the occasional whale shark, & other stunning denizens of the blue-water community. The gusting currents that surge & swirl through the deep channels between Komodo & Rinca islands produce such a wild variety of conditions that there is something here for everybody. Great visibility, drift dives, massive cliffs of black basalt, endless sheer walls & dazzling coral gardens combine to house one of the most prolific & diverse marine ecosystems on earth. The scuba diving is total brain candy down here, more than words can really convey. One need to be Salvidor Dali with a touch of Peter Max, on high-test lattes! So here we go, mates -- an Aggressor Fleet yacht by way of Peter Max! Always to the Max with these exceptional luxury diving yachts. Max enjoyment, max diving, max critter counts, max professional guide support, max service, & best of all -- really reasonable prices.

Indonesia diving is all about discovery, dazzling depth of critter count. These are among key operative words on the Dancer Fleet Komodo Dancer. There are scores of species down here that bio-taxonomists have yet to even name & classify. Between the seamounts are vast unexplored coral reefs, often in shallow water perfect for live-aboard divers, & teeming with unusual tropical reef fish. In fact, this area plays host to more than 1,100 different species of fish (the best Caribbean islands offer around 700, by comparison). With a careful eye, even the most jaded fish watcher will discover hundreds of new species of brilliantly colored reef fish; plus an astounding array of invertebrates, some of which have never even been properly identified! Topside, the tropical island seascape is festooned with islands & islets & motus & atolls of every description, their volcanic bases gnawed away by eons of ocean waves, but their crowns are distinctive & unique. While Bali is green & tropically lush, Komodo is much dryer & features grassy meadows & a "desert" type feel to the landscape. Hence a perfect habitat for its most famous residents, the Komodo dragons, the largest lizards on earth.

Whether you are ripping along the top of a seamount on a lickety-split current dive, or whether you might be poking around in the shallows late in the day or night, or trekking the flower-rich, friendly islands on a topside adventure, Komodo, Indonesia is calling you, big time ... Indo Aggressor is the answer, folks. Come drink in the very best scuba diving in the world. THIS IS NO HYPERBOLE, AMIGOS del MAR.

It is a simple unvarnished fact. Move over, Red Sea. Move over Maldives. Move over Cocos, Galapagos, Palau & PNG. Who's your Daddy now? Indonesia diving is like a long wet kiss from Aphrodite on the half-shell, 4 or 5 times a day until your senses are flaming & flapping like some red flag in a sweet hot summer breeze that just won't quit. Indonesia diving rocks, & you roll along, gently, to the easy rhythm of life in the world's most extensive string of tropical islands. Komodo diving is beyond belief, baby. Let the good times roll.

INDO AGGRESSOR – FORMAL VESSEL SIZE & EQUIPMENT SPECS
(Most texts here below are courtesy of our travel partners at the Aggressor Fleet + the owners of Indo Aggressor.)

Port of Registry & Flag: Indonesia
Built: South Sulawesi, Indonesia, 2000 / 2001
Type: Wooden schooner
Length: 98 feet LOD, 125 feet LOA
Beam: 30 feet
Draft: 7.7 feet
Number of Passengers: 14
Accommodation: 7 Double Occupancy Staterooms
Number of Crew: 14
Length of Charters: 7 & 11 nights
Dives Per Day: 4 or 5
Number of Tenders: 2 (22 feet) Fiberglass Twin Engines 40 hp each
Total Displacement: 350 tons
Propulsion: 1 Mitsubishi/Hyundai 450 Hp
Fuel capacity: 12,000 liters
Fresh Water Capacity: 11,000 liters
Desalinator Production: 6200 liters per day
Cruising Speed: 8 - 10 knots
Range: 1100 Nm
Navigation Aids: VHF, SSB, Furuno 36 mile radar, GPS x 2
Oxygen On Board: Yes
Laundry: No
Compressor: 3 x Schifauer V32
Voltage: 1 x Mitsubishi 63 KVA gensets, 220v, 50 cycle plus 1 x Mitsubishi 50 KVA
Air-conditioning: To all interior areas
Recompression Chamber: Denpasar, Bali
Communications: Satellite Phone, USB & VHF Radio

FACTS about the BALI REGION & those celebrated KOMODO DRAGON LIZARDS

It is hoped that on every cruise at some point we will be able to go ashore at Komodo Island itself & be able to observe this fabled animal in the flesh. Please find below an article that answers many people questions about the Komodo Dragon.

This next Komodo Dragon Text has been adapted by the Aggressor Fleet from a "Scientific American" article by renowned author & scientific / cultural observor Mr. Claudio Cioffi.

The Komodo Dragon, as befits any creature evoking a mythological beast, has many names. It is also the Komodo monitor, being a member of the monitor lizard family. Varanidae, which today has but one genus, Varanus. Residents of the island of Komodo may call it ora. Among some on Komodo & the islands of Rinca & Flores, it is “buaga darat” (land crocodile), a name that is descriptive but inaccurate, monitors are not crocodilians. Others call it “biawak raksasa” (giant monitor) which is quite correct; it ranks as the largest of the monitor lizards, a necessary logical consequence of its standing as the biggest lizard of any kind now living on earth. Within the scientific community, the dragon is Varanus komodoensis. & most everyone calls it simply the Komodo.

The first question usually asked about Komodo Dragons is, how big do they get? A robust mature, male Komodo, is about 2.5 meters long & weights 45 kilograms. The largest verified specimen reached a length of 3.13 meters & was purported to weigh 166 kilograms. More typical weights for the largest wild dragons are about 70 kilograms; captives are often overfed & overweight. Although the Komodo can run briefly at speeds up to 20 kmh, its hunting strategy is based on stealth & power. It spends hours lying motionless, waiting to pounce on a deer, board, goat or anything edible passing by – including hapless humans. ;)

Monitors can see objects as far away as 300 meters, so vision does play a role in hunting, though their eyes are better at picking up movement than at discerning stationary objects. Their retinas possess only cones, so they may be able to distinguish color but have poor vision in dim light.

Despite a mention in the first scientific paper reporting its existence that dragons appeared to be deaf, later research revealed this belief to be false - the animal does hear, but in a restricted range, probably between about 400 & 2,000 hertz. (Humans hear frequencies between 20 & 20,000 hertz.) This limitation stems from varanids having but a single bond, the stapes, for transferring vibrations from the tympanic membrane to the cochlea, the structure responsible for sound perception in the inner ear. Mammals have two other bones working with the stapes to amplify sound & transmit vibrations accurately. In addition, the varanid cochlea, though the most advanced among lizards, contains far fewer receptor cells than the mammalian version. The result is an animal that is insentient to such sounds as a low-pitched voice or a high-pitched scream.

Vision & hearing are useful, but the Komodo Dragon's sense of smell is its primarily food detector. Its long, yellow forked tongue samples the air, after which the two tongue tips retreat to the roof of the mouth, where they make contact with the Jacobson’s organs. These chemical analyzers “smell” by recognizing airborne molecules. The concentration present on the left tongue tip is higher than that sampled from the right, telling the Komodo that prey is to be found on the left. This system, along with an undulatory walk where the head swings from side to side, helps the dragon sense the direction of odoriferous carrion from as far away as four kilometers, when the wind is right.

The Komodo makes its presence known when it is about one meter from its intended victim. The quick movement of its feet soundlike a “muffled machine gun,” according to Walter Auffenberg, who has contributed more to our knowledge of Komodo than any other researcher. Auffenberg, a herpetologist at the University of Florida lived in the field for almost a year starting in 1969 & returned for briefer periods in 1971 & 1973. He summed up the bold, bloody & resolute nature of the Komodo assault by saying, “When these animals decide to attack, there’s nothing that can stop them.” That is, while nothing can stop them from their attempt, most predator attacks are unsuccessful. The difficulties in observing large predators in dense vegetation turn some quantitative records into best estimates. It is informative that one Komodo followed by Auffenberg for 81 days has only two verified kills, with no evidence of the number of unsuccessful attempts.

When a Komodo ambushes its prey, it attacks the feet first, knocking the animal off balance. When dealing with smaller prey, it may lunge straight for the neck. The basic strategy is simple: try & smash the quarry to the ground & tear it to pieces. Strong muscles driving powerful claws accomplish some of this, but the Komodo Dragon's teeth are its most dangerous weapon. They are large, curved & serrated, & tear flesh with the efficiency of a plough parting soil.

Its tooth serrations harbor bits of meat from the Komodo Dragon's last meal, either fresh prey or carrion. This protein-rich residue supports large numbers of bacteria. In the saliva researchers have found some 50 different bacterial strains, at least seven of which are highly septic. If the prey somehow maneuvers away & escapes, chances are that its victory will be short-lived. Infections resulting from the Komodo bite will probably kill it within one week; its attacker, or more likely other Komodo Dragons, will then consume the corpse. The Komodo bite is not deadly to another Komodo, however. Dragons wounded in battle appear to be unaffected by these otherwise deadly bacteria.

The muscles of the Komodo Dragon's jaws & throat allow it to swallow huge chunks of meat with astonishing rapidity: Auffenberg once observed a female who weighted no more than 50 kilograms consume a 31 kilogram boar in 17 minutes. Several moveable joints, such as the intramandibular hinge that opens the lower jaw unusually wide, help in the bolting. The stomach expands easily, enabling an adult to consume up to 80 percent of its own body weight in a single meal, which most likely explains some exaggerated claims for immense weights in captured individuals.

Large mammalian carnivores, such as lions, tend to leave 25 to 30 percent of their kill unconsumed, declining to eat the intestines, hide, skeleton & hooves. Komodo Dragons eat much more efficiently, forsaking only about 12 percent of the prey. They eat bones, hooves & swaths of hide. They also eat intestines, but only after swinging them vigorously to scatter their contents. This behavior removes feces from the meal. Because large Komodo Dragons cannibalize young ones, the latter often roll in fecal material, thereby assuming a scent that their bigger brethren are programmed to avoid consuming.

Although males tend to grow larger & bulkier than females, no obvious morphological differences mark the sexes. One subtle clue does exist: a slight difference in the arrangement of scales just in front of the cloaca, the cavity housing the genitalia in both sexes. While sexing Komodo Dragons remains a challenge to researchers, the dragons themselves appear to have little trouble figuring ;outwho is who. With a group assembled around carrion, the opportunity for courtship arrives.

Most mating occurs between May & August. Dominant males can become embroiled in ritual combat in their quest for females. Using their tails for support, they wrestle in upright postures, grabbing each other with their forelegs as they attempt to throw the opponent to the ground. Blood is usually drawn, & the loser either runs or remains prone & motionless.

The victorious wrestler initiates courtship by flicking his tongue on a female’s snout & then over her body. The temple & fold between the torso & the rear leg are favorite spots. Stimulation is both tactile & chemical, through skin gland secretions. Before copulation can occur, the males must evert a pair of hemipenes located within his cloaca, at the base of the tail. The male then crawls on the back of his partner & inserts one of the two hemipenes, depending on his position relative to the female’s tail, into her cloaca.

The females Komodo will lay her eggs in September. The delay in laying may serve to help the clutch avoid the brutally hot months of the dry season. In addition, unfertilized eggs may have a second chance with a subsequent mating. The female lays in depressions dug on hill slopes or within the pilfered nests of megapode birds. These chicken-size land dwellers make heaps of earth mixed with twigs that may reach a meter in height & three meters across. While the eggs are incubating, females may lie on the nests, protecting their future offspring. No evidence exists, however, for parental care of newly hatched Komodo Dragons.

The hatchlings weight less than 100 grams & average only 40 centimeters in length. Their early years are precarious, & they often fall victim to predators, including their fellow Komodo Dragons. They feed on a diverse diet of insects, small lizards, snakes & birds. Should they live five years, they can weight 25 kilograms & stretch two meters. long. By this time, they have moved on to bigger prey, such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars & the most popular Komodo food, deer. Slow growth continues throughout their lives, which may last more than 30 years. Komodo Dragons, as members of the class Reptilia, do have a relationship with dinosaurs, but they are not descended from them as is commonly believed. Rather Komodo Dragons & dinosaurs share a common ancestor. Both monitor lizards & dinosaurs belong to the sub-class Diapsida, or “two-arched reptiles,” characterized by the presence of two openings in the temporal region of the skull. The earliest fossils from this group date back to the late Carboniferous period, some 300 million years ago.

Two distinct lineages arose from those early representatives. One is Archosauria, which included dinosaurs. The ancestor of monitor lizards, in contrast, stemmed from primitive Lepidosauria at the end of the Paleozoic era, about 250 million years ago. Whereas some dinosaurs evolved upright stances, the monitor lineage retained a sprawling posture & developed powerful forelimbs for locomotion. During the Cretaceous, & starting 100 millions years ago, species related to present day varanids appeared in centralAsia. Some of these were large marine lizards that vanished with the dinosaurs, about 65 million years ago. Others were terrestrial forms, up to three meters in length, that preyed on smaller animals & probably raided dinosaur nests. About 50 million year ago, during the Eocene, these species dispersed throughout Europe & south Asia & even into North America. Through comparisons of DNA sequences & chromosomal structure of varanid species & related families, researchers have concluded that the genus originated between 40 & 25 million years ago in Asia.

Varanids reached Australia by about 15 million years ago, thanks to a collision between the Australian landmass & southeast Asia.Numerous small varanid species, known as pygmy monitors, quickly colonized Australia, filling multiple ecological niches. More than two million years after a second lineage differentiated & spread throughout Australasia & the Indonesian archipelago, which was at the time far closer to Australia than it is today, because much of the continental shelf was above water. V. komodoensis is a member of that lineage, having differentiated from it about four million years ago. The Indo-Australian varanids could take advantage of their unique fauna environment. Islands simply have fewer resources than large landmasses. Because reptilian predators can survive on much lower energy requirements than mammals can, a reptile will have the advantage in the race for top predator status, under similar conditions.

In such a setting reptiles can also evolve to huge size, an advantage for hunting. A varanid called Megalania prisca, extinct for around 25, 000 years, may have reached a length of six meters & a weight of 600 kilograms; the late extinction date means that humans may have encountered this monster. Komodo Dragons adopted a more moderate gigantism. Reasons for the Komodo Dragon's current restricted home range - the smallest of any large predator - are the subject of debate & study. Various researchers subscribe to alternative routes that the dragons’ ancestors may have taken to their present locale of Komodo, Flores, Rinca, Gili Motang & Gili Dasami.

Komodo has a different paleo-geography from its neighbors. According to world-wide sea-level changes over the past 80,000 years & bathymetric data of the study area, Flores & Rinca were joined ;until 10,000 years ago. Gili Motang was connected several times to their combined landmass. Komodo was long isolated but appears to have joined its eastern neighbors about 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial maximum. That association may have lasted 4,000 years. Tantalizing fossil evidence supports the notion that today’s Komodo populations are relics of a larger distributions that once reached Timor, to the east of Flores. Fossils of two identical forms of a now extinct pygmy elephant, Stegodon, about 1.5 meters at the shoulder, on both Timor & Flores suggest that those two islands might have been sufficiently close in the Pleistocene to allow migration.

The limited resources of an island could have driven the evolution of the pygmy elephants, because smaller individuals, with lower food requirements, would have been selected for. In contrast, today’s Komodo dragon may have evolved from a less bulky ancestor; the availability of the relatively small elephants as prey may have been a driving force in the selection of largeness that resulted in the modern three-meter Komodo. (A large reptile still needs far less food than a mammal of similar size.) Auffenberg suggests that the Komodo could once “have been a highly specialized pygmy stegodont predator,’ although prey species similar to modern deer & boars may also have been present before the arrival of modern humans within the past 40,000 years.

The West was unaware of the Komodo until 1910, when Lieutenant van Steyn Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial administration heard local stories about a “land crocodile.” Members of a Dutch pearling fleet also told him yarns about creatures six or even seven meters long. Van Hensbroek eventually found & killed a Komodo measuring a more realistic 2.1 meters & sent a photograph & the skin to Peter A. Ouwens, director of the Zoological Museum & Botanical Gardens at Bogor, Java.

Ouwens recruited a collector, who killed two Komodo Dragons, supposedly measuring 3.1 & 2.35 meters, & captured two young, each just under one ;meter. One examination of these specimens, Ouwens realized that the Komodo was in fact a monitor lizard. In the 1912 paper in which Ouwens introduced the Komodo to the rest of the world, he wrote simply that van Hensbroek “had received information . . . [that] on the island of Komodo occurred a Varanus species of an unusual size.” Ouwens ended the paper by suggesting the creature be given the name “V komodoensis.” Understanding the Komodo to be both rare & magnificent, local rules & the Dutch colonial government instituted protection plans as early as 1915. After World War I a Berlin Zoological Museumexpedition roused worldwide interest in the animal. In 1926 W. Douglas Burden of the American Museum of Natural History undertook a well-equipped outing to Komodo, capturing two dragons & describing anatomical features based on examinations of some 70 individuals. More & 15 expeditions followed Burden’s, but it was Auffenberg who performed the most comprehensive field study, looking at everything from behavior & diet to demographics & the botanical features of their territory. Auffenberg determined that the Komodo is, in fact, rare. Recent estimates suggest that fewer than 3,500 dragons live within the boundaries of KomodoNational Park.

UBUD is the CULTURAL NERVE CENTER of BALI & a COOL PLACE to VISIT.
There are two interesting museums, numerous galleries with art for sale & there are a number of artists’ homes which you can visit to view their work. The Monkey Forest is also in Ubud. Next to Ubud, you can go to Celuk (the silver & goldsmithing centre of Bali ), Mas (woodcarving, particularly mask carving) Batuan (painting centre) & Batubulan (stone carving).

If guests wish to spend extra days before or after Komodo in Ubud, we can book the Pita Maha Resort which is USD $285 per night, per room, tax included with no high season surcharge or we can book the Komeneka Resort for USD $151 per night, tax included, the two high seasons, the rate would be USD $200 per night per room. Cancellation policy for Komeneka Resort: Cancellations during the regular season must be at least 2 weeks before arrival date with no penalties. Inside of 14 days, there is no refund as the hotel has already been paid. During the two high seasons, cancellations must be made outside of 30 days in order to receive refund.

Transfers from Airport or Raddin Sanur to Ubud or return per person: 1 person costs USD $27, for 2 to 3 persons the cost is USD $18 & for 4 to 6 persons the cost is USD $15. The ride is approximately 1 hour from the airport. Transfers from Benoa Harbor to Ubud is approx. 45 min. Guests can make these arrangements while on the Indo Aggressor & the rates will be in approximately the same.

Several text blocks provided courtesy of Aggressor Fleet.