Juara Scuba Academy was set up in 2019 with three pillars at the core of our ‘family’ being, Safety, Education & Conservation. These three pillars led us to Juara and this beautiful bay located on the East side of Tioman Island, just off the East coast of Malaysia.
Tioman island is famous for its Coral Reefs and this draws in many tourists every year for snorkelling trips, diving adventures and general island relaxation. The surrounding waters of Tioman are protected by MPAs (Marine Protected Areas) but, like many reef systems, need all the help they can get in staying healthy and happy in the current climatic changes.
We chose our exact dive Centre placement because of the location of Juara’s fringing reef systems in particular one that we love so much and that we are proud to call our very own house reef ‘The Aquarium’ located a stone’s throw from our doorstep (though don’t be throwing any stones, on this busy reef you will end up hitting a fish!)
This shallow fringing reef is a beautiful site for every ability both for snorkelers and divers alike.
The Coral Reef starts at about 2m in depth and is easily reached from the beach. You can pop into our dive shop and say hi, renting some snorkel equipment (if needed), and then we are more than happy to show you the best way to access the reef and a good snorkelling route and the species to look out for.
Located on a sandy bottom bay ‘The Aquarium’ is perfect for beginners, we love to take ‘Try Dives’ and ‘Open Water’ students to this spot to do confined water sessions before popping over to the reef for a bit of fun.
It is also a great spot for doing ‘Buoyancy Specialities’ and ‘Navigation Specialities’ as well as some of the training dives for ‘Advanced Aventura’ courses.
We also focus our Coral Resilience and education programs with our NGO ‘Reef Tribes’ in this area, having a seasonal nursery located on the fringing sandy slopes of the main reef ready for broken ‘Corals of Opportunity’ to be nursed back to health, we also run regular reef surveys, audits, coral watch dives and dive for debris sessions.
We haven’t yet even talked about this hidden gem of a coral reef so lets get into it!
Our house reef pretty much named itself, with such biodiversity it really is like swimming through a natural Aquarium filled with fish and found on a bed of complex hard corals.
Galaxiea massive bouldering corals are surrounded by meandering brain corals, beautiful frilled Fusillia flower like corals, ‘hedges’ of branching Acropora, pillar corals and free living mushrooms that slowly wander across the benthic base.
With so many different corals and colours its quite something to behold whether your floating above or diving beside this little underwater city.
As we all know coral reefs are far more than just the sum of its parts, with coral comes a multitude of other species that rely on these complex ecosystems for food, shelter and company!
We have resident Green turtles who graze and sleep amongst the rocky corals, young moray eels who are often found swimming between homes our poking out of tiny rock crevices , blue spotted lagoon rays rest during the day under overhanging ledges and speed across the sand at night, Mantis shrimp hide in old worm born holes following your movements with they crazy eyes, rabbit fish graze between families of territorial Damselfish and anemones are teaming with Clownfish and all their cousins dancing amongst their stinging arms, scorpion fish mimic algae covered rock out crops and Cowtailed and whip rays cruze across the sands in the mingling fresh waters brought down by the river.
At night the reef is alive with juvenile blacktip sharks, catfish and beautifully elegant bamboo sharks, coral crabs and shrimps hiding amongst the coral rubble mountains. Cuttlefish and squid brighten the waters with neon light shows and sleeping parrot fish put on their pyjamas for a good night’s sleep. We love to turn down the lights on a night dive to spend a bit of time playing with the phosphorescence of the algae that floats around the reef bringing the stars from the night sky into the darkened ocean waters.
The wonders do not stop there with seasonal schools of hundreds of fish surrounding us as we move across the reef in colours of yellow, silver and blue.
Cleaning stations are popular with enthusiastic cleaner wrasse who often give us a bit of a clean as well as visiting barracuda, juvenile cobia, Golden Trevally and Batfish.
The colour of the reef is not just brought alive by its coral, but also in its residence. Butterflyfish, Angelfish, Bird Wrasse, Parrotfish and Nudibranchs bring all the colours of the rainbow into this area.
Friendly Pufferfish and Porcupine fish often come close to say hi and if your lucky you might spot the sweetest pout of the bright yellow juvenile Boxfish. Remoras also often ‘catch a lift’ on breaks they have from hitchhiking on turtles or the tails of sharks!
We often visit this reef, with guests, as well as in our free time and find it amazing that every time we dive in we find something else, some new creature, a different hotspot of diversity. We love that in this, our aquarium, we find a thriving city that welcomes us, as onlookers, as guardians, to enter their lives (if only for an hour!)
We love so much sharing this hidden gem with others, so if you are interested in joining us please do!!
