By: Bima Prasena (Escapade)

Have you ever experienced diving while being "bombed"? Apparently, it is rare to have an experience like mine, except for World War II veterans. The soldiers struggled to enter German-held coastal areas with explosions here and there, and hot lead flying everywhere. But obviously, my experience was different. I wasn't like the amphibious troops racing around with mortars and bullets.

That day, on our third day of diving in East Flores, we dived not far from Hading Bay. If you look at the map, it falls into the Sub-culture Sustainable Fisheries Zone. However, we were instead surprised by the sound of an underwater explosion.

The speed of sound propagation in the water is 4x faster than in the air, so the slightest sound can reach the ears clearly, including the sound of an explosion. Luckily for us, the explosion sound indicated that the explosion was far away from us. The crew of Simba's speedboat above us didn't even hear it. Imagine if Simba's crew had heard it, multiplied by the speed of sound propagation in water. The result would have been fatal for us.

The explosion was heard during our second dive. After taking pictures, we made a safety stop at a depth of five meters for three minutes. This was to reduce the risk of decompression due to nitrogen bubbles from the compressed air we were sucking in.

While hovering, I looked around, searching for an object ready to shoot. Suddenly, there was a sound like a large air bubble being released from below us. Startled, the first thing I checked was the octopus. Nothing. The second time I heard the same sound without any form of bubbles coming out, octopus also had no problem.

Once we were all aboard Simba, a similar outpouring from fellow researchers answered my confusion about where the big bubble sound was coming from. It was the sound of an underwater explosion!

I remembered that on the previous day's evaluation, the team had told me that they had encountered a suspicious boat at the dive site. As the team was preparing to descend, the crew of the wooden boat seemed to be sneaking around in hiding, and disappeared as soon as the team finished the dive.

Although sad, we must admit that we still encounter the practice of fish bombing in the area reserved as the East Flores Aquatic Nature Reserve (SAP). It got me thinking, does East Flores have an explosives factory? Or perhaps there are a lot of clever bomb-makers who don't have nets? Indeed, diving in a remote place that's not even a touristy dive spot has many risks. Staying calm under any circumstances is key.