Castle Rock

Castle Rock is a submerged seamount in the northern channels of Komodo National Park, off Gili Lawa Laut, and it is famous for the show that builds when the current is running. The top of the pinnacle sits at around fifteen metres and falls away on every side, and the moving water turns it into an arena. When the current picks up, whirling schools of trevally and surgeonfish stack over the pinnacle, dogtooth tuna cut through them, and white-tip and grey reef sharks hold in the flow and hunt the edges. It is one of the park's classic predator dives, and divers often use a reef hook to hang and watch it unfold. The same current that makes the spectacle makes the dive demanding. Castle Rock is firmly an advanced, current-driven site, timed to the tide and usually paired with the nearby pinnacle at Crystal Rock on the same northern run.

Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.

• Whitetip Reef SharkTriaenodon obesusReported here · unconfirmed
• Bignose UnicornfishNaso vlamingiiReported here · unconfirmed
• Giant TrevallyCaranx ignobilisReported here · unconfirmed
• Giant MorayGymnothorax javanicusReported here · unconfirmed
• Schooling BannerfishHeniochus diphreutesReported here · unconfirmed
• Midnight SnapperMacolor macularisReported here · unconfirmed
• Yellow BoxfishOstracion cubicumReported here · unconfirmed
• Moorish IdolZanclus cornutusReported here · unconfirmed
• Sixband AngelfishPomacanthus sexstriatusReported here · unconfirmed
• Clark's AnemonefishAmphiprion clarkiiReported here · unconfirmed