Diving in Southeast Asia. David Espinosa
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parts of the wall, it is possible to see sharks, eagle rays and Napoleon wrasse.
The most popular sites in the park are along this spectacular three-pronged coral wall that can keep any diver enthralled for dive after dive after dive. Check out the turtles (some of which are of exceptional proportions), occasional Napoleon wrasse and a wealth of macro and critter life adorning the walls. Bunaken Timur offers shelter from the occasional storms that come out of the west, so the coral gardens remain some of the best in the park, though the fish density is much less than the other popular sites. Sachiko’s Point offers good soft coral growth and, like any of the current-swept points around the island, possible shark and pelagic action. The entire west side of Bunaken is a fine 2-km stretch of wall that can see troublesome down currents on a falling tide. But on a rising tide it’s a superb drift running in a northerly direction with plenty to behold: excellent coral growth along Mandolin as schools of fusiliers wash past you in waves, forests of whip corals along Tengah and extending into Raymond’s Point, which also boasts lovely soft corals. Common inhabitants include turtles, colubrine sea snakes, the occasional passing eagle ray, Napoleon wrasse, dog tooth tuna or reef sharks, and when the current is light enough to allow closer inspection along the wall, numerous scorpionfish, soft coral candy crabs and other macro riches. Fukui is the exception to the walls of Bunaken: a gentle slope offering fish life ranging from ghost pipefish to Napoleon wrasse, an impressive bed of garden eels, a collection of giant Tridacna clams that’s a popular photo stop and a nearby sea mount that comes to within 10 meters of the surface, which is frequented by schools of batfish, midnight snappers, big eyed jacks, giant trevally, barracuda and occasionally reef sharks.
Green sea turtles around Bunaken are not bothered by divers and close-up encounters are not uncommon.
MANADO TUA
“Old Manado” is a dormant volcano jutting up just west of Bunaken. The two best sites are wall dives on the west coast: Muka Gereja and Negeri offer good coral growth and macro life with plenty of caves and cracks to peer into, but don’t expect any pelagic action. Tanjung Kopi is where to go if you are hoping for bigger fish, but the currents dictate that this site is not for beginners and can only be dived properly at slack tide. The reef profile is a steep wall to about 40 meters.
SILADEN, MONTEHAGE AND NAIN
These three islands see fewer divers than the main two islands but they do offer some fine dives. The west side of Siladen has an exquisite reef that starts right off the best beach in the park and has fine macro attractions. Montehage is a large, flat, mangrove-dominated island with a wide fringing reef flat that has sustained some damage. For big fish, Barracuda Point is the best bet, though a bit of a gamble. Divers here usually see almost nothing or have their best dives, with possible sightings including schools of chevron barracuda, eagle rays, schools of jacks, trevally, bumphead parrotfish and a variety of reef sharks. The furthest island in the park from Manado is Nain, located in a large lagoon surrounded by a barrier reef offering good hard coral growth in places. Batu Kapal is an interesting dive, but it’s for the very experienced only.
Manado’s house reefs are a treasure trove for the bizarre and colorful, like this free-swimming male ribbon eel.
MANADO BAY
Though the coral growth can’t compete with the splendor of Bunaken-Manado Tua, and the visibility is usually in the 8–15 meter range, Manado Bay has plenty to offer. The area has some excellent muck diving sites which make a super break from wall diving. The most popular site is the Molas Wreck (or Manado Wreck), an intact, steel-hulled, 60-meter merchant ship that sits upright on a sandy slope at 25–40 meters, with the bow and roof reaching up to 17 meters to greet divers descending the mooring line. After a tour of the ship, divers follow the slope up into the shallows, which, like the entire Molas coastline, offers critter hunting equal or even better than Bunaken, with ribbon eels, cuttlefish, ghost pipefish and more. Following the bay, some resorts have interesting house reefs, with the reef off Tasik Ria hosting seasonal pygmy seahorses.
LEMBEH STRAIT
Over the course of the last 20 years, no one area has truly come to exemplify the ocean’s strange and bizarre outcasts quite like the Lembeh Strait. When the first resort opened its doors in the mid-1990s on this sheltered stretch of water east of Manado, it was designed and marketed as a relaxing upscale retreat that also offered diving.
Under the auspices of the late renowned divemaster Larry Smith, the Kungkungan Bay Resort quickly became the Mecca for macro photographers and marine biologists. As Larry and his team of highly trained guides developed more and more sites, featuring frogfish in all sizes and colors, a veritable rainbow of countless nudibranch species, innumerable eels, an astonishing variety of venomous fish species, octopus and cuttlefish species galore, mandarinfish by the dozens as well as myriad others, the frenzy to dive there reached astonishing heights. Some of the more notable species seen here include both the wunderpus and the mimic octopus, blue ring octopus, hairy frogfish, warty frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish and the rhinopias and Ambon scorpionfishes. The resort nearly cornered the market on macro diving, and though Papua New Guinea’s Bob Halstead coined the term “muck” diving, the impossibly rich and diverse Lembeh Strait catapulted muck into the international limelight.
Tiny critters like the diminutive pygmy seahorse (Hippo-campus bargibanti) abound in Sulawesi’s waters. The trick is finding them!
Many of Lembeh’s resorts have excellent facilities, including pools with views over the strait.
In recent years, operators from nearby Manado have descended upon Lembeh—it takes only 1.5 hrs from Manado by car—servicing the boom of divers searching for muck. Though black sand sites like Hairball have brought most of Lembeh’s fame, with over 60 dive sites covering a wide spectrum of topographies, from black sand slopes, verdant hard coral and soft coral gardens, bommies, walls, pinnacles, rubble, wrecks and mixtures of all of the above, boredom is never a problem. Indeed, when even the most seasoned of divers return from dives having spotted something they have never seen before, one begins to realize how unique this famed stretch of water truly is. It is no wonder that the Lembeh Strait has been dubbed the “critter diving capital of the world”.
Lembeh is home now to over 15 dive resorts, which offer dive and full board packages ranging from budget to luxury, and the logistics of getting to the area are relatively simple, with most operators providing airport pickups from Manado.
Emperor shrimps (Periclimenes Imperator) live in symbiosis with sea cucumbers.
TO THE NORTH
Atop Sulawesi sits an island group offering a sort of diving in complete contrast to Bunaken to the west and Lembeh to the east. The best dives are a number of pinnacles that rise off the east coast of Bangka Island and in the Pulisan area. The prime attractions here are the unbelievably kaleidoscopic soft coral gardens. With the clouds of antheis and other reef fish varieties schooling about, huge moray eels, occasional sharks and rays passing through, as well as great macro attractions, the area is a visual feast. Compared to Bunaken, the currents are stronger, the visibility usually reduced and the water a bit cooler, but the diving around Bangka is excellent.
Further north, a string of islands form stepping stones all the way to the Philippines. For liveaboard aficionados, the Sangihe-Talaud chain offers some spectacular scenery in clear waters. Diving on volcanic flows, pinnacles and pristine coral reefs, and with no crowds, the Sangihe area also harbors one of the very few sperm whale calving grounds on earth. With deep trenches to both sides of the island chain, the currents can be wicked, but for experienced divers the region offers extraordinary adventures.