Dive Indonesia : live-aboard scuba diving to the North Sulawesi Islands
The cruise will bring you to some different dive areas of North Sulawesi: the Bunaken national park,
the Bangka islands, the Lembeh strait, and the Sangihe archipelago. Cruise itinerary will vary according
to the season, and from one cruise to another according to the weather conditions. The trip to the
Sangihe islands, which are more exposed to waves, is only scheduled during inter-monsoon periods, which
are the ones that offer the best weather conditions. According to the group, the cruise can also be
customized.
BUNAKEN
Composed of 5 islands and of some coast around Manado: Bunaken, Manado tua, Siladen, Mantehage and nain.
Mostly wall diving on very beautiful drop off; Fixed fauna with sponges, nice corals. Lot of critters:
nudibranches, shrimps, crabs, pygmy sea horses.
A lot of fishes life on the drop offs: Clouds of butterfly fishes, parrot fishes, Napoleon wrasses;
White and black tips sharks are often spotted, as well as turtles.
Currents can be consistent but the diving are always drifts, so you don't need to fin a lot.
Some dive sites in Bunaken:
Lekuan (Bunaken island): wall, lot of fishes, turtles, black tips. 20-30 meters. Nice corals, nice sponges. Current, drift dives. Thunas.
Muka kampung (Bunaken islands): bay with a high concentration of critters, ghost pipe fish, mating mandarin fishes, nice corals, sand.
Bangulignan (Manado tua island): Combination of wall and slope, school of barracuda, strong currents most of the time, lot of fishes, blue rubban eels.
Ron's point: slope, chances to see big fishes. Critters. Strong currents.
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POOPOH
is a bay for muck diving, with a flat sandy slope. There you can see different kinds of
ghost pipe fish, juvenile frog fishes, dwarf pipe horses, different kind of snake eels, leaf scorpion
fishes, rhinopias.(weedy scorpion fish), and a lot of juveniles of all kinds. Some dugongs are also
spotted in the area.
BANGKA ISLANDS GROUP: Gangga - Bangka - Talise
The dive sites, which are on the islands and along the main land coast, offer different topographies
such pinnacles, rocks, slopes, a few walls, and some muck dive too. Fixed fauna is impressive with
very nice and colourful soft corals, sea fans. A lot of critters too in this area.
Dive sites in Bangka islands
Sahaung pinnacles: The dive site consists in a few underwater pinnacles that goes until the
surface. The underwater scenery is very beautiful with orange soft corals, sponges and sea
fans. Fishes are everywhere: snappers, surgeon fish, fusiliers and trigger fish. Some small
sharks are often present under the table corals. Pygmy sea horses in the fans; frogfishes
can also be spotted.
Batu mandi: This dive site is located in a beautiful bay, with a nice sandy beach.
It consists in large rocks (some of them forming drop off) with a beautiful coverage with
soft and hard corals. The dive has a very beautiful shallow part.
Paradise jetty: This muck dive site located in a bay, on the main land of Sulawesi. There
is a sandy slope with a wooden jetty. You can see frogfishes, leaf scorpion fishes, shrimps,
various kinds of moray eels, snake eels, and with a bit of luck some mimic octopus.
Lagoon sahaung: This is a dusk or night dive. You can see mandarin fish, harlequin ghost pipe
fish, demon stinger.
Pulau Ponteng: This is a very nice dive site on the east coast towards Lembeh. Several
pinnacles rise from about 31m up, all covered with orange and yellow soft corals. There are
fish everywhere; you must also take a look at the reef, because there are nudibranches,
flatworm and shrimps to be found.
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SANGIHE ISLANDS
Going north from the Bangka islands is a line of islands that separates the Mollucas sea from the
Sulawesi sea, and goes North up to Philippines. The trips will go up there, until Mahengetang island,
where is the underwater volcano, when the sea conditions are good enough, mostly during the months of
March -June, and then October-November. In this area, encounters with whales and large schools of
dolphins are not rare.
Some dive sites:
North of Bangka, the first island is Biaro. This island has two sites with pin rocks. Very nice tables of coral, gatherins, mackerels, parrots with bump, and sometimes dog’s teeth tunas.
Further North, Ruang and Tahulandang are 2 islands separated by a détroit. In Ruang, we dive the ancient lava flow of the last eruption in 1939. Today, the volcanic rocks are completely covered with a large variety of corals and in sponges today. In general very good visibility, particular topography formed by the blocks of volcanic rocks, abundance and diversity of corals, create a beautiful and exceptional scenery. On Ruang there is also another very good muck diving site. Splendid night diving under the pier of Tahulandang where concrete pillars are covered of Gorgon's heads and fauna (sponges crabs, decorated crabs, Lion Fish two ocelles, Mandarins fish, etc..)
The island of Siau is an active volcano, and at night we can see his red summit . Dives there are very rich in fish,often with strong currents. Very nice muck dives also. AroundThe island of Makalehi, we dive around pin rocks swept by currents.
In the North the tiny islands of Nenug are just some “affleurants” rocks in the middle of the ocean. They attract an abounding fauna, we dive in the currents which can be rather strong. Possible meeting with deep-sea.
In the south of the island of Para, diving " big face " is one pin rock with a strong concentration of fish: big group of carangues, carangues giantesses, group of barracudas, dog’s teeth tunas, Tazars, etc
Mahengetang underwater volcano: A very nice reef with a very good visibility, in general of 40 metres and more. The reef is in perfect state, with many corals and huge barrel sponges. In general, a big group of carangues. We come back to the volcano towards the end of diving – big rocks, gravels, stores of sulfide, bubbles of hot gases where fishes play.
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LEMBEH STRAIT
The Lembeh strait is famous for it's muck dives. You can see there all kind of rare nudibranches,
frogfishes, hairy frogfishes, ghost pipe fishes, and with a bit of luck mimic octopus, blue ring octopus,
Pygmy sea horses.
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