HOW LONG SHOULD I STAY IN BUNAKEN FOR DIVING

From micro to wide angle, from big blue water to muck diving,  There are perfect diving combinations in Bunaken National Marine  Park.
A lots of small fishs live in the healthy coral reefs at shallow part, just like in the film <finding Nemo>. Cliffs are everywhere, Spectacular rock wall vertically hang down from the flat coral reef top like falls. Slope forming underwater valley, vertical drop can reach several hundred meters. Millions of sea fans and sponges growing everywhere. Is the best theme for photographer's wide angle. Numerous colorful corals and fishs, reptiles, mollusks provides divers with  thrilling and exciting dives.You even don't need to look for anything. It's a great thing to see coral reef just like visiting a garden.

“Coral Garden” is not available as a dive site name in Bunaken, because the corals of each dive site are beautiful like garden.

The strait is the only way to go from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Passing creatures will occasionally surprise you. Hundreds of dolphins gather all year round in the Bunaken National Marine Park, and pilot whales are sometimes mixed the dolphins. Killer whales are witnessed every year in Bunaken. Every full moon, snorkellers see Dugong at House Reef in front of our resort.

So, How long should I stay here?

For the first time to dive in Bunakun, consider the following procedure. We made some daily trips, and you can combine them according to your own preferences, so that you can enjoy your time in Bunakun.

One day, Two dives in the morning, you can choose Fukui, a large area of coral, it is our favorite coral observation site. There is also a large and relatively gentle slope that is suitable for a check dive. The second dive you can choose Ron's point where not far from Fukui. Sometimes there will be moderate current, slow down your rhythm and follow the current, you can often see big tunas swim around. In the afternoon, go to the most beautiful dive site Lekuan 2, the turtles are constantly coming to see you, there are too many.

One day, go to Siladen island, where there is a table-shaped coral that always lives with a baby shark family of five. The second dive you can choose Sachiko, fish is so dazzling here and the possibility of seeing large creatures is very high. In the evening, choose Muka in front of our resort for a night dive, watch the oversized crab and lobster. The most memorable thing is to see the huge nudibranch size like washbasin!
(There are no pictures here because the nudibranchs are too ugly)

One day, In the morning, you can head to the volcanic island Manadotua on the northwest side of Bunaken. There are some half holes in the water. It looks mysterious. The second dive site is on the west side of the island. Hard corals area are very large which makes it difficult to put in single photo even use fisheye lenses.
After a short break in the afternoon, you can go to Subsea to watch Mandarin fish mating in the evening.

Bunaken also has lots of macro dive sites, even if the same site, you may find different things every day.

One day, Two dives in the morning, the first one go to Molas Weck to see the Japanese shipwreck sunk here in 1940s.The dive site requires AOW certified divers to go. The second dive, you can go to Black Rock, a famous macro dive site，Kiwi gobis lives here. You can also see lots of seahorses and anemone shrimps here.

One day, head to Bulong and Wori for two dives in the morning.，Many divers have seen flame octopus, ghost pipefish, sea moth, and anemone shrimp here.

DIVE SITES IN BUNAKEN

 Full of dive sites around Bunaken

Bunaken Marine National Park is located on the east coast of North Sulawesi,Indonesia. It is a combination of five small islands including Nain, Mantehage, Manadotua, Bunaken and Siladen. The crescent-shaped coral reef island is surrounded by deep and steep coral reef walls, and many beautiful marine life is distributed among these large and small caves. The most fascinating aspect of Bunaken Marine National Park is the ever-changing seabed landscape, where more than 300 species of coral and more than 3,000 species of tropical fish can be found between 5 and 100 meters deep.
There are more than 40 dive sites around Fish in Air Bunaken dive center.

Fukui  ★★★★★

Fukui is a beautiful dive site that can be ranked all over Indonesia. Dive site area is a relatively gentle slope. In the shallow waters, a large group of squid is surrounded by leaf-shaped hard corals. Giant barrel sponges over 1 meter in diameter grow in deeper place. Giant clams forms an array at depth of about 20 meters. Rose corals are spread from 18 meters to 30 meters. You often meet turtles who come to eat. Devil rays, garden eels, trevallys, sweet lips, butterfly fishs are also appear here.
In sunny days, schools of fishs surround, feel like you come into a crystal palace.

  

Ron's Point ★★★★★

Ron's Point located in the southwest corner of bunakum island, the vertical underwater cave is a feature of this dive site, and the vertical open hole allows divers without a diving license to experience the fun of exploring the cave. What will  you meet at the bottom of the cave? sea turtlecoral or fish of all colors?

Lekuan 1,2,3  ★★★★★

The Lekuan submarine drop off is one of the most well-known dive sites on Bunaken Island. The classic landscape of Bunaken is shows here. Because of the unique landform, the soft and hard corals here are especially colorful. Small tropical fish, scorpion fish, butterfly fish, lionfish and other fish are also shuttled between the corals. If you are lucky, you can find a giant frog fish family. Here is awsome for turtle fans, big and small green turtles always stay on a huge sponge bucket or on cliff. You may see dozens of them. You may also see Napoleon fish, eels and picmic seahorse even sunfish around !
   

Muka Kampung  ★★★★★

If you are a fan of drift dive, Muka Kampung will never let you down. The dive site is at the corner of Bunaken Island. On the day when the tides change the most, You can "fly" along the cliffs, fishs like snow flakes flowing toward you, dodging or even being hit, We have been hit by turtles more than once here! Experienced divers know that strong current means big creatures! In this dive site full of possibilities, what you can see depends on your luck!

Cela-Cela ★★★★

The dive site is located on the south side of Bunaken Island. Cela-cela means "crack" in Indonesian. Like its name, this cracked, vertical cliff allows many corals and starfish to grow here, and because of its unique geographical conditions, it attracts many fish, where you can see butterfly fish, parrot fish, devil ray, squid and many other fishs. Cela-cela is a dive site where interesting creatures could be found at night.

Sachiko's Point ★★★★★

This dive site is named by a Japanese diving agency. It is located on the north side of Bunaken Island. In addition to the cliffs like some other Bunaken dive sites, there are several caves in the deep part of this dive site. There are lots of fishs such as wrasses, cardinal fishs, demsel fishs, parrotfishs and butterfly fishs. Larger streams of water often make large fish and fish storms appear here. If you are lucky, you can meet whitefin reef sharks, black reef sharks and large kingfish. In addition to the deep sea scenery that fascinates divers, the scenery at the top of the reef also allows snorkelers to linger.

Mandolin  ★★★★★

Although there are many different ideas about the source of the name "mandolin", there is no way to obstruct the determination of divers to dive here. Mandolin also has the classic Bunaken cliffs, soft and hard corals are also around you, where you can see sailfish, humphead parrotfish (blue, green, pink), coral grouper, white fin reef sharks and so on. If you are lucky, you can also see the storm of barracuda and snappers. It is for sure that Mandolin is a unique dive site.

Molas Wreck ★★★★★
The shipwreck sank into Manado Bay in 1942, the reason is a mystery. Along the rope you can reach the top of the shipwreck around 25 meters and the cabin at 28 meters, and the bottom is about 35 meters. The dive site requires AOW certified diver to go. The cabin is very large, enough to hold several cars, the wreck is covered with many corals and sponges. Altrought the visibility in the bay is not very good, but there are many kinds of creatures, and various tiny creatures can be found here.

   

Black Rock ★★★★★

The name of the dive site is taken from the black rock on the shore, but underwater area is a sand slope. It is a famous macro dive site of Manado Bay. You can see the coconut octopus, ghost pipefishs and so on. At 3-5 meters, it is not longer a slope, but a sand platform. There is a paradise for gobies and seahorses. You can also see a variety of anemone shrimps.

Wori  ★★★★★
Wori is the name of the village on the shore. There are very good macro dive sites in a row along the coast. Underwater is a wide sand platform at 6-8 meters, and deeper is slope. Creatures we have seen here: flame octopus, ghost pipefish, sea moth, anemone shrimp and so on. This dive site cannot come all year round. Visibility is very low when rainy season, but it becomes very interesting at other times.

Bulong  ★★★★★

Underwater is white sand, black sea horses are common, frog fish also like to settle here. Interestingly, there are pygmy pipehorses who live in pile of grasses, pretending to be plants with his relatives, the seahorse and the ghost pipefish.

Diving in Bunaken is a very relaxing thing.

Whenever a new diver arrives in resort, we will prepare the equipment for the diving and arrange the diving plan for the second day.

On the second morning, we will arrange the team according to the divers and assemble the equipments and cylinders. The diving team leader will prepare a mobile phone in case any demand to contact with dive center. Drink water, coffee, snacks and fruits are also prepared before set off.

Set off Time：
8:30am for Morning dives (2 Dives)
2:30pm for Afternoon dive 
4:45pm for Twilight dive (Mandrain dive)
5:45pm for Night dive (Non-fixed itinerary. Reservation is required one day in advance)

The proportion of  guide to diver:
Maximum 1 to 4.
1 to 2 or 1 to 3 is common.
For team or photographer who have special requirements for guide, please contact us in advance.

Departure process：
   
1) We use clean buckets and cups, not disposable plastics. At the end of each dive, the diver can return to the boat to rest and enjoy the snacks and fruits we prepared.
2) Porters transport equipment to the boat and the guides organized the equipment.

   

3) Before each dive, we do briefing in the dive center, introduce the dive site, confirm the dive rules, and ensure that the dive is safe and interesting.


   

Divers wear wetsuits and boots in dive center, and take their belongings ready to go.
After boarding the ship, check equipments then start the day of diving.

The rules of entering and geting out from water.

※  Before entering the water, make a safety check between the buddies, and then sit on the ship's side and roll back into the water. Please rember to check the surface before entering the water.

※  After entering the water, inflate your BCD, get away from the entry point, let the next diver free to entry and prevent collision and injury. Most of the dive sites are cliffs, use appropriate weights to prevent falling over a predetermined depth.

※  Because there are crossing boats, please remember to release SMB before you ascent to the surface. Bunaken National Park stipulates that boats cannot be parked above coral reefs, so sometimes divers need to swim a little to the boat.

※  Control the speed of your ascent. Please do NOT rush to the surface. When you get to the surface inflate your BCD to establish positive buoyancy and taking care to avoid the propeller at the stern.

※  When you get on boat, don't stay below the ladder in case the diver above falls and hits you.

SAFTY FIRST

Manado's decompression cabin is not very far (30 minutes by boat + 30 minutes by car) from our dive center  , but we don't want to go there.

Bunaken's terrain has many large cliffs, and many divers have forgotten the depth while diving, or forgot to see the time of no-decompression.Always pay attention to your computer watch and you will be aware of the problem.Remember, the person who breathes the can of air is you, not a dive guide or other stalker.

Adventure ≠ Enthusiastic. Diving is a conservative sport, follow the safety rules, plan your dive and avoid problems.

Safety Supervision

In addition to maintaining the dive equipment without any worries, we also monitor the diver's safety behavior during the dive. After each dive, our dive guides and coaches will come to check the diver's remaining air, maximum depth, and dive time to remind divers of the issues they need to be aware of.
Once we find that a deliberate violation of safe diving has the potential to cause an accident, we will immediately suspend all activities of the diver and no longer welcome the diver to participate in any of our trips.

Safey Rules

✬ Check your equipment before every dive
✬ Manage your own air, 50Bar to do a safe stop
✬ Unless there is an emergency, a safe stop will be made at the end of each dive.
✬ AOW does not exceed 30 meters, OW depth does not exceed 20 meters
✬ If you lose your teammates in the water and you can't find them in 1 minute, ascent to the surface with speed of no more than 18 meters per minute. look for them on the surface.

Avoid Decompression Sickness

✬ The speed of rising does not exceed 18 meters per minute, even if it reaches the water surface from 5 meters
✬ If you accidentally exceed the no-decompression limit, you must perform an emergency decompression stop. If you have not completed the emergency decompression stop, please notify the dive shop after the water is delivered. We will provide pure oxygen in time and observe whether the diver has decompression sickness. symptom
✬ You must not use recreational diving equipment for technical diving and decompression diving projects, you must use equipment and plans that meet the requirements.

Health

Do not get drunk, take drugs, etc. before diving; being cold, just having surgery, excessive fatigue, severe dehydration, it is best not to enter the water;
Excessive effort during diving can cause high levels of carbonation, resulting in difficulty breathing, headache, dizziness, and lethargy. If you are too tired in the water, adjust your breathing, find something to help, and rest after taking the water, you can be better

Do not exercise vigorously immediately after diving, or go directly to the spa to avoid the confluence of bubbles in the body.