bunaken dive site recommendations?

I'll be in bunaken in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking for dive site recommendations for wide angle photography.

Specifically for large schools of fish (jacks, barracuda, fusiliers), napolean wrasse, schools of bumpheads, eagle rays, or hammerheads/threshers (if Im really really lucky).

if you've been there during the last couple of years and can recommend a couple sites that might produce some of that life, or recommend a couple sites *not* to go to , please let me know,

thanks alot!

scott

I'll be in bunaken in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking for dive site recommendations for wide angle photography.

 

Specifically for large schools of fish (jacks, barracuda, fusiliers), napolean wrasse, schools of bumpheads, eagle rays, or hammerheads/threshers (if Im really really lucky).

 

if you've been there during the last couple of years and can recommend a couple sites that might produce some of that life, or recommend a couple sites *not* to go to , please let me know,

 

thanks alot!

 

scott

I just spent a week there from the middle of Jan. Unfortunately the weather was quiet rough so we were pretty much restricted to the leeward side of the island. Personally I was dissapointed with the lack of big fish althought the reefs are the best I've ever seen. Total of 16 dives and I saw one blacktip and one spotted eagle ray and one Nap Wrasse. I think all the big stuff is fished out but maybe someone with more experience of the area could clarify that?

If macro is your vice then Bunaken and especially Lembeh offer great things.

Last year I had more than 200 dives in Palau and if its big fish action you want thats the place to go.

Same over here.

In preparation of my visit to Bunaken in October 05 I read alot on the internet (dive site descriptions by resorts and travel agents) and my expectations were pretty high.

Did only 12 dives there (camera broke down when I arrived on Bunaken) and Froggies Divers seem to focus more on relaxing than on diving (2 boat dives/day).

Coral-wise the reefs were nice to very nice.

Saw a couple of Napoleons, a few bumpheads (but certainly not a whole school of them like at Sipadan), spotted a few white tipe reef sharks and blacktips (spotted, too far away to take any decent picture).

Glimps of a school of jacks in the distance.

Although not as easy to find as in Lembeh, Bunaken definitely has some critters to offer, but for the big stuff I wouldn't recommend it...

Overall I was kinda disappointed cause Bunaked hadn't lived up to the expectations created by what was written about it.

For what it's worth,

Bartus

Yeah its pretty laid back although I managed 16 dives in 6 days at Bunaken I found Lembeh much more fun and managed 20 dives in 6 days. The night dives were great fun and we never returned to the boat in under 75 mins with the longest dive at 97 minutes. Never once was I bored. Muck rocks!

Although it does not have a lot of big stuff, there are some sites that are visually pretty nice, and excellent for macro. Manado Tua comes to mind...there's one of the biggest gorgonions I've ever seen at 140Ft. Also, I really liked the sites on Siladen the best, and intend to spend a lot more time there in July.

Cheers,

Marli

thanks Bart, Pig - if you remember where you saw the napoleans ,eagle rays, jacks and bumpheads just let me know..

marli, thanks for the note about the gorgonian... what did you like about siladen, (and which sites? ) - any napoleans or big schools of fish there?

of course I'll also be in lembeh for the critters!

scott

Hi Scott,

we spent a week on Bunaken about a month ago and did 14 dives there.

We saw some napoleons at Mandolin, a big school of batfish at Negri and some eagle rays at Likuan II.

There are supposed to be thousands of barracudas at Barracuda Point - but we didn`t see them and we also did not see the great hammerheads that sometimes show up at Batu Kapal.

We also did a daytrip to Sahaung and Bangka which was great. There was a big school of blue lined snappers - about 1000 individuals or so.

We did not see any big fish or big schools at Siladen, but I liked the two dives we did there most. This place is like a garden. So many different species of coral!

We stayed at Seabreeze which was great and no limit on the number of dives per day.

This is a picture from the dive we did at Sahaung. More pictures from Bunaken can be found here.

Lekuan 111 = Blacktip reef shark. Big one.

Lekuan 11 = Spotted eagle ray. young.

Timur 1 = Nap wrasse. Female, could well be a big male in the area then?

I think you may be a bit disappointed just as I was last year. No big shoals and not many big fish. Most fish over about a foot long were very skittish. The dive guides said there had been a lot of commercial poaching in the last few years which had hammered the fish populations.

I think the skittish behaviour is accounted for by the fact that, although this is a Marine Park, many of the people who live on the islands spearfish. We saw them most days working the reefs and towing inner tubes. The guides told us this was permitted for subsistance but not to catch fish for sale. Difficult to criticize when they probably have not much to eat but it sure makes fish photography bloody difficult compared to somewhere like Bonaire.

I spent 1 week at Bunaken and 1 week at Bangka in Oct/2006 .

It's true that there is very few big fishes but anyway i liked .

At Bunaken , i found the reefs around Siladen to be some of the healthiest hard corals i ever saw and lots of colorful small fishes and other dive sites have some big and friendly green turtles . Popoh and the house reef of Murex Resort were very productive for macro.

Bangka was great for wide angle with soft corals , but vis at Bunaken is much better.

If you want to get an idea of what to expect, you can take a look at my gallery from such places.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/82829856@N00/11Vxwp

Hope this info help you , good luck