Lembeh Strait Entrance Fee

Just a heads up for anyone planning on heading to Lembeh Strait.

The Bitung government has now introduced an entrance fee for all divers in Lembeh, the fee is 50,000 Rupiah (around $5) for the duration of your visit.

This is effective as of 1st of February 2010...

As long as is it well-used...

Quite happy to pay that if it's used to help the people in the area or to help protect the environment.

Not that its a big fee, but fees usually are applied to parks that are protected yet, the locals still fish here, we nearly did one dive last month at Nudi Falls but had to change it last minute, due to locals putting a big fishing net out.

Mike,

As your "in the thick of it" can you confirm if the second part is true?

Liveaboard & Visitors will have to pay every day.........

Here is an extract from a note sent out by another resort

1 The price indicated by the official is IDR 50,000.00* per diver per stay for those stay in the resort base in Lembeh area.

2 For those not staying in Lembeh area or from Liveaboard they need to pay IDR 50,000 per person per day.

Right, it is now official. It starts as of Feb 1st.

For hotels/resorts that are based in (Lembeh) Bitung it is 50,000 Rupiah per guest per their stay. 1 day or 10 days or 30 days, its the same.

For those who stay in Manado, Gannga, Bangka, and do a day trip, its 50,000 per day trip to Bitung (Lembeh). If you stay at a hotel in Manado for two weeks and do two trips to Lembeh, you need to pay 50K each time you visit Lembeh.

For Liveaboards, at the moment it is 50,000 per day, but this may change. Still working out the whole liveaboard thing as it is more of a unique situation.