Blackwater Diving in Lembeh

Has anyone done any blackwater dives in Lembeh? They do advertise doing it, but I've read somewhere that Resorts in Manado and Banka areas' blackwater diving wasn't really blackwater, more bonfire and pretty disappointing. I'm going to all 3 next year and love blackwater diving. So if I can get in a few dives that would be great. TIA

@toque

There is pretty good BW diving in Lembeh, the operator has a lot to do with how good it is.

Most BW diving is down out in the middle of the strait, where the water is deepest (this is deifnitely not a bonfire dive, although, on occasion they do offer that as an option, in other spots, much closer to shore).

BW diving in Lembeh was slightly better that what we experienced in Raja Ampat, but not quite as good as Anilao.

How to Blackwater Dive in Lembeh - NAD-Lembeh Resort

If things work out, I will dive in Lembeh next month and maybe do some blackwater diving. I'll try and let you know, if my Alzheimers does not get in the way.
Three years ago, I did one blackwater dive there guided by Nus Lobbu and Maureen Dengah, we went out about 50 m from the shore and snorkel dived only, if I recall correctly, as there were plenty of exotic animals at and near the surface.

I have also done Anilao blackwater diving (which is better than Lembeh), where one can dive every late evening, after sunset, in the sandy shallows off Anilao village beach, and find neat critters at 1 to 10 meters deep, including the occassional Bobbitt worm.  One can also dive by the rocky shore just before Anilao village, shallow dives of a few meters, and look for exotic crabs, sleeping fish,  and critters hiding between the small rocks and boulders.

@Kraken de Mabini

Several of the Anilao dive operators do true BW dives out in Janao bay, over hundreds of feet of water.

What you describe is more akin to a bonfire dive. where the bottom is fairly shallow. Can still be very good, but you will find different subjects that come up in the water column over deep water (paper nautilus, etc.)

Agreed, that sounds like bonfire diving. I've done all my blackwater diving so far off the east coast of Florida in the Gulf stream (kinda spoiled). We generally are in 600-800 ft. of water. I wish I had pictures to show how good it is, but so my pictures have not caught up to my amazement of the creatures that I've seen. I did read the article by NAD, but how deep does the middle of the strait get? I haven't been able to find that out. I'm guessing not that deep. Seems like the article also spends some time defending Simon on whether some of his pictures in the book are not from Lembeh area. Which might come from what I've read some are saying about that area and its BW diving. Guess I'll have to do 1 and report back. 

apparently about 380m deep, not incredibly deep, but deeper than you might think - distance from shore doesn't always have a close relationship to to water depth.  Here's a reference:  https://researchain.net/papers/10z99z32693w99wJGKz99zV16I2z99z379

English appears after the Indonesian text.

Wow! thats deep! Seems I was wrong(again). I'm going to give it a try when we're there.

Thanks ChrisRoss

I did a couple of blackwater dives with NAD in November of 2022 and it was proper blackwater diving, not bonfire diving.  Not sure how deep the water we were in was, but at least several hundred feet.

Thanks Whiskeyjack. How was the amount life? anything special you saw?