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Bunaken
in the northern Celebes island has been well known with its beauties of
underwater life as has became as paradise for all the dive lovers.
Komodotours.com brings you the next paradise to discover the area closed
by right at
the border between Banda Sea to the south, and Molluca Sea to the north.
Banggai islands, qualified by the naturalist Alfred Wallace as the
"Mother of all living coral reefs", has numerous large reefs
that support a very rich marine life.
Many of the
dives are on off shore reefs with vertical drop-offs down to several
hundred meters. Those fantastic walls present overhangs and cavities,
the deeper parts (during the dive, 15-40 meters) are covered with black
coral and gorgonian fans, inhabited by tunas, schools of trevallies,
batfishes, turtles, napoleon wrasses, groupers, snappers, and a few reef
sharks.
Going up, the
wall coverage shifts to hard and soft corals associated with a high
density of the all range of reef fishes such as Bannerfishes, butterfly
fishes, damselfishes, anthias sp, dartfishes, dotty backs, and the dives
ends with a safety stop in the middle of a gigantic aquarium.
Some diving
sites with stronger currents offer more pelagic fishes such as sharks,
tunas, schools of giant trevallies; one submerged pinnacle (top at
-22mt) has an incredible density of big size fishes.
Biodiversity is
extremely high; fringing reefs of inner islands offer all the range of
the Sulawesi creatures: Anglerfishes, ribbon eels, Blue- ring octopus,
bob tail squid, Leaf sorpionfish, Ghost pipefish, and of course the
endemic ornamental Banggai Cardinal Fish that can be observed in
sheltered shallow waters.
The best season
to dive there is October to May; Banggai Islands are well protected from
the northwesterly winds that affect other areas during January and
February. |
