Bunaken Marine Park

Experience quintessential tropical diving with colorful corals, turtles, and schools of fish all around you. Bunaken and its surrounding islands form the perfect ecosystems for some amazing diving, snorkeling and freediving.

With up to 2000 species of fish and 390 species of coral, the Bunaken area is known to have some of the highest biodiversity on the world.

Whether you want to snorkel to simply watch the turtles swim by or find small critters for your macrophotography, Bunaken delivers time and time again.

Average boat travel: 20 minutes

Wetsuit: 3 or 5 mm

What to see: turtles, damselfish, batfish, angel fish, reef sharks, lobsters, giant clams, dolphins, pilot whales.

Bunaken Marine Park's two areas

Bunaken and neighboring islands

Comprised of a group of islands and the coastline near Manado, the Bunaken Marine Park is known for its sheer drops covered with sponges and all kinds of corals, dropping down 60-200 meters into the deep blue, The amount of turtles on these reefs is staggering.

With the walls flanked by huge schools of colorful fish, a variety of camouflaged creatures await to be discovered in every nook and cranny of the northern Bunaken reefs.

Southern mainland

The southern part however, is a completely different story — its sandy slopes are covered in sea grass, where you can spot grazing sea cows, and a macro environment of seahorses, scorpionfish, nudibranchs, sea slugs, octopi and a lot more.

On the mainland, a varied topography of sandy slopes and rocky outcrops make every dive different. Closer to the resort, the site of Black Rock is where we do many of our night dives.

Bunaken Marine Park's highlights

Lekuan 1, 2 & 3

The Lekuan sites are some of the most popular ones in front of Bunaken. Coral walls and a lot of turtles are to be seen.

Celah-Celah

Celah-Celah, meaning “gaps” or “cracks”, is great for wide-angle photography, especially with the sun shining.

Timur

“East” is best visited during one of the earlier dives. The site will be bathing in light and you are surrounded by schools upons schools of fish.

Fukui Point

A coral wall intersecting a gentle slope makes Fukui a hit with divers, especially for the chance to spot humphead parrotfish and dogtooth tuna.

Your visit pays for Bunaken's protection

As a protected area, the Bunaken Marine Park collects the fees from all dive resorts in the area to promote sustainable fishing methods, increase ecological understanding of the area, and prevent destructive industrial activities. For more information, visit the North Sulawesi Watersports Association.

Bunaken Marine Park fee Upon arriva at our resortl you will receive a ticket and token. This grants access to dive at the Bunaken National Marine Park. The fee costs Rp 150.000 (around $10) and is valid for the duration of your stay. Park rangers will occasionally do spot checks so it's essential you bring the ticket and token with you on board our boats — there is no need to take it underwater.

More diving areas

Lembeh Strait

Macro photographers love Lembeh for the strange critters living on the black sand bottoms and among the corals.

Learn More

Bangka Archipelago

At the very tip of North Sulawesi, coral pinnacles are home to squid, giant frogfish and large schools of fish.