Diving Bunaken Marine Park

Erik Oskarsson · Issue 70, Jan/Feb 2013 · pp. 57–60

Products mentioned: Nikon D300, Nikon D7000, Nauticam Housing, Inon Z-240 Strobes, ULCS Arms, Light&Motion Sola 600, Tokina 10-17mm Fish eye, Nikon 12-24mm

North Sulawesi is without doubt a popular dive destination with several thousand of international visitors annually, attracted by the well known and established muck diving capital of the world, the Strait of Lembeh, and the wonderful critters lurking around in the black sand. However, the sibling, or perhaps cousin, of the notorious critter strait is without hesitation the Bunaken National Marine Park, located in the North west of the City of Manado. Scarcely populated by divers from dive centres situated on the Island of Bunaken, and the areas of Manado, it is essentially a wall divers dream location, thus quite the opposite of Lembeh Strait. At least so if one only focus upon the topography of the two locations, however if one dig a little deeper it is quite possible to see the similarities between these two very different dive locations. The Bunaken national marine park is a fairly l…