SCUBA Diving Bunaken National Marine Park
How about diving at the best place in the world? Ever heard of the coral triangle? This is the region in the world where you can find most marine life species. It is not all about the variety of fish, crustaceans and marine mammals – it is also about the quantity. Come and dive with us in Bunaken so we can show you what the coral triangle looks like! Need more photos? Check our Instagram account!
Bunaken diving is the highlight for many of our guests. Apart from Bunaken we also go diving around Manado and we have some exclusive dive spots various guests call their favorite. How about searching for a frog fish or sea horse? Our experienced dive guides for sure know where to look and how these animals move around underwater. Let them take you on an underwater macro photography dive, going really slow and close to the bottom without disturbing the marine ecosystem.
Ask us about our special dive courses as well! Most of our guests are very experienced divers, but there is always something you can learn. Lumbalumba Resort – Manado offers various PADI courses and we love to teach you!
We can take you diving every single day, unless you prefer to join one of our amazing land-based activities.
Whales & Dolphins in Bunaken National Marine Park
The waters around Lumbalumba Resort are a popular place for these, sometimes huge, wonders of nature. On our daily trips to Bunaken Marine Park we frequently observe them real close to our dive boat. We haven’t discovered a particular season, but its a fact that on calm days, which is normally the situation, we see them more often than on choppy days. This is simply a matter that on a mirror flat sea, spotting is easier than when there are waves…
The species we spot most frequent are 3 varieties of Spinner dolphins (Stenella). Striped-, Pantropical spotted- and Longsnout spinner dolphin, often in mixed groups of over 200 individuals. When they are around, it has proven a wise thing, to keep your eyes open for larger cousin’s as Shortfin pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), False killer whale (pseudorca crassidens), Melonheaded whale (Peponocephala electra) and Pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenuata)
The oceanic cetaceans we often observe are Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus), Rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis) and Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).
Absolute top sightings are Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and Orca (Orcinus orca). Sperm whales, we have about 5 to 10 sightings per year. What we mostly see are the calves with their mothers and “aunties” and now and than a so-called bachelors group of young males. We had various, real spectacular encounters with them and on one occasion a 12 meter giant even breached out of the water, less than a meter away from the boat! In May 2015 we saw for the first time a male Sperm whale. Adult males are normally solitaire and stay in colder water. Only for mating they go to the tropical seas. They are even more spectacular because they are much bigger then the females.
Orca’s we have spotted less but reports from fishermen over the years, seem to point in the direction that there is a fairly steady pod of about 6 individuals that visit this area.
Every time we see something its not always possible to make a positive identification.We write down in a file what we see, but do not always know what it was. That is not uncommon with observations concerning cetaceans since, in spite their size, some of them show often only a small part of their body and often only for a few seconds.
Most scientists recognize 79 species. Some are, very shy and/or rare and not much is known about them. Researchers believe that there are many more species that live in and around our waters than the ones we have mentioned here. We have a good collection of books in our library, wish you want to know more about cetaceans.
Also, would we be more than happy to share our personal knowledge with you. Doesn’t it give the journey to our dive spots an extra dimension, knowing that at any moment, at any time, you can have an unbelievable encounter with one of these Mother’s Nature beautiful creatures…………?
If you want to see and read more click here.
What we offer
Daily SCUBA diving and snorkeling trips
Our own dive center at our private jetty, just steps from our resort
Safe diving in the fantastic coral reefs of Bunaken National Marine Park
Small groups, flexible schedules
Well-trained dive guides (with good eyes for small critters)
Custom-made SCUBA diving boats to take you to Bunaken and other areas
Full carry and rinse service of your equipment
And a lot more!
Dive center Dive trips
