Hearing the name Bunaken, you will immediately imagine the beauty of the 8.08 square kilometer island located in Manado Bay, North Sulawesi. The distance is only about 30 minutes by speedboat from Manado City Harbor. Around Bunaken Island, there is Bunaken National Park, which includes the highest marine biodiversity in the world.
Bunaken National Park covers an area of 75,265 hectares, with five islands as Manado Tua Island (Manarauw), Bunaken Island, Siladen Island, Mantehage Island, and Nain Island. Bunaken is located in the Coral Triangle, making Bunaken National Park inhabited by 390 species of coral reefs, various species of fish, molluscs, reptiles, and marine mammals.
Bunaken has about 91 species of fish, such as white koi, local gummi, tilapia gasi, goropa, yellow-tailed escape, and others. In Bunaken there is also a Hawksbill Turtle, a rare turtle that every day circling and playing around the coral reefs. The mangrove forest in Bunaken is a habitat for lobsters, crabs, mollusks, and seabirds. Mollusks live in Bunaken, such as goat’s head fish, nautilus, giant clams, and tunicates or ascidians.
The underwater beauty included in the international heritage category targets local and foreign tourists to do scuba diving. Bunaken was discovered in 1975 by a group of divers from Manado City who were conducting a diving expedition. At that time while diving, they found marine plants on the walls of the coral are still pristine and reef fish. In 1991, Bunaken became one of the National Parks, then in 2005 Bunaken Park became one of the world heritage sites registered to UNESCO.
There are great underwater walls in this area or hanging walls which are not found in any sea. This giant coral wall is vertical with a curved top, as deep as 25-50 meters. This coral wall is a source of food for fish in the waters around Bunaken Island. Soft coral is also found in Bunaken, so this spot is wonderful because the coral is a place for beautiful fish to live.
The underwater scenery of Bunaken is even more amazing when you see various types of coral reef species with unique shapes, forming beautiful curves, and forming tiny tunnels under the sea, which are impossible to find anywhere else. Some of the best dive spots around Bunaken are Bunaken Timor, Mandolin, Church Front, Barracuda Peak, shipwreck, Siladen, Tanjung Kopi, and Lekuan Wall.
In addition, snorkeling at the Bunaken Timor spot is exciting because of the strong underwater currents. There are many species of fish such as eagle rays, sharks, turtles, and other large fish in this spot. There are also several coral reefs and views of dangling seaweed and small caves that adorn the walls.
Another spot is Mandolin, a marine park that has walls and coral peaks. The reefs here are home to thousands of fish that live in groups and are easy to approach, such as unicornfish, surgeonfish, bannerfish, and shooter fish. Then there is the Muka Church snorkeling spot, which is also inhabited by thousands of fish in shallow waters and troughs that stretch towards the sea walls. Barracuda Peak is the farthest snorkeling spot located northwest of Bunaken. As the name implies in this location, hordes of giant barracuda swimming between tuna and jack fish will be found.
Then there is the wreckage spot in Manado, a ship belonging to a German merchant whosank near Molas Beach in 1942. The ship is 60 meters long and is under the sea with a depth of 23 meters. The Siladen snorkel site has smooth coral walls and forms a beautiful view. This wall will look alive when the current comes. The shallow sea location shows the beauty of fish and schooling snappers. Then there is the Tanjung Kopi spot in a small wall inhabited by a group of barracuda fish and sweetlip fish. Interestingly, there are also nudibranchs and fire gobies. The unique dive spots in Bunaken are the Lekuan Walls I, II and III spots, which are not found under any other sea. Lekuan Wall is a long wall in Bunaken, all three of which have the best marine parks from other places in Bunaken. The Lekuan Wall has steep walls and deep wall cracks, and there are sea fans and giant sponges.
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