Bunaken National Marine Park

The Bunaken National Marine Park was formally established in 1991 and is among the first of Indonesia's growing system of marine parks. The park covers a total surface area of 89,065 hectares, 97% of which is overlain by sparkling clear, warm tropical water. The remaining 3% of the park is terrestrial, including the five islands of Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage, Nain and Siladen. Although each of these islands has a special character, it is the aquatic ecosystem that attracts most naturalists.

The waters of Bunaken National Marine Park are extremely deep (1566 m in Manado Bay), clear (up to 35-40 m visibility), refreshing in temperature (27-29 C) and harbor some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. Pick any of group of interest - corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges - and the number of families, genera or species is bound to be astonishingly high. For example, 7 of the 8 species of giant clams that occur in the world, occur in Bunaken. The park has around 70 genera of corals; compare this to a mere 10 in Hawaii. Although the exact number of fish species is unknown, it may be slightly higher than in the Philippines, where 2,500 species, or nearly 70% of all fish species known to the Indo-western Pacific, are found.

Bunaken National Marine Park ranks amongst the best snorkeling destinations in the world. Here you have a rare combination of marine bio-diversity
and crystal clear water with visibility up to 40 metes. Naturally, the first tourists to Bunaken were keen divers on the look out for a new destination.
Now days Snorkelers from all over the world are traveling to Bunaken to see what all the "Fuss" is about.Once here the call of the ocean becomes irresistible.

Some 20,000 people live on the natural resources of Bunaken National Marine Park. Although there are inevitable conflicts between resource protection and use by people, the Indonesian government is taking a fairly unusual and pragmatic approach to park management. The idea is to promote wise resource use while preventing overexploitation. Local communities, government officials, dive resort operators, local nature groups, tourists and scientists have played an active role in developing exclusive zones for diving, wood collection, fishing and other forms of utilization. If successful, Bunaken Marine Park will stand as an important example of how Sulawesi, and the rest of Indonesia, can work to protect its natural resources.

One of the highlights are the schools of dolphins or pilot whales that you sometimes meet while crossing the Bay of Manado on the way over to Bunaken. Thanks to our boat driver who stopped the motor early enough not to disturb them too much, but still be close enough to them to observe, I actually managed to snorkel with some pilot whales. The school was distributed over a very large area with whole families resting on the surface. While snorkeling (don't make any noise with your fins!) a huge pilot whale appeared just in front of me, came up for air several times before disappearing again. The whole time I heard the chattering and squeaking from the school communicating around me. Just great!

There is no continental shelf in the northern part of Sulawesi and the reefs drop directly down to 1840 meter! Depths between the islands are around 200m, between Manado Tua and Montehage 1360m! A rare fish has been found here, the coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) who lives in caves at about 100 to 200m depth on these steep underwater slopes. Coelacanths can reach a length of about 2 meter and are so called living fossils. Living fossils are organisms that have not changed in millions of years. The Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) was first discovered in the mouth of the Chalumna River on the east coast of South Africa and later around the Comores islands. This is a different species than the one living around Manado.