Diving Info Lembeh

When is the best time of year to dive Lembeh Straits ? By virtue of our unique geographic location, Lembeh Strait offers fantastic year-round diving. Although there can be strong currents running through the Strait at some points of the day, there are always areas which are protected and comfortable to dive. Lembeh is also protected from big swells and most of the monsoon winds, which makes it comfortably ‘divable’ all year round. but there is certain seasonality in critters caused by the changing trade winds.

Water Temperature Water temperature can varyvaries by only a few degrees throughout the year. It lingers between 29- 28oC between October to March. Then it drops slightly in months April, May, June and September to 27-26oC. The and the coldest months are July and August, with 25-26oC in the water temperatures. The air temperature is more or less constant during the year. A 5 mm full wetsuit is recommended.

Visibility Visibility varies between sites and depending on the time of year. , It fluctuatesing between 5-30 meters. Visibility is higher at the more open-water northern sites, while it usually is 12-15 meters at the most popular central “muck-diving” sites. The visibility is lowest when the temperature is at its highest in January and in the beginning of February. In March the visibility improves dramaticallyradically. October to December is the period of the best visibility. However, please note that most muck diving is very “up-close and personal,” so even at minimum visibility you will still have an amazing dive experience.

Weather and Critters There can be swells during January and February in the north of the Strait and we might not be able to dive the true coral sites every day. The swells subside in March and it is easier to photograph small critters, such as Pontohi pigmy seahorse in the shallows. March to May, the weather is generally good to dive all around the Lembeh Island. This is also the time we might be lucky to see a whale shark or even a whale. There isare skipjack tuna schooling on the outer side of Lembeh. April to October is considered as the best critter season. The visibility is lower and the temperature drops down gradually to 26- 24 Celsius in July, which may be the reasons there are more critters. As a few examples, At this is the time we find thee most Hairy frog fish, robust ghost pipefish, cephalopods etc.. July is the months mimic octopus are seen has been seen mating and between January to July, Fflamboyant cuttlefish are most abundant. You can be lucky and see them mating, laying eggs or hatchling.

Dive Certification Open Water certification, Cmas * diver or qualifying certification from another training agency is adequate for diving in Lembeh. You must hold an We require specialty Enriched Air certification to dive Nitrox. You can do your Enriched Air specialty training or additional general dive training here. WIf you haven’t dived in a while and want to get re-acquianted with your equipment, we can arrange a check-out dive on athe house reef for you upon request. for the charge of $ 15.

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Recompression Chamber There is a recompression chamber in Manado, 1.5 hours car drive from Lembeh.

Tips Tips, if you’d like to show your appreciation for your dive guide and the crew, there is a tip box in the dive center. As a guideline, $10 per person per day is recommended. Please do not tip your dive guide directly; the tips will be divided among the dive team proportionally every month.

Refund on pre-paid dives Pre-paid dives are non-refundable and non-transferable (except in the case of extenuating circumstances and at management’s discretion).