Geological Lembeh Manado

Lembeh Strait is situated between the tip of Northern Sulawesi and the Island of Lembeh. The isolation of this area during the Pleistocene period times led to unmatched and the highest known “speciation”: -- the development of new species.

Recognized as an epicenter of marine biodiversity, North Sulawesi is known for the exceptional variety of its terrestrial and underwater life. Sulawesi straddles both the Asian and the Australian biogeographical zones, hosting the highest number of coral, plant and fish species on earth. There are at least 450 species of hard coral in this small area, compared to the 60 species found in the entire Caribbean.

Furthermore, a 30 cm difference between the water levels of the Pacific and Indian Oceans cause a huge massive movement of nutrient-rich water to flow through the Lembeh Strait. Nutrients from these upwellings are retained in the Strait by the actions of small eddies, slow water whirls, created by the narrowness of the passage and the fast changing water flows.

Lembeh Strait Diving Sulawesi Indonesia

Lembeh Strait is a narrow channel, about 14 km long and 1-2 km wide. While the general diversity of the area is caused by the unique geographic position of the Strait, its particular diversity is then greatly influenced by the vast array of different underwater habitats present in Lembeh. There are black volcanic sand slopes (TK Bbay, Rojos, etc.), white limestone sandy slopes (Pante Parigi, Tanjung Tebal, etc.), ship wrecks (Kapal Indah, Mawali), pinnacles (Batu Kapal) , zones of rubble patches (Police Pier, Bronsel, etc.) and and rocky reefs with colourful soft coral gardens (Nudi Retreat, Nudi Falls, Angels Window, Batu Sandar, etc.). In addition,the southern and the northern entrances to the Strait are rimmed by rich coral reefs and there are unique shallows along the Strait’s coast lines (Dante’s Wall, Pulau Putus, Batu Angus, California Dreaming, Goby a Crab, etc.).


Each particular habitat supports a different set of marine organisms, and that is what makes Lembeh Strait so special. There are dive sites where we find the famous cephalopods of Lembeh: the mimic, wonderpus, mototi and hairy octopus and flamboyant cuttlefish, just to mention a few. Then there are the seahorse species, in addition tofrom the four pyigmy species found to date in Lembeh, there are the estuary, and common and thorny seahorses. When you ask our dive guides to show you a frogfish, they answer with a question: And hHow many would you like to see? This is because Lembeh is truly the frogfish capital. There are all types: the warty, and hairy, and painted and giant frogfish. just to name the most common ones. There are hundreds of nudibranch and crustacean species and the list of different fish species from the Scorpionidae family just goes on and on – and cockatoo wasp fish, devil fish, short spine lionfish, Ambon scorpionfish or Rhinopias are some of the examples.


There is nowhere else in the world, where visitors can find such an extensive array of marine life and underwater topographical features in such close proximity.

Diving in the Lembeh Strait

These pictures are featured courtesy of Ariel, the Little Mermaid aka Chloe Chin. She's hot, lives to dive and enjoys her duck comfit. I thought I'd share these pictures with you as I'm not a diver so I find these sea creatures out of this world! Now we know where Industrial Light and Magic and Stan Winston Studios get their inspirations!

Click the photos for zoom.



A Nudibranch. Check out the stalks for eyes and the 'flower' on it's ass.

These pictures are featured courtesy of Ariel, the Little Mermaid aka Chloe Chin. She's hot, lives to dive and enjoys her duck comfit. I thought I'd share these pictures with you as I'm not a diver so I find these sea creatures out of this world! Now we know where Industrial Light and Magic and Stan Winston Studios get their inspirations!



Box Fish

These pictures were taken a week ago in the Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi off the coast of Bitung . The sea itself is dirty with garbage, junk and gunk from fishing boats BUT this has created an ecosystem at the sea bed that supports life forms worthy of a Mos Eisley cantina! Although these are little buggers (some smaller than a grain of rice) some of them are poisonous.


Boxer Shrimp



Devil Stinger (side profile)


Devil Stinger (front view)


Frogfish


Who left their shaggy dog at the bottom of the ocean??? - A Hairy Frog Fish


Two Nudibranches


A lone Nudibranch


Ornate Ghost Pipefish


I hope she doesn't read this but I think Ariel's pictures are cool (she'll never let me hear the end of it). Not bad for a hot number cruncher.

As you can see, the sea may be shit but with moments like this it more than makes up from getting fish bones tangled up in your hair.

Porcupine Fish

Rhinopias

Getting to Lembeh

Lembeh Trip Indonesia

Indonesia's Lembeh Strait is renown for its amazing marine life, with a welter of rare and unusual underwater creatures on its black sand dive sites. It's also remarkably scenic above land and easily affordable - there's no reason not to go!

NAD Lembeh Trip Report - Lembeh Strait, Indonesia

Posted on September 24th, 2008.

Indonesia's Lembeh Strait is renown for its amazing marine life, with a welter of rare and unusual underwater creatures on its black sand dive sites. It's also remarkably scenic above land and easily affordable - there's no reason not to go!

Two things you always hear about Lembeh Strait, located at the northern tip of Sulawesi in Indonesia - 1) it's got an abundance of weird and wonderful critters underwater that make it a macro diving paradise, and 2) its black volcanic sand makes for easier creature spotting but fairly ugly aquatic scenery.

What isn't apparent from this often repeated shorthand summary is that Lembeh Strait itself is really quite beautiful, with tall, verdant mountains rising either side of the water giving a protected feel with their cloud catching peaks. Surrounded on all sides by the dense green foliage of the hills and the blue of the sun and sky, it's an idyllic spot complete with white sand beaches. Not even the presence of the deep water port at Bitung further down the Strait can spoil the sense of scenery. The various dive resorts located at Lembeh - 9 in all, I think - are not cheek by jowl along one stretch of beach, either - each inhabits its own secluded bay along the craggy coastline, and even those next door to one another seem in a world of their own. In short, Lembeh is very easy on the eyes above the
surface.

A Lot Of Different Dive Sites
The Strait's 12 km length provides nearly 50 dive sites, and while black volcanic sand is certainly what you'll see on the majority of dives in the area, there are plenty of white and grey sand sites too, some with big pinnacles covered in soft and hard corals, rather than just the black sand slopes which have become an icon of Lembeh. These coral sites have plenty of the usual tropical fish suspects, from sweetlips to angelfish to the omipresent clownfish. By crisscrossing back and forth from dive sites along the Sulawesi mainland and those scattered along Lembeh island itself, there is a good variety of dive environments which helps keep the black sand monotony at bay. To be sure, there are quintessential muck diving sites, trash-strewn with flat black sand, but they only make up a small part of Lembeh's big choice of dives.

More Critters Than You Can Fit On Your Memory Card
What could never be called monotonous is the sheer variety of underwater creatures that call Lembeh home. It's quite easy to reel off a wishlist of seemingly preposterous demands to the dive guides for impossibly exotic creatures you want to see - mimic octopus, hairy frogfish, blue ribbon eel, ornate ghostpipefish, pgymy seahorse, clown frogfish etc etc - and within a couple of days have seen all of them plus several species you didn't even know existed. It's a marine biologist's wet dream, a living, breathing education in just how incredibly inventive evolution can be. Every dive is a constant demand on your attention, because as soon as your eagle eyed guides have found you one creature, they'll already be banging their tank to show you another. If you take photos, bring very big memory cards. My hapless dive buddy spent a lot of time reviewing and deleting due to the lack of an extra card.

Lembeh Really Does Live Up To The Hype
You can find hundreds of trip reports and articles about Lembeh's marine life online already, so I won't rehash it here, except to say that it is pretty much all true. Diving in Lembeh really is as good as everyone says it is - if you are fond of seeing small and unusual creatures, you are going to be in hog heaven. Indeed, it might make future diving a bit disappointing because few other places can match the sheer abundance of what you can find here.

NAD Lembeh Resort - A Quick Overview
I stayed at NAD Lembeh resort, which is located centrally in the middle of the strait. NAD has been in operation for around 18 months as of August 2008 and is currently managed by Sandra and Joe, a Spanish couple who have built up the resort's infrastructure and reputation. It's an excellent budget resort, providing all-inclusive packages for accommodation, diving and food. I paid $US 503 for 5 nights air con accommodation, 11 dives and 3 meals a day, plus 24 hour coffee, tea and water.

Accommodation
There is currently room for 25 guests - when I was there in mid August, there was a brief lull with only around 7 guests, but from September through to Christmas it was booked solid. There are air con and fan room options - the majority of rooms are arranged in a crescent terrace around a picturesque garden and built of concrete with wooden ceilings, well shaded from the day's heat. There is a powerful, gas-heated hot shower and toilet in each room, with tiled floors and basic but comfortable bedding and cover sheet. There are 2 or 3 well constructed wooden bungalows available too which are located a little further up the steep slope of the mountain for privacy. There is no real beach to speak of, but the garden provides a nice sunbathing area with a couple of loungers.

Food
Food is served up buffet style in the pleasant dining and relaxing area, which has sofas as well as table and chairs. There is a impressive mix of tasty Western and Indonesian dishes, with lots of veggies as well to offset the meat and fish dishes. Fresh fruit is the default dessert. You are very unlikely to go hungry or find nothing to your taste.

Both the accommodation and the food at NAD are excellent examples of budget diving done well - a lot of thought that has gone into how to provide the most pleasant environment to the guest without breaking the bank. By adding together a comfy bed, hot shower and good food NAD have provided exactly what most people need to be comfortable.

Dive Setup

This is particularly apparent on the dive boats -- guests barely have to do anything for themselves besides fall in the water. Dive gear is set up by the boat boys who are always on hand to help with fins and cameras, while the dive guides provide short and sharp briefings that belie how attentive they are to their charges underwater. We had one dive guide to two divers during our stay, which was fantastic, although if the resort is full I guess this would be nearer to 4 divers per guide. Water, coffee and tea is served inbetween dives along with Indonesian cookies - every day is a new sweet surprise. The dive boats themselves are spacious wooden affairs with a partial cabin to protect guests from rain and wind and with space to sunbathe too.

For those with big camera rigs, there is a rinse tank on each boat and the boat boys are adept at handling camera gear with care and placing it directly in the rinse tank after each dive.

(Full disclosure: I was a paying guest at NAD Lembeh rather than on a journalist trip).

How Long Do Should You Spend At Lembeh?
The five days I spent at NAD Lembeh were hard to fault - it's an operation that runs very smoothly. (Our last night was incredibly noisy due to celebrating Indonesian Independence Day, but even that closed down by midnight). There were a couple of Austrians who were at NAD for two weeks, and I envied them their length of time to explore the area - there is certainly enough in Lembeh to repay such attention. There is also the Bunaken national park nearby, an hour or so away by boat -- every Lembeh resort can organise transferring you to Bunaken if you want big wall dives. Bangka, located inbetween Lembeh and Bunaken, has also become a personal favourite of mine after a liveaboard there on the Ocean Rover - in short, you could spend a lot of time here and not get bored.

How To Get To Lembeh Strait
Lembeh is relatively easy to get to, thanks to flights into Manado city from Singapore with Silk Air and from Jakarta with Garuda. It's a 90 minute transfer from Manado airport to any Lembeh resort, with a hour car ride and then a boat trip from the Sulawesi mainland to your resort. Manado is also the jumping off point to explore Bunaken marine park, Bangka and take liveaboards to the Sangihe archipelago. You can compare Manado flight schedules and prices at Kayak - the airport code for Manado is MDC and for Singapore SIN

Lembeh Fish

We are pleased to welcome Sybille to the Two Fish team at our resort in Lembeh. She joined us on 5 Dec to look after the cottages, general facilities and resort staff.

Sybille has spent more than 20 years in the travel business and has dived all over Asia, and understands very well what guests want from a resort.

“Having spent alot of time as a muck-loving guest at Two Fish Divers in Lembeh, I am incredibly excited to start working here”, Sybille says, “My aim is to ensure that Two Fish is the best budget/mid-range dive resort in Lembeh Straits.”