Bangka (North Sulawesi)

Bangka Island (Pulau Bangka, about 48 km²) lies just north of the tip of Sulawesi in East Likupang, North Minahasa, between the Celebes and Molucca seas. Together with Gangga, Lihaga, Talise, Kinabohutan and Tindila it forms a small archipelago whose central waters are shallow while the outer sides drop quickly to more than 1,000 m, and it sits in the path of the main flow of Pacific water heading toward the Indian Ocean. That water movement defines the diving. Where Bunaken is about vertical walls and Lembeh about black-sand muck, Bangka is about sloping reefs, sea mounts and volcanic rock pinnacles, with soft corals thickest where the current runs hardest. The best-known sites are on the east and south-east side: Sahaung, a line of boulder pinnacles that just break the surface and step down like a giant staircase, and Batu Gosoh, steep pinnacles cut with cracks and small caves. Both are carpeted in orange, yellow, red and lilac soft corals, sea fans and table corals, and surrounded by snappers, fusiliers, redtooth triggerfish, batfish and bannerfish, with reef sharks sometimes resting under the table corals and dogtooth tuna or mackerel passing in the blue. Bangka is not only a wide-angle destination. Gorgonians hold Bargibant's and Pontoh's pygmy seahorses, and sheltered sand slopes such as Peter's Sponge on Bangka and the pinnacles of Batu Mandi on the mainland coast near Pulisan produce frogfish, ghost pipefish, cuttlefish, nudibranchs and, by operator accounts, blue-ringed octopus and flamboyant cuttlefish. Seagrass shallows around the islands are dugong feeding habitat, and Peter's Sponge is the site most often named for sightings, though local operators themselves describe encounters as occasional and never guaranteed. Lihaga, a tiny islet next to Gangga, is known for a dusk mandarinfish dive. Conditions range from easy, sheltered slopes to drift dives with strong current and surge in the shallows, so site choice follows the tide. Water is about 27 to 30°C with visibility usually 10 to 25 m and sometimes more. A handful of small resorts sit on Bangka's southern and south-eastern shore and on Gangga, and resorts in Manado, Bunaken and Lembeh run day trips. The island was the subject of a long fight over an iron ore mine, which opened in 2013, closed in 2015 after residents and dive operators won in court, and had its permit formally revoked in 2017.

• Bangka's signature dives are current-swept rock pinnacles covered in soft corals. At Sahaung a series of large pinnacles breaks the surface and forms giant steps underwater, draped in orange soft corals, sponges and sea fans and surrounded by snappers, surgeonfish, fusiliers and triggerfish; expect strong current and surge in the shallows.
• The diving sits between its two famous neighbours without copying either: instead of Bunaken's vertical walls, Bangka offers sloping reefs, rock pinnacles, sea mounts and drop-offs, and instead of Lembeh's pure muck it mixes soft-coral reef scenery with macro subjects such as Bargibant's and Pontoh's pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefish and frogfish. The local operator Murex links all three areas by boat (about 1 hour to Lembeh, about 1 hour 45 minutes to Manado and Bunaken).
• Bangka belongs to a small archipelago at the northern tip of Sulawesi that is exposed to the main current running from the western Pacific toward the Indian Ocean. The central part of the archipelago is shallow while the outer sides drop rapidly to over 1,000 m, the setting that feeds the soft corals and schooling fish on the outer pinnacles.