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Best Diving Spots in The Moluccas
No matter whether you call them the Spice Islands or the Moluccas, these less populated areas rank among some of the best diving destinations in the Halmahera Plate.
This section contains information about the main sites for scuba and snorkeling near the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, especially the Ambon and Banda Islands.
Top Reasons for Diving The Maluku Islands
The remote hot-spots contain some of the best dive sites in Indonesia, particularly if you enjoy:
- Amazing muck diving in black lava sand around North Sulawesi.
- Sightings of scarce sea wildlife creatures (e.g. Greater Sunda Islands).
- Unique underwater ecosystems formed by reef-building corals.
Also, look out for dolphins and pilot whales breaking the surface near the islands of Bunaken and Bangka.
So, what are the optimum months to go scuba diving in The Moluccas?
These remote diving destinations are extremely popular with underwater photographers. As a consequence of that, the best time to scuba dive is the dry season, which generally runs from July through to the end of October.
Pro Tip: The weather conditions tend to worsen during the rainy months (December to the end of February). But, some of the Maluku Islands are good for scuba diving all year round, especially if you go liveaboard diving.
Maluku Island Dive Sites
Few places around the world offer clearer water visibility for scuba diving and snorkeling. But underwater, that is exactly what divers and snorkelers get if they visit these acclaimed locations in the eastern part of Indonesia.
- Ambon Island Dive Sites (optimum visibility between September and December)
- Banda Islands Dive Sites (September to November is best for sightings of hammerhead shark)
- Halmahera Dive Sites (less rainfall between April and June)
- Ternate and Tidore Dive Sites
Marine Life at The Maluku Islands
Sitting in the Coral Triangle means the sea wildlife at the Maluku Islands ranks as some of the most diverse in the world.
Most of the isolated regions host a spellbinding mixture of unique critters, huge pelagic fishes, and a multitude of endemic oceanic invertebrates and marine vertebrates.
In other words, some of the bizarre and photogenic species that divers and snorkelers can see underwater include:
- Ambon scorpionfish (Pteroidichthys amboinensis)
Flamboyant cuttlefish (Ascarosepion pfefferi)- Frogfishes (e.g. painted frogfish)
- Harlequin shrimp (Hymenocera picta)
- Mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus)
- Oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris)
- Ornate ghost pipefish
- Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti)
- Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini)
- Soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs (Nudibranchia)
- Wonderpus octopus (Wunderpus photogenicus)