Paradise of Indonesia's Underwater

by Marthen Welly

The Wakatobi Islands are located in Southeast Sulawesi, and include the four main islands of Wanci, Kaledupa, Tomia and Binongko, with many other smaller islands as well. The majority of the residents in the Wakatobi Islands are from the Liya and Bajau tribes.

The Wakatobi Islands are known as one of the best diving sites in Indonesia, with spectacular coral gardens and a diverse range of fish. Since 1996, the Indonesia government under the Forestry Department has declared the Wakatobi Islands to be a National Park, with a total geographic area of 1.3 million hectares.

You can reach Wanci Island by sailing in a wooden boat for 12 hours from Kendari (the capital city of Southeast Sulawesi). Another alternative is to take a speed boat from Kendari to Bau-Bau in the Buton District (about 4 hours) and then continue using a wooden boat to get to Wanci (about 10 hours). All the exhaustion from your trip will disappear when you look out at the white sand on the beach, the coconut trees and crystal clear water, so clear that you can see the coral and fish right from the boat. In certain seasons, groups of whales and dolphins can be found in the waters around Wakatobi during their migration.

An island that is often visited by divers is Hoga Island. Hoga is small island located two miles off the northern part of Kaledupa Island. There is a resort on this island for tourism and research accommodations. Every year many students and researchers from around the world come to do research on coral, reef fish, and the marine ecosystem. There are several diving points on Hoga Island, and one of the most famous is the Outer Pinnacle around Hoga channel.

The first time diving at Outer Pinnacle point, you will find that the reef is around 10 meters deep, and that it looks like a zigzag dragon's back more than 500 meters long. Both sides of the spine have a drop-off contour with dark-blue seawater. At the end, in around 30 meters of water, there is tunnel about 5 meters long and you can swim inside and get all the way through to the other side. There is a diversity of coral and many big fish, such as the Napoleon wrasse (Chelinus undulates), groupers (Ephinephalus sp.), and snapper (Lutjanus sp.)

Kaledupa Reef is another interesting dive site in Wakatobi. The reef there is the longest reef-plat in Indonesia, stretching 6 kilometers between Kaledupa and Tomia Island. This reef is located 5 miles from the southern part of the Kaledupa and Tomia Islands. Sometimes you can find sea turtles (Chelonia midas) and manta rays (Manta birostris) around the Kaledupa reef.

Runduma is an island in the northern part of Wakatobi that is usually referred to as Turtle Island. During high season there are more than 20 turtles that come to the beach to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, many outside fishermen come to this island and poach the sea turtle eggs. Due to this island's location far away from the main island, it is difficult for the park rangers to control the poaching. The dive point on this island is the Anano reef. You can find a lot of sea fans there, with pygmy sea horses and anemones with clown fish as well.

Mari Mabuk "let's get drunk" at Tomia Island is a dive point that has strong currents and waves. This is natural since it is located in the open sea. It has the highest abundance of fish as based on a TNC-WWF joint program survey, and one of the spawning aggregation sites (SPAGs) for groupers.

The fairest island in Wakatobi is Binongko Island. The other name for it is Tukang Besi Island. This is because Binongko has a lot of iron workers (tukang besi). There are several diving points in this island, and the most well known are Kentiole and Koromaho, located in the eastern part. These diving points have drop off contours like a wall where you can find many reef sharks (black-tip).

There are a lot of interesting diving points in the Wakatobi Islands, one of the best places to dive in Indonesia and even in the Asia-Pacific region. Wakatobi Island is paradise for divers, and needs collaboration and strong effort to preserve this valuable asset for Indonesia.

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