C.  Diving in Lembeh Strait

C.1  Lembeh Strait

International Port of Bitung is located on the east coast of North Sulawesi and is only over an hour’s drive from Manado. Bitung Port is a busy international port of call. Just opposite the port is Lembeh Island.    Lembeh Strait is situated between the Port of Bitung and the Island of Lembeh. It is a narrow channel about 15km long and 1.5km wide.   The journey by boat from the harbor to Divers Lodge takes about 20 minutes. The Divers Lodge where we put up for four nights is located near the southern tip of Lembeh Island. Along the way to Divers Lodge, the murky sea water with oily patches and trashes floating around looked uninviting for diving.

C.2   Divers Lodge Lembeh

We left Froggies Divers for Manado in the late afternoon of 4th May and from there the representatives from Divers Lodge drove us to Port of Bitung, slightly over an hour’s drive from Manado. We were transferred by boat from Bitung’s harbor to Divers Lodge in Lembeh Island.

Divers Lodge is located near the southern tip of Lembeh Island. It is quite secluded and the buildings are surrounded by greenery and quite obscure from the Strait. It has six wooden bungalows, each can accommodate two gusts. From the verandah of each bungalow, one can have a magnificent view of the beautiful bay, volcanoes and the surrounding pristine greenery

All structures in Divers Lodge Lembeh were constructed with little destruction to the environment. It was well maintained and the services provided to us were second to none! Keep it up Rob!

The Lodge has six dive boats of different sizes. We had two bigger boats for ourselves; one for the two couples and the other for the four “bachelors”. In each boat there were two dive guides, one to accompany two divers. Dr Teh and I had Ungke as our dive guide for all our dives.

C3.  Diving in Lembeh Strait    

We normally left early in the morning after our breakfast in the restaurant and returned to the lodge after the third dive in the afternoon (I skipped all the fourth dives in the late afternoon because I preferred to have “Bintang” instead of critters for company!). We took all our lunches on board so that no time was wasted for the boat to return to the Lodge in mid day.

For all our dives, we chose to use Nitrox instead of ordinary air in our dive tanks. The nitrox mix we used contained about 32% of oxygen, about 10% more oxygen than ordinary air. Though nitrox dives can maximize bottom time and minimize surface intervals, this does not mean that nitrox diving is automatically safer than regular diving. Oxygen toxicity is more of a danger for nitrox divers. With more oxygen in nitrox mix, the shallower the maximum operating depth becomes. With 10% more oxygen in the nitrox mix, the maximum depth should not exceed 30m!

The maximum depths in all our dives did not exceed 30m. I could last more than an hour underwater, but the problem was my legs would suffer from cramps if I were to stay longer than an hour, particularly if I had to deal with drifts or currents. However, I did not feel tired after each dive and had no problem doing three dives a day!

          05/05/09

   1 . Pantai Perigi

   2. Tanjung Kubur

   3. Teluk Kembahu

          06/05/09

   4. Pulau Dua

   5. Batu Lubang

   6. Tanduk Rusa

          07/05/09

   7. Magic Rock

   8. Air Bajo

   9. P. Makawiday II

         08/05/09

   10. Nudi Retreat

   11. Rogos

   12. Pantai Pertgi

The Good

Along the narrow channel of Lembeh Strait there is a vast array of different underwater habitats. There are black sandy slopes particularly along the P. Lembeh coast, white limestone sandy slopes, and rocky reefs with colorful coral gardens.

Each habitat supports a different set of marine organisms. So Lembeh Strait is world-famous as the capital of critter diving, a place where divers can see the broadest range of unusual and rare critters in tropical water. It is also recognized as an epicenter of marine biodiversity with its exceptional variety of marine life.

Divers come to Lembeh Strait for muck diving. The sandy bottom is covered with muddy or mucky sediments, like deadcorals, discarded fishing equipment, tires, plastics and household garbage. However, it is the “muck” itself that made diving so different and interesting. The muck is a perfect habitat for unusual and exotic marine creatures that make their home in the sediments and trash. Muck dives are normally in shallow and calm water that provides amazing opportunities to avid underwater photographers for the purpose of searching for small and camouflaged critters. 

It is not easy for divers to look for camouflaged critters without the assistance of experienced dive guides. Dr Teh and I had Ungke as our guide who pointed out to us little critters that we would have never seen, like mimic octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses, many types of frogfish, nudibranchs, scorpionfish, pipefish, leafy filefish, tiny porcelain crabs and shrimps and many others.

I was most intrigued by the mimic octopus which was quite well camouflaged in the muck. But once exposed it could change its color and shape and finally turned into a sea snake! 

Due to my short-sightedness, I could hardly see all the pygmy seahorses and other tiny critters that camouflaged in corals and sea fans and were not able to capture them in camera. Below are some of the photos from my four days of dives in Lembeh Strait.

The Bad

“Muck diving” is done on barren bottoms without coral reefs and big marine creatures. The black sandy floor is covered with mineral-rich volcanic lava and ash and it provides extreme and testing conditions that force marine creatures to adapt or perish. This results in the existence of the amazing and endemic creatures. Also, in such an environment, it is too blackish for corals to flourish and therefore pristine reefs are seldom found.

In many muck diving sites, especially those fronting coastal villages, the sandy beds are strewn with man-made rubbish and rotten vegetation. The resident marine population has to adapt and make some into shelters!

Though the marine creatures in the muck are known to be able to adapt to the changing marine environment, would they persist and survive if there are frequent and drastic changes to their fragile environment?

 As it is, the busy Lembeh Strait is already quite polluted due to discharges from ships and vessels in and around Bitung Port and wastes from towns and villages along the coasts.

It has been reported recently that Bitung Port would be developed to become an international hub port by 2015 which would serve as a transshipment port for cargo traffic from Europe and Australia. A free trade zone would also be located in the area. Apparently the plan has attracted new international investors. But how would this mammoth expansion of Bitung Port and its surrounding areas affect the continued existence of the biodiversity of the marine life in the Lembeh Strait?  

About four years ago, the residents of North Sulawesi were embroiled in an environmental dispute with a British gold mining company on fears that the discharge of cyanide waste into the seabed from the gold mine located just north of Lembeh Strait would pollute waters in the Province of N Sulawesi. If the waste were to pollute the sea, not only the livelihood of the fishermen would be affected but also it would harm the rich biodiversity of Lembeh Strait which has more than thirty dive sites. So far, no news on the operation of the gold mine is available and it is hoped that the project had been shelved or if it had proceeded, a safer disposal of the mining waste had been implemented.

Last but not least, the main purpose of my diving expedition in N Sulawesi was to test my left eye’s new lens implant installed in November 2008. Two days after I returned home I had an appointment to see the eye specialist to check the condition of my left eye. After a series of tests, I was shocked to learn that the vision of my left eye had deteriorated and that the retina of my left eye was swollen! The first thing that came to my mind was that the latest problem could be due to the pollution of sea water and/or the use of Nitro in all the dives in Lembeh Strait. I hope my diving days are not numbered!   

D.  Epilogue

Indonesia was the host of the World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado (11th to 15th May 2009) and in a meeting of leaders from the six nations of the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) a plan was to be launched to save the region by controlling pollution and the inappropriate use of coastal areas which are destroying the productivity of the Coral Triangle. It was reported by WWF that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle had already been lost and was in danger of being completely wiped out by the end of this century unless fast actions were taken.

It is hoped that, though it would be a hard fight, some positive actions would be initiated to address the degeneration of the Coral Triangle. If not, it would be a miracle for the marine life in Lembeh Strait to survive for another decade!

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