Diving Ambon in the Spice Islands, Indonesia

Ambon scuba diving features

MARINE LIFE
Schooling jacks
Rhinopias
Seahorses

AMBON'S TOP DIVE SITES
Laha 1, 2 & 3

DESTINATION OVERVIEW

The Banda Seas have gone in and out of favour as a tourist destination due to localised political unrest. Yet this region is one of the world's most important – the location of the famed Spice Islands. Ambon, along with neighbouring Buru and Seram islands plus the Banda Islands to the south, were the sources of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, once the most valuable commodities on the planet.

There are many diving sites close to Ambon – small Nusa Tiga has some of the most exciting wall dives in the entire area and Nusa Laut is where an underwater promontory hosts enormous schools of resident jacks along with larger animals like bumphead parrotfish, eagle rays and small reef sharks.

However, the biggest draw is the once-famous critter dive, Laha which sits in the channel that leads to Ambon city. It’s past reputation is well deserved. The diving is not dissimilar to Lembeh – there may be slightly fewer critters by number, but there are certainly as many species with everything from rhinopias to seahorses to inimicus. Ambon also has a great wreck dive, the Pertamina Wreck, which is now covered in healthy corals.

Seasons
Year round
Visibility:
10 – 40 metres
Water temperature:
23 – 29º C.
Deco chambers:
Manado

Flight to Manado then 1.5-2 hours transfer

Accommodation
This area was – until recently – bereft of diving resorts and was best seen from a liveaboard. A new resort has now opened, Maluku Divers, which is owned by the team from Archipelago.

PROS AND CONS
Popular with divers until the civil unrest that ignited in 1999, Ambon has now settled into an easy calm and divers are paving the way for tourism to return. This is not the easiest part of Indonesia to reach as internal flight schedules change frequently but there are daily flights from Bali. Tourist facilities are improving and the diving is worth the trek.

SCUBA DIVING
The Ambon Channel is best as a muck destination, with critter life that rivals Lembeh. This is where the team at Maluku Divers discovered the new frogfish that hit the news in early 2009. There can be strong currents in the channel and visibilty errs on the low side but there is also good wall and reef diving within striking distance.

OPINION
It had long been an ambition to dive the Spice Islands as the mystique of these far flung, historically important islands captivated us. Plans to dive the area had been aborted due to the civil war in the late 1990’s but we finally made it in 2007. We dived from the delightful Archipelago Adventurer, the only vessel to consistently ply this route.