Diving Ambon & the Banda Seas

It has long been an ambition to dive the Spice Islands as the mystique of these far flung, but historically important islands captivated us. Previous plans to dive the area had been aborted due to the civil war in the late 1990’s but the region has now settled into an easy calm and divers are paving the way for tourism to return.

It was a surprise to discover that this diving is definitely not Irian Jaya. Being so close, our expectations was that it would be much the same, but we were delighted to find it was actually very different.

Our trip started with an overnight sail to Lucipara Atoll. The long journey was rewarded by some of the best wall diving we have seen in Indonesia. This exposed atoll is utterly pristine - there is virtually no damage and no evidence of fishing. What the atoll does have is possibly the best soft corals in the country. Walls are lush with bright colours and schooling fish. Sometimes, the view across the reefs was obliterated due to the enormous numbers of schooling fish.

The second stop was the Banda Islands. The diving here includes a variety of styles from fabulous, up-tempo muck right below Banda Neira Pier to the newest of new coral slopes. Thick staghorn and table corals have covered the scar created by Gunung Api’s last explosion just a couple of decades ago. Nearby, Batu Kapal has got to be one of the most impressive deep dives anyone is likely to see with fan corals that have grown to over 5 metres high - and wide.

Our third stop was Nusa Laut, where an underwater promontory points away from the coast and towards the most enormous schools of resident jacks. This was an area for larger animals - bumphead parrotfish, eagle rays and small reef sharks - yet there were still a surprising number of small critters in the shallows.

Ambon was our final stop and renown for that most famous of critter dives, Laha. 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. We saw everything from rhinopias to seahorses to inimicus to a shrimp we simply can't name. Ambon Channel also has a great wreck dive - the visibility is low but the life is excellent - and the dives on the outer edge of the channel are a great mix of craggy wall and small creatures.

Banda Diving more than exceeded any expectations we had. As a comparison to better known Irian Jaya, there are perhaps slightly fewer species (although who will know that until the same levels of research are done?) and the topography isn't as varied, however, the conditions of the reefs appear to be much better and the muck diving is definitely superior. And best of all - there were no other boats.