Honeycomb Map Partial species list

This dive site follows a submerged point that juts into the long shore current. When the current is running, tight rolling waves pile up at the tip of the point. This phenomenon is all the more apparent at adjacent sites where the water is flat and calm. The dramatic wall is covered in dense coral growth with a heavy sprinkling of large sponges. As typical with walls here in Gorontalo, the limestone substrate shows evidence of the erosive forces of nature. In addition to numerous chutes carved into the wall top to bottom, this site features two collapsed caverns and a tunnel piercing one of the many buttresses that project from the ever-bending wall. In fact, the careful eye will detect numerous fish-sized tunnels and holes in the wall and its various buttresses.

This site is about 580 meters long.

Depth: 3 - 40 meters

Highlights: dramatic wall with dense coral growth, large sponges, a tunnel, sharks, eels, Maori wrasse, large groupers, Humphead parrotfish, worm snails, Sailfin shrimpgobies

Conditions: Typical visibility is 20 meters. Heavy rain can dramatically reduce the visibility, but the fish don't seem to care. Ripping currents bring out clouds of fish and schools of large trevally. Heavy surf can produce strong down currents; this typically happens on the day of the full moon when the normally negligible tide change can be around a meter. This is a great site for those with some experience in current diving.

Special Note: In the event of a strong current, the boat can NOT pick you up at the point because of the waves. Establish positive buoyancy, signal that you are OK or need help, and let the current carry you into deep water on either side of the point where the boat can get to you.

Virtual Dive

Depending on the direction of the current, the dive may be run west to east as follows:

Divers descend past a collapsed cave to follow a narrow ledge to its end. Here, at about 15 meters, a Grand worm snail (Serpulorbis grandis) casts its mucous net to gather plankton. Below the collapsed cavern is an large patch of giant Cigar sponges (Haliclona vanderlandi 2001), one of Gorontalo’s new species. Cruising depth is excellent at 18 meters. The steep slope becomes a wall with six deep chutes cut into its vertical surface. These cuts border dramatic buttresses that plunge into the depths. Turn around inside one of the chutes and look out into the deep blue at the fishes passing back and forth. Before a long section of bending wall, divers encounter another collapsed cavern at about 20 meters. A dive torch will help you visualize how deep the cavern must have been. Large groupers still hide in its depths.

The next section of wall is pitted by numerous holes. If the current is slack, take time to look in holes with sand bottoms. Typically a shrimpgoby and its crustacean pal will live here, including the distinctive Sailfin shrimpgoby (Amblyeleotris randalli). After another chute-and-buttress grouping, the wall opens into a steep slope, flanked by a free-standing coral pyramic. At a depth of 15 meters is a tunnel filled with gorgonians and other corals. Because of the dense growth inside, a diver is not likely to make it through the tunnel without snagging coral with the back of his tank valve. Please resist the urge to enter. At the safety stop level, numerous tree corals (Siphonogorgia sp.) grow on the wall. Their white polyps contrast sharply with their wine-red trunks.

Honeycomb Map Partial species list

Virtual Dive

Dive in Gorontalo