Ambon Diving By Liveaboard
Ambon diving for macro lovers
Ambon diving trips bring you to some world-class muck diving where you can find more than 780 fish species, and still more critters are found regularly.
Liveaboard cruises to Ambon or mostly in combination with other destinations in Indonesia. The diving season is perfectly lined up with the Raja Ampat Season and the Komodo Season changes.
Ambon Liveaboard Routes
Most of the liveaboard cruises that go to Ambon stop at one or more diving destinations in Indonesia. Here is a list of scuba diving areas that you can combine with your Ambon liveaboard holiday.
Marine Life
Ambon scuba diving trips bring you to some world-class muck diving where you can find more than 780 fish species, and still more critters are found regularly.
One of these critters is the psychedelic frogfish that is only found in Ambon. It is a remarkable appearance with its white swirling stripes. That covers the complete yellow-brownish body. It was first discovered at the Twilight Zone in 2009.
Besides frogfishes, you can find numerous other fascinating marine life such as Eponymous Ambon scorpionfish, Halimeda ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimps, and leave fishes ribbon eels and lots of different kinds of nudibranchs.
Although Ambon is famous for its muck diving sites, there are also dive areas for wide-angle photography. You have some wall dives with overhangs and caverns to explore and some beautiful coral reefs with soft corals, barrel sponges, and gorgonian sea fans outside of the bay.
You will see here damselfish, butterflyfish, and in the blue mackerel passing by for marine life. Still, have a good look at the reef because there are plenty of strange critters hiding everywhere.
This is a great vacation for diving and snorkeling when you want to see macro life, beautiful reefs, cleaning stations to spot manta rays, and of course, not be missed the dive site Gunung Api in the Banda Sea, where you dive along with hundreds of sea snakes.
TOP AMBON DIVE SITES
There are over 60 dive sites to choose from in Ambon, so here are some of our favorites.
1. Air Manis:
This dive site is near a pier used by local fishermen to load and unload their boats. You can go to a maximum of 25 meters deep when you follow the sloping seafloor on this dive. The main bottom composition is sand and rocks with some parts that have some corals.
You can easily spend your whole dive exploring the bottom for special critters such as frogfish, Leaf fish, Dragonnet, Shrimps, and many nudibranchs.
The average visibility is about 10 meters, and the current is mild, so ideal for those who like to do some photography.
2. Twilight Zone:
This is probably our favorite dive site in Ambon is the Twilight Zone, which looks like a general muck dive with murky waters and nonexisting coral reefs. But from the moment you reach the sloping bottom, a world of macro opens up.
There is a huge variety of marine life on this dive, from a wonderpus to a Coleman shrimp and everything in between. When you try the photograph, one thing your dive guide found the next one already. So make sure your battery is charged for this extraordinary dive.
Other marine life: seahorses, ghost pipefish, demon stingers, leaf fish, mantis shrimp, reptilian eels, and tiny cuttlefish.
3. Rhino City:
This dive site got its name because of the Rhinopias Scorpionfish that you can see in many color variations.
Also, here there is a sloping bottom that consists of sand and rocks. The deepest point is at 30 meters, but you don’t need to go that deep to enjoy this dive fully. Here you can find the mimic octopus, Flathead, Flatworms, and if you are not only looking in the sand, you might see a white tip cruising by.
4. Airport Jetty:
at the end of the airport runway is a long pier where you dive underneath. The columns are covered in sponges, and many juvenile batfish are hiding around here.
Also, large schools of small fishes like to hang around here what makes some nice photo opportunities. In the sand, you will find many colorful nudibranchs, lionfishes, moray eels, and sometimes a Rhinopias Scorpionfish.
5. Pantai Nama Wall:
This is a beautiful coral wall.
During your dive, keep an eye out into the blue where you see mackerels passing by, or at times schools of fusiliers will surround you.
You can see damselfish that hang around the black corals and eels hiding in small cracks and holes on the reef.
Your macro eyes should be focused on this dive site, as you can find here Orang Utang crabs and shrimps in the bubble corals.
6. Pintu Kota:
This dive site is well known and is translated as the city’s gate. The big rock on the surface has a large hole the forms an arch.
About 16 meters underwater, there is also an archway that is covered in sea fans and gorgonians. That makes some good opportunities to use a wide-angle lens.
The sloping bottom is steep, so you will spend most of your dive on the arch, where you can finish at 7 meters before the safety stop.
Even though this is not too much of a muck dive, keep your eyes open for some special macro life that is still found around here.
Ambon Diving Season
The diving season is from the middle of March until December. With the peak season lasting from April until November.
Around that time of the year, the sea is smooth, and water temperatures between 26-29 °C are pleasant. At some dive sites, the water can drop to low 20 because of cold currents coming in. Above water, the air temperature is relatively constant with 28-33 °C year-round.
How To Get To Ambon
Ambon city is the capital of the Maluku province that is located in the North-Eastern part of Indonesia. The Maluku archipelago exists out of hundreds of islands in the Banda Sea connected to the pacific ocean.
Halmahera, Seram, Ambon, Buru, Ternate, and Tidore and the Aru and Kai island groups are also known as the Spice Islands.
Even though Ambon island is in a remote area of Indonesia, it is pretty easy to get there. Daily flights are operated by Garuda airlines from Jakarta (CGK) international airport to Ambon. The flight cost between €200 and €500 at the moment of writing.
Also, flights from Bali (DPS) international airports have become more frequent, but flights from here require a stopover.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write one.