Wakatobi

Wakatobi National Park has potential marine natural resources that are both valuable and unique species, with stunning underwater panorama. This amazing place is worth to visit among travel destinations in Indonesia. The location is precisely at Banda Sea, Southeast Sulawesi (Celebes).

When doing scuba diving we’ll see that the sea bottom is flat and slope, but there are some areas that steeply sloping. Water depth varies, the deepest reaches 1044 meters with a sandy and rocky bottom.
This national park has 25 clusters of coral reefs spreading around the atoll along 600 km. It consists of more than 112 species from 13 families of corals including Acropora formosa, A. Hyacinthus, Psammocora profundasafla, Pavona cactus, Leptoseris yabei, Fungia molucensis, Lobophyllia robusta, Merulina ampliata, Platygyra versifora, Euphyllia glabrescens, Tubastraea frondes, Stylophora pistillata, Sarcophyton throchelliophorum, and Sinularia spp. The collection has made it as a place for research and beautiful recreational diving.

Wakatobi National Park owns fish species richness as many as 93 species. The locals use fishes for consumption and sell them as ornamental fishes such as spotted argus (Cephalopholus argus), takhasang (naso unicornis), pogo-pogo (Balistoides viridescens), napoleon (Cheilinus undulatus), red fish (Lutjanus biguttatus ), baronang (Siganus guttatus), Amphiprion melanopus, Chaetodon specullum, Chelmon rostratus, Heniochus acuminatus, Lutjanus monostigma, Caesio caerularea, and many more.

In addition, there are several types of sea birds such as brown geese (Sula leucogaster plotus), cerek melayu (Charadrius peronii), raja udang erasia (Alcedo atthis); also there are three common types of sea turtles that land on the islands like Eretmochelys imbricata, Caretta caretta, and Lepidochelys olivacea.

Indigenous peoples who live around the park or the ocean called Bajau tribe. The tribe still have traditional boating culture. Seeing their lives everyday is interesting and unique, especially when diving into the sea without scuba diving equipment to spear the fish.

Hoga Island (Resort Kaledupa), Island Binongko (Resort Binongko) and Resort Tamia are travel destinations with attracting nature to visit, especially for recreational diving, snorkeling, marine tourism, swimming, camping, and cultural tourism. Those Islands are belong to Indonesia.

How to reach the location:
From Kendari to Bau Bau using regular speedboat twice daily with a five-hour long trip or 12 hours trip with a timber boat. From Bau-bau to Lasalimu ride four-wheeled vehicle for two hours, then using speedboat to Wanci for an hour or using timber boat for 2.5 hours. Wanci is the first gate into the Wakatobi National Park area.

Quoted from : http://discover-indonesia.com/diving/scuba-diving-at-wakatobi/

Supported by : JavaTourism, Lintang Buana Tours