Mandolin

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What you'll see (17)

Anna's ChromodorisChromodoris annaeseen 118× near here

Alcala's ChromodorisChromodoris alcalaiseen 104× near here

Redtooth TriggerfishOdonus nigerseen 84× near here

Loch's ChromodorisChromodoris lochiseen 75× near here

Pacific TrumpetfishAulostomus chinensisseen 69× near here

Bignose UnicornfishNaso vlamingiiseen 67× near here

Spotted BoxfishOstracion meleagrisseen 66× near here

Freckled HawkfishParacirrhites forsteriseen 64× near here

Moorish IdolZanclus cornutusseen 62× near here

Clown BlennyEcsenius axelrodiseen 62× near here

Orangestripe TriggerfishBalistapus undulatusseen 58× near here

Ornate ButterflyfishChaetodon ornatissimusseen 56× near here

Clark's AnemonefishAmphiprion clarkiiseen 51× near here

Vagabond ButterflyfishChaetodon vagabundusseen 50× near here

Pinktail TriggerfishMelichthys viduaseen 47× near here

Pink Skunk AnemonefishAmphiprion perideraionseen 46× near here

Pennant BannerfishHeniochus chrysostomusseen 45× near here

Planning a trip

6–10 days

worth going for

Long flight and a domestic connection.

2,325km from Singapore — about 18h each way, so two of those days are travel. 33 dive sites within 25km, enough for several days of diving.

When people dive it

Busiest Mar, May, Sep.

From 12,628 logged sightings — when divers are in the water, which is not quite the same as when visibility is best.

Dive Crew is a dive group from Singapore. Members plan trips here, log their dives, and share their photos of each site.

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Season

Prime

October is as good as it gets here.

A sheltered strait with no real off-season — one of the few places in the region you can book blind.

The year here

JFMAMJJASOND

Best here: June, July, August, September, October.

North Sulawesi — Lembeh and Bunaken — no monsoon here; the season is rain and water temperature. Written by hand from how the season actually runs, calibrated against what the boats do, since a season that disagrees with the operators is wrong however good the meteorology behind it. It describes most years, not this one: the forecast above is what knows about next week.

Moon and tides

Waning gibbous

72% lit · day 20 of the lunar month

Neap tides

Neap tides — the smallest range of the month, so the weakest currents. Easy conditions and usually the clearest water, though a drift site may barely drift.

New 10 Oct Full 26 Oct

Phase computed here, not fetched. This is the spring/neap cycle, which sets how hard the water moves — not a tide table: no free source publishes high and low water for Southeast Asian reefs, and the range peaks a day or two after the moon does, by an amount that varies with the coast. For times on the day, ask the operator.

Getting there

~7h 24m

door to water, each way · 3 legs

FlightManado (MDC)~5h 39mFlight time plus the airports at both ends. A connection adds to it.Find flights →
TransferBitung, for Lembeh1h 30mFor Bunaken it is 20 minutes to the Manado jetties instead.Directions →
Dive boatMandolin15 minLembeh's crossing is 15 minutes; Bunaken is about 45.

📍 Mandolin on Google Maps 🧭 Route from Manado

Times marked ~ are estimated from straight-line distance and will be roughly right at best. The road legs are the ones Google Maps answers properly; it will not plan the ferry or the dive boat at all. A dive site's coordinates put a pin in open water, so the map link drops you on the site, not on a jetty.

Details

Island: Pulau Bunaken
Country: Indonesia
Marks: 1°36.669'N 124°43.976'E
Position: 1.6112, 124.7329

Where it is

Loading the map…

Nearby

Sightings and photographs from iNaturalist contributors, research-grade records within 6km, under Creative Commons licences. Counts are what divers and snorkellers have bothered to log — a common fish with few records is common all the same.