Never-before-seen critters
SilkAir flies four times a week from Singapore to Manado. From there it's a car trip to your resort of choice, then a boat ride (times depend on your resort's location) to the reef.
April through October
Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Bastianos Resort (bastianos.com), Eco-Divers (eco-divers.com), Kima Bajo (kimabajo.com), La Rascasse Resort (larascasseresort.com), Minahasa Divers (minahasadivers.com)
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Diving opportunities in La Rascasse House Reef, Indonesia are available.
By William Tan (Adapted from "passport to diving the world")
An exciting dive spot with a healthy reef.
The coastal waters of Malalayang are best known for their unique habitats home to many rare critters. An exciting new site is the recently discovered house reef in front of La Rascasse Resort, a bare black sand bottom leading first to a patch of coral rubble covered mostly with pulsating Xenia corals, then to a healthy reef. It's possible to find jawfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, bobtail squid, and other sand-dwelling molluscs on the sand. Within the Xenia coral polyps live commensal crabs and shrimps, specialised flat worms and nudibranchsm juvenile filefish, and even a new pipefish unknown to science. Nudibranchs are in abundance on the reef, and on one dive I had the privilege of witnessing cuttlefish babies hatching from their eggs within the branches of a fire coral.
(Ok enough with the stories, I'm itchin' for a dive)