The Coral Reefs of Buyat Bay

15 – 17 October 2009

N0 50.831 E124 42.464

A relatively unknown dive destination not far from Lembeh is slowly getting its share of the limelight. Buyat Bay is about five hours from Manado located south of Lembeh. It used to be a gold mining operation that shut down recently. Now the mining facility’s skeleton staff are seeing a different face – the face of divers vs. that of miners.

Danny Charlton of Lembeh Divers insisted we include Buyat Bay in our North Sulawesi itinerary, and now we understand why he didn’t take no for an answer. It was a coral reef revelation!

Here are several images to show how different it was from Lembeh’s muck.

Monstrously big hard boulder coral in 5 meter depth

Crinoid studded sponge decorating the reef floor of Buyat Bay

Cabbage coral forest that went on and on and on

Bright red soft corals definitely posed well for us