Botubarani
Just 20 minutes east of Gorontalo city lies Botubarani Whale Shark Reserve, at a fishing village where juvenile whale sharks aggregate close to shore. This is not a deep dive but a snorkel or shallow dive (3-15 metres) in a sheltered bay. Up to 60 individual sharks have been identified here, with as many as 20 spotted in a single day. The animals are typically 3.5 to 6 metres long. This is one of the most logistically easy and reliable whale shark encounters in the world. It is run as a community-managed reserve, with strict rules to protect the sharks. This is a must-do for any snorkeler or scuba diver visiting Gorontalo.
Doku Kayu Islands
Situated near Saronde Island, these islands are known for their white sandy beaches and vibrant marine life. The area offers a variety of dive sites, from shallow coral slopes to deeper walls, suitable for both beginners and experienced divers. It is a great spot for macro photography and for encountering larger pelagics.
Honeycomb
Honeycomb is a west facing, north-south wall covered with porous corals, sponges and pink cupressina hydroids. What makes this site special is the spectacular array of abundant and unusual fish species, a hallmark of diving in Gorontalo. For starters, try spotting the blue-headed tilefish. They can often be seen in Gorontalo swimming in pairs and are easily identifiable by their blue heads on an otherwise yellow body with a scissor tail. More difficult to spot is the rare sailfin goby, found mainly on rock ledges. These small grey fish have a semicircular dorsal fin with an orange aura and a dark central spot. The fish also has bright orange bands down its body.
Slightly more common but beautiful nonetheless are the gilded triggerfish. Males are pale blue with royal blue cheeks and with a yellow bright edging on their fins. Females are gun-metal grey with checkered cheeks. Then there's the pink-tailed (often green here) triggerfish. These triggers have brown/black bodies and white fins (apart from the tail that is). At the top end of the fish size scale for scuba divers to spot in Gorontalo are Napoleon wrasse, long-nose emporers, bigmouth mackerel and unicornfish.
Honeycomb also has the most beautiful tunnel in Gorontalo. At a depth of 15m and running through the sides of a buttress, the tunnel is full of sea fans and telestia coral bushes. Finally, there's a cavern at 18-20m depth too. The cavern is 6 metres wide, laced with pale, delicate sponges, and booby-trapped by black coral bushes and scorpionfish lying in wait.
Japanese Cargo Wreck
In 1942 this Japanese cargo ship was sailing out of Gorontalo port laden with wood, rattan, and copra. The engine caught fire and the captain made an attempt to salvage the cargo by steering the stricken ship onto shore. Unfortunately the reef dealt a blow to these plans and the ship sank adjacent and parallel to the reef slope, with all the cargo being lost. The wreck now lies upside down. The 50 metre long hull rests with its bow to the south east on 47 metres and is decorated with sea fans and blue and purple gorgonian sea whips. Salvador Dali sponges, a unique morphology of barrel sponge found almost nowhere else on Earth, grow on the deeper levels, making this a highlight of Gorontalo scuba diving. The top of the wreck (now the hull) lies within recreational diving limits, between 40m and 26m, with the sponge-encrusted propeller at the stern being the shallowest section. There's also lots of scattered debris on the reef slope that runs down to 20 metres.
Back on the steep banking reef there are swarms of purple queens. Gorontalo seems to bring out slightly different colour variations in fish and these anthias are no exception. Females are violet with an orange spine, and the males are magenta-blue with a yellow jaw. Glued to the banking are cushion star fish. Take a good look on their surface as they are often host to tiny emperor shrimps. Pyjama cardinalfish rest out the daylight hours hidden in the acropora branches. These delightful fish are very shy but unmistakable once found. They have red eyes, yellow heads, a dark band around the middle of the bodies and a spotted rear body and tail. Other cardinalfish you can find here are the redspot cardinalfish (spot is on the tail fin) and split-banded cardinalfish (typical red and white striped body, but with blue eyes).
Heading back to the shallows at the end of your dive, there's a good chance of seeing large cuttlefish. Orange back wrasse wing their merry way about, and orange skunk anemonefish busy themselves protecting their eggs near their host anemones.
Mayumi Wall
Mayumi Wall sits along the northern coastline of Tomini Bay, where towering limestone cliffs drop straight into the sea and the ocean floor falls away to over 4,000 metres. This geography matters: deep, nutrient-rich water comes right up to the wall, and with it come the pelagics. This is an intermediate Gorontalo dive, not because the wall is technically demanding, but because the current can swing hard and without much warning.
You descend onto a narrow reef crest at 3-5 metres, and the wall proper starts immediately below, a near-vertical limestone face coated in hard and soft corals, large barrel sponges, and spreading gorgonian fans. The highlight of Mayumi Wall is the interplay between the reef life on the wall face and whatever is out in the blue. Stay close to the coral and you are picking through gorgonians for pygmy seahorses and checking crevices for moray eels. Then pull back a metre or two and look into open water. When the current is running, big trevally and dogtooth tuna patrol the wall's seaward edge. The shallower sections between 8 and 15 metres carry the densest hard coral growth, with table corals and branching Acropora in particular, and clouds of anthias hang above them in the current, making this one of the most rewarding dive sites in Gorontalo.
Oluhuta Paradise
Situated in Bone Bolango, this site is known as 'Surga Karang Eksotis' (Exotic Coral Paradise). It features towering limestone cliffs and pristine underwater scenery, with very clear water that often allows for good visibility. It is a popular spot for both snorkelling and diving.
Saronde
Located in North Gorontalo, Saronde Island offers access to some of the region's most pristine dive sites. The island is known for its vibrant coral gardens, steep drop-offs, and clear water. Divers can encounter whale sharks, reef sharks, rays, turtles, and a wide variety of macro life. It is one of the few locations in Gorontalo with a dedicated dive resort.
Sentinels
This is a rather unusual Gorontalo dive site offering a wide diversity of habitats and consequently Sentinels has great fish life. It offers a series of 26 pinnacles at various depths running south west along the fringe of a sloping reef with a shallow reef flat. Some pinnacles rise up like long thin fingers, others like stumpy buttresses with series' of tiered acropora table corals. White fox-tail colonial tunicates hang from the overhangs at the base of the pinnacles. On the sand bottom you can see red or purple fire gobies, lemon sea pens and quilled sea pens, tube anemones, flatheads, garden eels and ribbon eels. Yellow margin triggerfish excavate sand bunkers to use as nests.
Slowly ascending through the pinnacles, divers are sure to find lionfish, barramundi, lyre-tail grouper, solor wrasse and orange-back wrasse. These latter fish are endemic to the area and are easy to identify - orange back, blue belly and purple head. The very rare pink-eyed goby can be found here, so too are hingebeak shrimps and Sarasvati's commensal shrimp (only identified in 2002). As you move up the reef slope watch out for the Indian mimic surgeonfish, Lamarck's angelfish, orangetip bristletooths, yellowtail fusiliers and hybrid flasher wrasse. As you can see from that list, this Gorontalo site offers an excellent snapshot of most major tropical fish groupings and has something for everyone.
Sponge Wall
As the name suggests, this site is renowned for its spectacular sponge life, including the unusual Salvador Dali sponges and large barrel sponges. Located near Gorontalo, this wall dive is a deep site, so monitoring your depth is crucial. The wall is also covered in gorgonians and soft corals. This is a prime site for underwater photography and for encountering a wide range of marine life, from nudibranchs to larger pelagics.
Traffic Jam
This is a another west facing, north-south wall, but with the added feature of 10 vertical shafts sunk into the wall, creating convolutions large enough for you to enter and explore. These shafts act as resting places and masses of juvenile fish tend to congregate inside them. This is how Traffic Jam got its name. The reef wall has huge olive green fluke sponges, pink sinogorgia soft corals, and a superb range of leather corals. Loch's nudibranch is frequently seen with its brazen body display of white, sky blue and black stripes.
Traffic Jam is famous as one of the best places to find Coleman's coral shrimp (Vir colemani), only identified in December 2003. This creature measures up to all of a centimetre, is transparent with purple joints - as you can imagine, not the easiest critter to find. Try spotting them on the white clusters of bubble coral heads that dot the wall. Some common sightings on this diving site are common plankton feeders such as blue-dash and yellow-dash fusiliers, lemon damsels, teardrop butterflyfish and velvet unicornfish. Other fish you might see are the 2-spined angelfish - blue body with a red/orange body patch, Allen's tube-lipped wrasse, yellow-spot slingjaw wrasse, lined chromis, and the solor boxfish with its peculiar grey marble colouration. Gorontalo diving also has its fair share of marine mammals. Bottlenose dolphins are often seen from the dive boat, and there's even a chance they may pay you a visit on your safety stop.
White Point
Located west of Gorontalo city, White Point is one of the sites where the famous Salvador Dali sponges are most prevalent. These contorted, swirling barrel sponges appear from around 25 metres downward. This is a wall dive where you can expect strong currents, making it suitable for experienced divers. The current can be funneled at this exposed point, so paying attention to your dive guide's briefing is essential. Visibility is generally good, often reaching 20-30 metres.
