Since moving to their new resort at Laha, near the Twilight Zone on the western side of the harbor, Maluku Divers have been actively searching out new dive sites on that side and also on the eastern side.
A total of 25 sites have now been identified, starting with Mimic Point in the north, near the newly identified “shipwreck” and ending in the south at Bata Badiri. Many of the sites are named after the specific critters that are found there – such as Mandarin City on the edge of the Twilight Zone or one of my other favorites, Rhino City.
Maluku Divers dive all these sites regularly and know the current status of what is there and depending on the time of year, as water temperature directly impacts what critters are around, will adjust the diving program around the specific things you want to see!
The area around the village of Laha, where Maluku Divers is located, is a particularly “target-rich” environment for critter spotters and photographers.
Besides the Twilight Zone itself and Mandarin City, there is Laha itself which hosts a variety of things to see, and Rhino City which has been known to have up to six resident Rhinopias at certain times of the year, but was down to “just” three when I was there!
There are less sites on the east side of the bay, with a total of 7 identified and dived regularly, with Amahusu and the nearby Dark Blue Jetty being the most prolific.
Amahusu, with its resident colony of very photogenic Saron shrimps, was my personal favorite. These shrimps, which are rarely seen, make excellent photo subjects with their Captain America stars and stripes liveries!
The diving at all of the sites on both the west and the east sides requires much the same discipline as they are all located on the fairly steep slopes of the bay, so care is needed with buoyancy skills to make sure you can hover above your subject matter – plus there are often strong currents running in the bay which need to be heeded.
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