Sangihe Islands is a wonderful region - full of truly virgin islands, friendly people and absolutely no other divers - yet!
The diving is absolutely spectacular. Crystal clear waters with visibility up to 100 m, dive sites with wonderful and pristine coral, fish life in abundance. A very good variety, but also a bit bigger fish than in the Manado region further south.
The dive profiles are very varied. You have mostly coral, but also sandy slopes, and especially some sites with black vulcanic sand and lots of fish life. The coral is very beautiful and almost untouched. Most of the sites have a very varied fishlife with small stuff - nudibranchs, lion fish, scorpion fish etc. But it is actually the bigger fish, that are more prevalent in the waters of the Sangihe Islands. Napoleons, giant baracusdas, schools of bumphead parrotfish, sharks, tuna etc. There are even sites with frequent visits from hammerhead sharks, and if you are lucky you may see whales. A sperm whale was stranded on the beach of the island of Biaro just last autumn. There are also a number of seamounts, with very rich fish life. Making for varied diving.
When you do not go diving, you can visit active volcanoes, small local markets and handicrafts places. Or just chill out on a white beach. With no other tourists around you have it pretty much for yourself.
You get to the Sangihe Islands via Manado, North Sulawesi. There are ferries going North, but you will need to do live aboard diving or stay with the only dive resort there is in the region, in order to dive there. So it can be hard to access, which is probably why the diving up there is still fabulous.
The best time is March/April or October, as there is the least wind. and a lot of the islands are in open sea. But the good dive season is from March - early November.
This description was made by Britt. we have just opened a dive resort on the island of Biaro.
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