Sahaung, Bangka, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Site Overview
Dive Centres
Site Type: Scenic Reef with lots of soft coral
Depth: Top: 5M Median: 12M Bottom: 22M
Location: Bangka Island is off the northern tip of North Sulawesi, about a 2 hour boat ride from Thalassa Resort

Sahaung (also spelt Sahaong) is a small island on the southern tip of Bangka famed for soft corals, and generally pristine marine environment. A site less dived, it is one of the best dive sites in the North Sulawesi region.

Here’s a short video of what you can expect to see diving Bangka Island, North Sulawesi.

Bangka is renowned for colourful soft corals.

Colourful reefs everywhere diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

And that makes it a perfect environment to see lots of non-typical other stuff.  It seems to have an unfair share of sea stars including this ‘biscuit star’

Biscuit Starfish diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

The (very chilled) pale pink starfish

Pale pink starfish diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

The mottled red starfish

Mottled red starfish diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

And the Heffernan’s starfish.

Heffernans Starfish diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

It’s not just soft corals, there are also large sheets of acropora,

Large sheets of pristine acropora diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

All the hard coral is in great condition.  Here’s a ‘Bonsai tree’ of acropora with scalyfin for scale.

Bonsai tree of acropora with scalyfin for scale diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia Diveplanit 6652

Every kind of nudi is also represented- even the geometric chromodoris, but just don’t ask me to name them all!

Nudi diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

And our expert guide Ranti from Thalassa Dive Resort found us this polyclad flatworm on the back of a sea cucumber.

Polyclad flatworm diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

There are so many kinds of soft coral

Soft pink coral in the current diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

But the pink and red ones stand out most vividly.

Red soft coral diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

There are also lots of juveniles, like this striking Rockmover wrasse,

Juvenile Rockmover wrasse diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

And sub-adults like this striped sweetlips.

Subadult striped sweetlips diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit

There are also stacks of seaferns and featherstars.

White sea ferns with featherstars diving Sahaung near Bangka Island at Thalassa Dive Resort North Sulawesi Indonesia by Diveplanit