Bunaken Marine Park: The golden triangle the world's coral reefs

Manado has a prime tourist destination called Bunaken marine park and one of the most beautiful marine park in the world. There are so many varieties of coral reefs and marine life lives in Bunaken marine park. For someone who like to travel underwater, Bunaken marine could be one of the recommended places for you.

Bunaken Marine Park has very rich coral reef ecosystem.  There are about 390 species of coral reefs found in that region.  The Algae species that could be found in the Bunaken Marine Park is Caulerpa, Halimeda and Padina, in the other hand seaweed species were found are Thalassia hemprichii, Enhallus acoroides, and Thalassaodendron ciliatum. Bunaken Marine Park also has many varieties of fish spices, marine mammals, reptiles, birds, mollusks and mangrove. It's around  90 of fish species live in this marine park.

There are hard and soft reefs, sheer rock walls with many shapes and colors. The marine lives are found including fish species are barracuda, sharks, marlin, tuna, snapper, grouper, napoleon wrasse, angel fish, turtles, mandarin fish, sea horses, stingrays, octopus and many various fish types and the most famous king of ancient marine fish the coelacanth.

This Park has many varieties of marine life, It's because the Bunaken marine park is located in the center of golden triangle the world's coral reefs which are scattered from Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

This Marine park was opened in 1991 and and it has ​​890.65 km ² area. There are 97% of this park is for the sea habitat, and the rest of 3% is land, consisting five islands: Bunaken, Mantehage, Naen Manado Tua, and Siladen. Most of the coastal area consists of mangrove forests and white sand. Bunaken marine park has a marine bio diversity one of the highest in the world. This marine park also offers another beautiful of the great underwater walls or huge rock wall, which stands curved upwards.

Bunaken marine park is located in the Kelurahan Bunaken Kecamatan Bunaken in Manado, North Sulawesi. Bunaken is about 7 miles from the port of Manado and can be taken about 50 minutes using a twin-engine motor boat or just about 35 minutes if you are using a speed boat.

The beauty of Bunaken marine park has been enjoyed by both domestic travelers and tourists who come from abroad.  You can visit and dive at Bunaken marine park anytime because there no time off season.  But it is recommended you dive in Bunaken marine park in around May to August because that is  time you will be spoiled with clear and warm sea water, the air temperature will be at 26 - 31 degrees Celsius.

You could get a beautiful  views of the Bunaken marine park on some location called tanjung parigi, ron's point, sachiko point, pangalisang, muka kampung, Lekuan 1, 2, 3, fukui, mandolin, and east bunaken. There are also many dive location are located in the marine park and it's arround 40 dive sites varying depths that provide various types of tropical fish and coral reefs.

For the underwater photography lover, you will not be disappointed when visiting Bunaken marine park because in here you could get spectacular photos to commemorate because of  rarity from another place
those who want to explore Bunaken longer  you do not need to worry because you will found easily the accommodation ranging from backpacker price to quality star hotels. To support your activities during the tour at Bunaken marine park, you could also find a boat/speed boat  rental place, snorkeling tools / diving equipment and underwater cameras to capture your activities while under the sea.