East Kalimantan

Berau Regency

Indonesia

Great place for nightdiving! Shallow sandy area with a slight current drifting south. Stargazers, stonefish, pipefish, ribbon eels and so on... Don't forget your camera.



Paradise Resort Jetty

Relaxing drift dive alongside a beautiful reef although some parts have been damaged by storms. You'll see lots of green sea turtles! Visibility changes from poor to excellent within hours - one never can tell.

The current will head direction south-east. So one should take a boat ride from the jetty 5 minutes to the north and drift down back to the jetty from there.

Paradise House Reef

If you like to see green seaturtles this is the place to go. Maybe 30 on a dive. Cool spot for a nice and relaxing drift dive. Also you might see small groups of barracudas, jackfish, stingrays and so on. Take your time to search for critters on the reef. This side of maratua is really nice for macro photography! 



Turtle Traffic is also known as Maratua Turtle Traffic.

Turtle Traffic

Not too many people have yet visitet these lakes. They are smaller than the one on Kakaben but the species differ in color from the jellyfish on kakaben island. Watch out - there might still be some saltwater crocks inside.

from Maratua Paradise Resort on a 30 minutes walk through the mangroves.

Jellyfish Lakes

It's a drift dive down to small fish country.
Nice coral, some Napoleons, sometimes tunas, leopard sharks and so on. I recommend to try a reef dive in 3m depth. The coral up there's spectacular and you might see big barracudas and maybe cuttlefish.

by boat from nabucco island

Turtle Bay

Drift dive to Turtle Bay. Nice reef. Sometimes big fish. Stay shallow and see more! 

by boat from nabucco island

Turtle Parade

Drift dive to Turtle Parade
Nice reef. Sometimes big fish. Some Turtles. 

by boat from Nabucco island

Divers Delight

Strong current. Sometimes grey reef sharks. On the eastern side pygmy seahorses.

by boat from nabucco island or from maratua paradise resort

Light House

Small fissh country is a beautiful walldive and you'll see the big school of barracudas when they're not in the channel.
Usually it's a drift dive to the channel. At entry sometimes you have to fight against the current in order to reach 25m before the channel's entrance. This way you can stay right at the bottom rim of the entrance where there's no "washingmachine". If you go deeper there will be a strong downdrift, if you go higher there will be a strong updrift into the lagoon.

Maratua Island

Small Fish Country

Usually you will enter the channel at the end of a drift dive coming from Small Fish Country. You can rest a while at the lower rim of the channels entrance at "Big Fish Country".
Dive only at beginning high tide when the current is flowing into the lagoon. Sometimes 6+ knots current! Try reef hooks on a long rope but watch out that the current doesn't pull the mask from your face. :-) You'll see eagle rays, barracudas, groupers and sometimes whalesharks!
When you're out of air which can be very soon due to the current just let go and swim to the left side of the channel. The current will pull you into the channel which is about 20m deep and approx 100m wide. The ground is polished rock without coral. After 20 meters you'll see the entrance of a cave on the channels floor at the left side. There live giant groupers. It would be nice to explore that cave between the tides but no one has ever done that yet. When floating into the lagoon you can either stay shallow and look at the corals while drifting by or you can go in the center of the channel and drift into the deeper parts. But you'll need a lot of air left to do that. Hammerheads have been seen there and also there is a deep basin going down to more than 35m where a big school of eagle rays dwells. This extended drift dive requires very low air consumption, believe me. ;-)

From Nabucco Island resort. 

Maratua Channel

At the lower rim of the channels entrance there's a small area without current. If you go higher you'll be pulled into the channel. If you go lower there's a washing machine with a strong downdrift which will pull you to +50m in no time. So better refrain from swimming next to the big fish out into the blue or you'll end up somewhere deep before you notice. You'll see big schools of barracudas, tunas and often groups of eagle rays Sometimes seasnakes, whalesharks and hammerheads. But also sometimes there's just nothing.

By boat from Nabucco island. Big fish country lies right in front of the entrance to Maratua channel.

Paradise Resort Jetty

Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Paradise Resort Jetty