Bunaken National Park is a marine park in the north of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

island,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The park is located near the centre of the

Coral Triangle The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in ea ...

, providing habitat to 390 species of coral as well as many fish, mollusc, reptile and marine mammal species. The park is representative of Indonesian tropical water ecosystems, consisting of seagrass plain, coral reef, and coastal ecosystems.Indonesia Ministry of Forestry: Bunaken National Park
, retrieved 14-December-2009 It was established as a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in 1991 and is among the first of Indonesia's growing system of marine parks. It covers a total area of 890.65 km², 97% of which is marine habitat. The remaining 3% of the park is terrestrial, including the five islands of Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage, Nain and Siladen. The southern part of the Park covers part of the Tanjung Kelapa coast.

Geology

North Sulawesi is considered to be a young formation, of 5–24 million years of age. The region has undergone explosive volcanism 1.5–5 million years ago, which resulted in the volcanic

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

that characterizes the existing topography.

Manado Tua Manado Tua is a volcanic island in the Celebes Sea off the northeast coast of Sulawesi. The island is located on Bunaken National Park. The name Manado comes from ''manadou'' or ''wanazou'' meaning "on the far coast" or "in the distance," which ...

is an inactive volcano formed in a classical cone shape and rising over 600 m above sea level, the highest elevation in the park.

Bunaken Bunaken is an island of 8 km2, part of the Bunaken National Marine Park. Bunaken is located at the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It belongs administratively to the municipality of Manado. Scuba diving attracts many v ...

Island also has volcanic origins with a significant amount of uplifted fossil coral. Nain Island is also a dome-shaped island, in height. Mantehage Island is relatively flat and seems to be sinking into the sea. The island has extensive mangrove forest flats, partially separated by saltwater channels. Siladen is a low-lying coral sand island with no significant topography. Arakan-Wawontulap and Molas-Wori on the mainland of North Sulawesi are relatively flat areas at the base of volcanic hills. The absence of a

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

allows the coastal area of the park to drop directly down the continental slope. The sea depth between the islands of the park is .UNESCO: Bunaken NP
retrieved 14-December-2009

Flora and fauna

A very rich

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

covers most of Bunaken National Park, dominated by

fringing reef A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reef. It is distinguished from the other main types, barrier reefs and atolls, in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone (lagoon) or none at all. If a fringing reef grows direc ...

and

barrier reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

corals. There are about 390 species of coral recorded in the waters of the Park.E. Turak and L. DeVantie: ''Reef-building corals of Bunaken National Park: Rapid ecological assessment of biodiversity and status''
retrieved 15-December-2009 A distinct feature is a 25-50 metre vertical coral wall which is inhabited by 13 coral genus. The

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

s that can be found here include ''

Caulerpa ''Caulerpa'' is a genus of seaweeds in the family Caulerpaceae (among the green algae). They are unusual because they consist of only one cell with many nuclei, making them among the biggest single cells in the world. A species in the Mediterran ...

'', ''

Halimeda ''Halimeda'' is a genus of green macroalgae. The algal body (thallus) is composed of calcified green segments. Calcium carbonate is deposited in its tissues, making it inedible to most herbivores. However one species, '' Halimeda tuna'', was desc ...

'', and '' Padina pavonica'' species, while the dominant

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

es, in particular in the islands of Montehage and Nain, are ''

Thalassia hemprichii ''Thalassia hemprichii'', called Pacific turtlegrass, is a widespread species of seagrass in the genus '' Thalassia'', native to the shores of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the western Pacific Ocean. Its growth rate increases with CO2 enrich ...

'', '' Enhallus acoroides'', and ''

Thalassodendron ciliatum ''Thalassodendron ciliatum'', the sickle-leaved cymodocea, is a species of plant in the ''Thalassodendron'' genus of seagrasses in the family Cymodoceaceae. Distribution ''Thalassodendron ciliatum'' has a wide distribution throughout the Indo-Pa ...

''. The park is also abundant in different species of fish, marine mammals and reptiles, birds, molluscs and mangrove species. About 2000 species of fish live in the waters of the park, among them being the

emperor angelfish The emperor angelfish (''Pomacanthus imperator'') is a species of marine angelfish. It is a reef-associated fish, native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the Red Sea to Hawaii and the Austral Islands. This species is generally associated ...

Almaco jack The longfin yellowtail (''Seriola rivoliana''), also known as the almaco or silvercoat jack, deep-water, falcate, European or highfin amberjack, rock salmon, longfin or yellow kingfish, is a game fish of the family Carangidae; they are in the sam ...

, spotted seahorse, bluestripe snapper, pinkish basslet and two-lined monocle bream. The species of mollusc include the

giant clam The giant clams are the members of the clam genus ''Tridacna'' that are the largest living bivalve mollusks. There are actually several species of "giant clams" in the genus ''Tridacna'', which are often misidentified for ''Tridacna gigas'', th ...

, horned helmet shells, chambered nautilus, and

ascidians Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" ...

. It is claimed that this park has seven times more genera of

than

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, and more than 70% of all the known fish species of the Indo-Western

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. On land, the islands are rich in species of

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...

, woka, silar and

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

. Among the animal species that live on the land and the beaches are

Celebes crested macaque The Celebes crested macaque (''Macaca nigra''), also known as the crested black macaque, Sulawesi crested macaque, or the black ape, is an Old World monkey that lives in the Tangkoko reserve in the northeastern tip of the Indonesian island of Su ...

, Timor Deer, and Sulawesi bear cuscus. The

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

forest of the Park contains, among others ''

Rhizophora ''Rhizophora'' is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the red mangrove (''Rhizophora mangle'') but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. ''Rhizophora'' ...

'' and ''

Sonneratia ''Sonneratia'' is a genus of plants in the family Lythraceae. Formerly the Sonneratia were placed in a family called Sonneratiaceae which included both the ''Sonneratia'' and the ''Duabanga'', but these two are now placed in their own mono ...

'' species. This forest is also rich in species of

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

, and sea birds such as gulls, herons, sea doves, and storks.

Human habitation and tourism

The area is densely populated, with 22 villages inside the park comprising about 35,000 people. Most locals work as fishermen or farmers cultivating coconut,

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

, banana or seaweed for export, while a small number are employed in tourism as dive guides, boat operators and cottage staff. Tourism is strongly developed, with accommodation ranging from backpacker cottages to 5 star resorts.Management Advisory Board
retrieved 14-December-2009 Between 2003 and 2006 the number of visitors ranged from 32,000 to 39,000 of which 8,000–10,000 were international visitors for each year. Scuba diving and snorkelling are the main activities pursued by tourists visiting the park, with the diving in Bunaken being world renowned. It is home to the three time consecutive award winner and current title holder of the World Travel Awards' "Indonesia's Leading Dive Resort" in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021
Bunaken Oasis Dive Resort & Spa

Conservation and threats

Bunaken National Park was formally established in 1991 and is among the first of Indonesia's marine parks. In 2005 Indonesia submitted an application to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

for including the park on the

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

. Despite its national park status and significant funding, the park has suffered a slow, continuous degradation due to a number of threats including coral mining, anchor damage,

blast fishing Blast fishing, fish bombing, dynamite fishing or grenade fishing is a destructive fishing practice using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection. This often illegal practice is extremely destructive to the surrounding e ...

cyanide fishing In respect of fishing techniques, cyanide fishing is a specific method of collecting live fish, mainly for use in aquariums, which involves spraying a sodium cyanide mixture into the desired fish's habitat in order to incapacitate the fish. This ...

, diving, and trash. The

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

provides conservation support in the National Park as part of the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Eco-region Action Plan. This includes participatory enforcement and patrol, which resulted in significant reduction of blast fishing.WWF: Bunaken
, retrieved 14-December-2009

References

External links

Bunaken National Park - Management Advisory Board

by

Seacology Seacology is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, that works to preserve island ecosystems and cultures around the world. Founded in 1991, it began with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox, ...

* {{authority control National parks of Indonesia Sulawesi Protected areas established in 1991 1991 establishments in Indonesia Geography of North Sulawesi Tourist attractions in North Sulawesi Underwater diving sites in Indonesia