There are Ships, Motor to Bus Under the Sea City Ternate

Who does not know Ternate? Historic city surrounded by sea and shaded by Mount Gamalama. The footsteps of the empire with various historical relics can be traced back hundreds of years ago. However, it seems not many know, Ternate also has the beauty of the seabed.

Uniquely the location of this dive was not far away, one of the diving points even in front of Ternate City Park!

This uniqueness then staying digadang become the excellence of spot diving Ternate compared to other locations. To attract the growing interest of dive-growing tourists in Ternate, the stakeholders until "tough" drowned the motorcycle to the bus. How's the story?

The sea is calm. Sunny weather. In front of the beach Nukila Park there is a barge that was leaning.

That morning the city park with its lush trees was still quiet. Not many people on the move. This city park shares the coastline with Jatiland Mall and Al Munawwar Mosque. The area is reclaimed beach, which connects the boulevard that divides the city of Ternate.

"We came down the dive here, in the city park," explained Reza's diving companion from the Nasijaha Dive Center. He is still young as a 25-year-old. He gave some standard instructions for the safety of the dives. Although still young, experience and hours of diving should not be asked. It's long.

This was my first experience of diving by way of beach entry. Generally diving in other areas must motorboat first to the sea, away from the mainland.

The sea in front of the city park is quite ideal. The diving entry point is no deeper than 5-6 meters, but the deeper the coastline will be deeper. At some point the sea is shallow overgrown seagrass.

For a moment dive, there was a row of drowned motorcycles. Uniquely these motors are deliberately tied a kind of sling so as not to be separated from each other. In some parts have been overgrown with corals.

I remembered the explanation of Nasijaha Dive Center Manager, Adita Agoes. He said these motors were drowned on December 9, 2017. Taken from the damaged motorcycle mangkrak existing in Ternate Polres. Therefore, the location where the motors under the sea is then called Bhayangkara Housereef.

Not far from the points Bhayangkara looks two large figures shaped box. Yes no one is the ex bus city, The shape is still recognizable. If you look in the glass still looks the passenger benches.

According to information the bus was sunk in August 2016 as an artificial reef and diving tourist destination. When drowned, previous engines and fuel tanks of motorcycles and buses have been taken first so that the remaining oil and oil does not contaminate the waters.

It's like the heart will not move from this wreck bus. Especially seeing a group of fish coming in and out of this bus.

Reza gave the code to follow him. I also moved from the bus wreck to where the ship sank. There are two ship wreck. One small and the second big. We headed for the second one. The sinking ship at this location is KM Pari, which has a length of about 36 meters, with a heavy capacity of about 70 GT ships.

The scenery is amazing. A group of fish (schooling fish) can be seen here. Location KM Pari is not only a destination for divers, fish also make KM Pari carcass as a favorite place. This sinking ship about 20-25 meters is in the depths of the sea.

Of course the imagination keeps turning when you see a ship this size sink. Nor did I waste to circle the various parts of this ship and explore its parts.

Do not feel the time was up, we have to go back to the surface. While equalizing to the safe diving standard, we still got a "bonus", saw some nemo fish (clown fish) playing in anemones. Nudibranchia can also be found in this clear sea waters.

Diving in the waters of Ternate City brings a pleasant new experience. However, as it is close to urban areas, this diving point needs to be well maintained. Particularly from waste and plastics derived from municipal waste.

Although the amount is still tolerable, but the garbage is quite disturbing the aesthetics during the dive. While diving, I found plastic trash snacks that covered the rocks. I even encountered the bottom of the sea there is an ex laptop! I do not know what that means to people who throw away the laptop here.

Appreciation also needs to be given to the city cleanliness agency that routinely takes the garbage in the waters by boat. Even with limited equipment they perform their duties well.

Ternate waters and in various islands in North Maluku is very potential to be developed as a marine tourism destination. The sea is rich with diverse biological riches, from walking sharks, various species of corals and fish, to dugongs.

Hopefully these waters can be maintained, as one of Indonesia's underwater natural wealth.