On the weekend from 10 June to 12 June 2005 we dived around Pulau Nikoi and tried to find some nice dive sites. “We” are: Suzannah Browning, Nick Moore, Nicki Davies, Goetz and Gitta von Dresky all from the Free-Flow Diving Club (British Club, Singapore).
Generally, the visibility was not good, ranging from a maximum of ~7m down to ~1m this was as expected for an island that is less than10km from the coast of Bintan. However, we did find two very nice dive sites, one directly at the island and one some distance away. There are good coral formations in many areas, and a good variety of different corals. The coral is generally undamaged, however in some areas it was covered with silt.
We have taken a number of photos that can be viewed on the accompanying CD. Some of these photos have been included in the report, next to the description of their respective dives.
The approximate location and orientation of the dive sites is shown below. This is from memory and not to scale, so the accuracy is not guaranteed!
Date: 11/6/2005
Location: North east of the island on some outlying rocks.
Visibility: 3-5m
Tide: Low, coming in.
Current: <0.5 Knots
Time in: 09:12
The location was at the north east of the island, around some rock formations.
Water temperature was 30°C, and the visibility was very low. A lot of plankton and other tiny particles were present in the water.
The drop off point was at a rock some 50 meters away from the island. We dived into the direction of the island, heading south. Between the rock and the island the deepest point we found was 17 meters.
The rock formations above the water were continued below and we had to dive up and down all the time due to the large rocks.
There were a lot of sea urchins, sea stars, and some fish schools, which however were difficult to appreciate due to the low visibility.
Closer to the island we went up to about 8 meters and changed our direction in order to dive around the north western tip of the island.
The visibility was improved after we had rounded the tip and were on the south eastern side of the rocks. There were also not such big rock formations which made the diving easier. We dived along the slope at about 8 meters slowly rising to 5 meters before we surfaced after 50 minutes of diving.
There was some soft and hard coral, nice but not spectacular. We saw lots of anemones with their respective clownfish and related species, some of them quite large. There were also some nice clams, angelfish, butterflyfish, batfish and parrotfish.
Overall rating: Poor
Date: 11/6/2005
Location: Reef at west side of the island
Visibility: 1-2m
Tide: High.
Current: 2-3 Knots
Time in: 13:55
We dived at the western side of the island, starting at a rock formation on the southern side of “I-Pod Rock”. We started the dive early in the afternoon when it was high tide. The visibility was poor.
We split into two groups, one group diving the outer side of the reef (western side), and the other diving the inner (eastern) side. Suzannah and Nick dived around the rock formation, reaching about 15 meters at the eastern side of the rock.
Nicki, Goetz and Gitta dived around the western side of the formation and continued on a straight south course into the direction of the Kelong. It was very shallow, only 1-2 meters, basically we dived on top of the reef. Near to the Kelong it started to get deeper, and there was an area with very beautiful coral. This spot should be explored further. When we dived the visibility was not so good, but what we could see from the coral around us was really very special.
Toward the south the coral stops at a depth of about 10 meters (near the Kelong) when the bottom starts to get sandy. From then on there is only sandy bottom, no rocks, no coral, nothing of interest really. As there is also nothing to stop the current, it is quite strong there. Due to the strong current we covered quite some distance and came to the surface some distance away from the Kelong.
Overall rating: Most of it very poor (and dangerous!).
However, the coral spot near the Kelong is great and should be explored further.
Date: 12/6/2005
Location: North western end of the island
Visibility: 5-7m
Tide: Low, coming in.
Current: <0.5 Knots
Time in: 08:40
The next day, we again explored the northern part of the island. We dropped-off near some rocks in a more westerly position than on our first dive, at a big rock formation closer to the island. We dived along the rock formation in a north westerly direction.
We started in the morning at low tide, with medium visibility, low current and calm sea.
Along the rock formation was beautiful soft and hard coral, ferns, a nice big clam, many fish. The best depth was around 7 meters. From 9 meters onwards the sandy bottom started going down to at least 13 meter but without much of interest. Along the rock formation itself it was really nice. Another group dived the site after us and also found it pleasant.
Overall rating: Good
Date: 12/6/2005
Location: Black Rock
Visibility: 5-7m
Tide: High, coming in.
Current: 1 Knot
Time in: 11:45
We dived around “black rock”, which is 10 minutes by speedboat away from the island. This dive site is good.
We started the dive at 11:45, the visibility was quite good, up to 7m. One has to be careful with the current, which we assume varies with the tide. There is a split running through the rock which was sheltered from the current, so no problem with the current when we dived there.
Black rock has a beautiful colourful wall, a lot of swim-throughs and channels and many fish. We twice saw a blue spotted ray.
There was an area of several square meters that was covered by anemones. This dive site should be explored further!
Overall rating: Good
The visibility was poor, never reaching above 7m, and so this tended to spoil the views somewhat. However, the coral formations are very nice, and largely undamaged. There is abundant fish life, but limited ‘macro’ life which tends to be the main interest when the visibility is limited.
We are therefore of the opinion that the diving around the island is not of sufficient quality in its own right to attract divers, since there are many better diving opportunities at similar distances from Singapore. However, the two dive sites that we rate as good are worthwhile dives, and with the addition of a wreck to dive and opportunity to dive some of the other nearby islands, Nikoi could become an attractive dive location.
Free-Flow Divers would like to take this opportunity to thank the owners and staff on Pulau Nikoi for their generosity and hospitality over the weekend. We look forward to returning.
All supplied photos may be freely used.
Free Flow divers June 2005.
