Ambon · Indonesia · Cave & cavern
Hukurila Cave
A skylight hole lights the chamber at 12 metres
Area photo: Truite agile · CC BY-SA 4.0
Hukurila Cave sits on the southern coast of Ambon Island, away from the muck sites inside the bay. The cave entrance is at about 12 metres and opens into a chamber lit through a skylight hole in the ceiling. Sponges and soft corals cover the cave walls, and schools of sweepers and soldierfish shelter in the nooks inside.
Where it is and how deep
3.7382° S, 128.2408° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The site is on the southern coast of the island rather than inside Ambon Bay, so it is a boat dive and a change of scenery from the muck sites in the bay. The cave system here is large and shallow, and its entrance sits at roughly 12 metres, which is shallow enough that you are not committing to a deep overhead profile to see the inside of it.
Through the entrance the chamber opens out and a skylight hole in the ceiling drops daylight into it. The walls carry sponges and soft corals, and schools of sweepers and soldierfish hang in the nooks and recesses, shifting away from you as you work along them. Divers explore the chamber and its side pockets, then turn and come back out through the entrance at 12 metres.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Good |
Season follows Ambon: Oct–Apr is the main season; June to August brings wind and rain that make the outer sites rough, though the bay stays divable.
Know before you go
- The chamber is an overhead environment: keep the entrance in sight, stay off the bottom to avoid silting the chamber out, and hold your buoyancy clear of the sponges and corals on the walls.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Hukurila Cave?+
The cave entrance is at approximately 12 metres and the system behind it is described as shallow. No operator publishes a deeper figure for the site, so treat 12 metres as the working depth rather than a maximum.
Sources
- Ambon Dive Sites — Dive The World
- Ambon — Wikivoyage
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