Pulau Ai

Batu Udang, Shrimp Rock in Bahasa Indonesia, is on the south side of the island and is the usual dive. It begins over a gentle sloping reef that runs down to 13 metres, and from there a very steep slope drops away anywhere down to 55 metres. Isolation, walls and deep water are what make the site work: when the current is running, Pulau Ai is one of the top dive sites in the Banda Islands for shark encounters.

Hammerhead sharks are seen from time to time, and thresher and silvertip sharks are sighted occasionally. Wahoo and giant trevally visit the island, and chevron barracuda and bluefin trevally hunt here in large schools. The mobula rays are the set piece, squadrons of them sometimes flying in formation up to 25 strong. Whitetip reef sharks, eagle rays and large schools of bluetail unicornfish frequent the reef itself, and hawksbill turtles rest on ledges or feed on the green sponges.

At Tanjung Batu Payong, Umbrella Rock Point, on the west coast, the wall is steeper again and drops to 60 metres. That is far below any recreational limit, and depth creeps up on divers who are watching open water rather than their gauges, so set a floor before you descend and keep the wall in sight while you look out into the blue. Work the profile shallower as the dive goes on rather than chasing movement down the wall.