Police Pier

Night and muck promise the same thing, that what is worth seeing has to be found rather than swum past, so this is a night dive first and anything else second. The bottom is a dull grey mass, at first glance lifeless but on closer inspection teeming with activity, and that is the whole argument for the site: it rewards a slow methodical pass over a small patch rather than a route from one end to the other.

On the bottom, look for snake eels with only their stationary heads showing, staring upwards and normally attended by several cleaner shrimps, along with stargazers, free-swimming morays, flamboyant cuttlefish, long-armed octopus and finger dragonets. Frogfish lurk here too, including giants idly wafting their lure to attract an unsuspecting supper. Scorpionfish and lionfish are all around, so watch where hands and knees go.

As you make your way up into the rocky patches between about 15 and 8 metres there is a lot to see. The endemic Banggai cardinalfish are likely to be out en masse, from minuscule young to fully grown specimens, and their numbers can run into hundreds. Your eye catches a different type of crab around every corner - decorator crabs, hermit crabs, spider crabs, countless coral crabs and other bottom-scuttling varieties.