Takabonerate & Selayar · Indonesia · Wall · Drift
Pantai Pinang
Gorgonians and soft coral on a limestone wall, averaging 20 m
Area photo: Fakhrizal Setiawan · CC BY-SA 4.0
Pantai Pinang is a limestone wall 20 minutes by boat from Pattumbukan Harbour, on the same stretch of Selayar's east coast as Shark Point. Gorgonian sea fans and soft coral cover the face, a mild current runs along it, and the wall bottoms out somewhere between 30 and 40 m while the average depth worked on the dive is 20 m.
Where it is and how deep
6.4324° S, 120.5048° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Twenty minutes out of Pattumbukan Harbour puts you on Selayar's east-coast drop-off, here as a limestone wall hung with gorgonian sea fans and soft coral. The current is mild and runs along the face, so the dive works as a slow drift with the wall on one shoulder and open water on the other. Depth is a choice: the average worked here is 20 m, and the wall's quoted maximum is between 30 and 40 m.
Napoleon wrasse, grouper and sweetlips work the face, with moray eels and lobster back in the rock and stingrays down on the sand. Fusiliers and rainbow runners pass in numbers with dogtooth tuna and giant trevally behind them, and turtles are logged here as well. With the current mild and the average depth moderate, there is time to cover one section slowly rather than swim through the whole thing.
Marine life and season
- Napoleon wrasse
- Tuna
- Sea turtles
- Stingrays
- Trevally & jacks
- Groupers
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Good | Off-season |
Season follows Takabonerate & Selayar: Apr–Nov is the season; the north-west monsoon makes the crossing from Makassar impractical from December to February.
Know before you go
- The wall's bottom is quoted between 30 and 40 m with nothing shallow below it, so choose a depth on the way down rather than following the face until it ends.
Dive videos
Dive di pantai pinang selayar · m.yahya alfatih yahya on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Pantai Pinang?+
The average depth on the dive is 20 m and the wall's maximum is quoted between 30 and 40 m, so the profile is whatever you choose on the way down.
Sources
- Pantai Pinang — South Sulawesi dive site — Scubago (SSI MyDiveGuide)
More dive sites in Takabonerate & Selayar
Wall
Limestone and white sand, a wall to 35 m, rarely any current
Reef
White sand to 15 m, no current, twenty minutes from town
Reef
Hard coral, soft coral and sea fans on a sand slope to 20 m
Pinnacle
Whitetips, blacktips and marble rays on an atoll pinnacle
Sand slope
Selayar's shark dive, with current that can run either way
Similar dives elsewhere
A drift from schooling fish on the point to macro on the slope
A 15 to 40 metre wall with the strait's most consistent pelagics
Steep wall to 30 metres, the strait's moderate-current option
An open-top cave in the northwest wall of a limestone island