Alor: Ternate Island Dive Site – Alor Archipelago

Site Overview

Ternate Island is a small uninhabited island in the Alor Archipelago located approximately 50 minutes by boat from Kalabahi, offering diverse reef environments including wall diving, coral slopes, and small cave systems in a remote wilderness setting. The island benefits from nutrient-rich currents flowing through the archipelago, creating healthy coral growth and attracting diverse marine life. The dive site features a fringing reef system with vertical walls dropping from 3 meters to approximately 30 meters on the exposed northern side, transitioning to gentler coral slopes on the sheltered southern side. The shallower sections at 3 to 10 meters feature diverse hard and soft coral gardens with abundant reef fish, including schools of fusiliers, anthias, and butterflyfish. The wall sections at 10 to 20 meters are covered in sea fans, barrel sponges, and soft corals, with whitetip reef sharks, moray eels, and lobsters inhabiting the crevices. The small cave systems at 12 to 18 meters on the northern side provide habitat for sleeping whitetip reef sharks, schooling glassfish, and decorative crabs. Hawksbill turtles are regular visitors to the reef throughout the dive. The coral slopes at 10 to 20 meters on the sheltered side feature dense staghorn and plate coral formations with juvenile fish nurseries. The deeper sections at 20 to 30 meters have sandy patches where blue-spotted stingrays and garden eels are common. Ternate Island is best dived from April through November when the dry season provides calmer seas and better visibility. The island is uninhabited, adding to the remote wilderness feel, and the site offers excellent opportunities for both wide-angle reef photography and macro work on the coral slopes.