Banten Bay is not your usual dive destination. There are other dive locations accessible from Jakarta, which are easier and offer more variety in terms of diving and marine life. However this area offers an interesting mix between diving and history.
Here in this area rest two battleships that have seen action in the Sunda Strait Battle during the World War II that marked the crumbling of the Allied power in the Dutch East Indies in the hands of the Japanese. Allied cruisers HMAS Perth and USS Houston were attempting to escape through the Sunda Strait on the evening of 28 February 1942 when they encountered a huge Japanese fleet. Overwhelmed, both cruisers were sunk on the early hours of 1 March 1942.
Now the wrecks lie within 5 kms of each other in the sandy-silty bottom of the Sunda Strait off the mouth of Banten Bay. Around 8 kms north of Pulau Panjang the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth lies on her port side at position 05.51.42S latitude and 106.07.52E longitude and a depth of approximately 39 meters. To the north the American cruiser USS Houston lies on her starboard side at position 05.48.45S latitude and 106.7.55E longitude and a depth of around 33 meters. Finding the exact location is not easy and apart from using GPS, a fish finder or echo sounder is probably very useful.
Current is often strong, so anchor line is needed for ascending and descending. Visibility is typically quite bad, around 6 meters most of the time, though there has been reports of visibility reaching 15 meters. Diving is usually done between March and September to avoid stormy sea.
Both ships, each has a length of more or less 180m, are still more or less intact though covered with corals. The holes made by torpedoes are also visible. Marine life living there includes barracuda which was spotted in USS Houston, scorpionfish, pufferfish and moray eels.