Dive Sites: Menjangan Island

Posted on December 13, 2024December 15, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

Comment

Menjangan Island Dive Sites

Menjangan Island became Bali’s first internationally-known diving location, famous for its wall-diving with great visibility (50m at certain times of the year).

Part of West Bali National Park, Menjangan Island is 30 minutes by local boat from mainland Bali and offers warm waters with stunning visibility that can reach 50m+. The island’s white sand beaches provide good, and well-protected, snorkelling opportunities.

The walls at Menjangan go from 10 to 26-60m+ and are full of nooks and crannies, overhangs and crevasses with soft corals, sponges and Bali’s highest concentration of Gorgonian seafans (some with pygmy seahorses). The fishlife is prolific and turtles are regular visitors.

Although Whalesharks may be sighted, pelagics are fairly rare here as the island is protected from the cold ocean currents felt at some other Bali dive sites.

The main three dive sites are Garden Eel Point, Pos Two, and the small wooden Anker Wreck (35-50m) where the calm conditions and good visibility can make it easy to forget that this is a deep dive.

Best Time to Dive

Although the best diving in Menjangan Island is said to be from April to November (during the south east monsoon), the island can be dived year round as it offers some of the most protected diving in Bali.

The clarity of the water can at times be amazing, July to September often yields the best visibility and a current of more than 1 knot is unusual. However, as Menjangan is protected from the cold currents coming in from the open sea, there are only rare sightings of larger fish.

PADI Sea Slugs & Nudi Awareness Specialty

Posted on November 1, 2024November 1, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

Comment

Sea Slugs & Nudi Awareness Specialty

There are over 3,000 species of sea slugs and nudibranchs worldwide, with new species being identified all the time. The Indo-Pacific region, including Bali, is one of the richest areas in the world for nudibranch diversity. Researchers have found nearly 2,000 species in this region alone, with hotspots like Raja Ampat, Bunaken, and Tulamben recognized for their variety of sea slugs.

AquaMarine Diving – Bali (AMD-B) is offering the PADI Sea Slugs & Nudi Awareness Specialty, where you will learn general knowledge about sea slugs and nudibranchs and their fascinating traits.

What You Will Learn

In this course, you will enhance your general knowledge of sea slugs and nudibranchs while learning about their morphology, physiology, reproductive habits, and lifecycle. You will also explore their key features, habitats, diets, and the important role they play in the aquatic ecosystem. With some nudibranch populations declining due to environmental pressures, this course emphasizes the need for conservation efforts to protect these colourful creatures.

Our instructors are skilled at helping you identify the different species found in Bali’s waters, making sure that you can recognize both common and rare nudibranchs.

Practice What You Learn

You can make the decision to only learn the theory or if you would like to have a first hand experience to observe these fascinating creatures in their natural habitat, and we will take you to Tulamben Bay, home to the 120m USAT Liberty Shipwreck applying everything you’ve learned.

Exclusively available at AquaMarine Diving – Bali (because we wrote it!), the PADI Indonesia Sea Slugs and Nudibranchs Awareness Distinctive Specialty will answer all those wiggly-niggly questions you have 🙂

Dive Sites: Nusa Penida & Lembongan

Posted on August 2, 2024August 2, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

Comment

Nusa Penida & Lembongan Dive Sites

Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan offer drift-diving in mild to strong currents. The water can be chilly but is often startlingly clear, with gorgeous corals, prolific fish, turtles, sharks and, from July to mid-November, Mola-Mola (Ocean sunfish).

Note: AquaMarine’s 2024 Mola-Mola Special Offer is available to book 🙂

The three main north coast sites SD, Ped and Sental have many soft corals and fish such as sweetlips, lionfish, moray eels, scorpionfish and reef sharks, in addition to turtles, nudibranchs and crabs.

Toyapakeh, Nusa Penida’s most popular dive site, has good visibility with rich, impressive coral formations and big bommies. The profusion of colourful soft corals provides hiding places for many kinds of marinelife including Ribbon eels, Banded sea snakes, turtles and nudibranchs. Late afternoon you may be lucky enough to see Mandarinfish.

Gamat Bay, although a small area, with its soft corals, Gorgonian seafans and hard corals (including table corals), is full of reef fish and some quite rare commensals and nudibranchs. On the outside slope are big bommies, overhangs and small caves, that provide resting places for larger fish. Gamat Bay is also known as a cleaning station for Mola-Mola in season.

Malibu Point on south east Penida lies on a very steep slope, with table corals and big bommies. Marinelife here includes rays, big trevallys and huge schools of Rainbow runners. This is Penida’s best location to see a variety of sharks.

Manta and Mola-Mola Diving

Crystal Bay is best known for sightings of Mola-Mola (see sidebar) in the July to mid-November season when water temperatures can drop dramatically! While the bay itself is beautiful, with good numbers and variety of fish as well as gorgeous corals, it also has a Bat Cave: enter from underwater, surface inside the cave (which is open to the sky) and watch the bats overhead. On the deep wall after the Bat Cave we often see Eagle rays and (if you are lucky) the Bali Wobbegong shark – yes really, it’s endemic to Bali.

South west Penida has two Manta Points, both of which have dramatic limestone cliffs descending straight into the ocean. Manta Point I, the further site, has slightly larger Mantas (2-4m width), but can be surgy and is not always reachable due to waves. Neither site has currents, and at both sites the Mantas are seen at 5-10m depth. Mola-Molas, Bamboo and Nurse sharks, tunas, Tiger mackerels and smaller rays may also be seen.

Batu Abah on the far side of Penida is known for Mantas and Mola-Mola.
Note: Despite the distance, all three of AquaMarine’s boats can reach Batu Abah in a reasonable time.

Lembongan’s Blue Corner, although deep, is a very popular drift dive, the highlight being a wall that is usually full of fish, sharks, big Napoleon wrasse, sometimes Eagle rays and Mola-Mola. This site is for more experienced divers.