Lombok

Posted on December 23, 2024December 24, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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The island of Lombok, directly to the east of Bali. Lombok (4.725km2; slightly smaller than Bali) is famous for white sandy beaches and beautiful scenery. The island is pretty much circular in shape with a 70km peninsular called Sekotong on the south west coast.

Diving in Lombok

Diving around south Lombok is very popular as the area has pristine reefs, a multitude of dive sites and amazing marine diversity. The variety of marinelife is breathtaking and in addition to the many colourful reef fish, there is an abundance of macro life.

Diving around Sekotong is suitable for all levels of experience, from easy and relaxing dives on colourful reefs with lots of macro life, to exciting adrenaline dives in Belongas Bay.

Lombok’s Diving Season

Lombok’s diving is good year-around with May to October, the dry season, offering 10-30m visibility. Dec/Jan has the highest rainfall. From the end of June to early November, Belongas Bay has Hammerhead sharks, Manta and Mobula rays, and more. The two best known dive sites in Belongas Bay are The Cathedral and The Magnet. Here you can see mackerel, tuna, barracuda, Napoleon wrasse, Eagle rays, White-tip and Black-tip reef sharks.

How to reach Lombok

Flights: There are domestic flights from Jakarta and Bali international airports.

Fast boats from Bali: Various operators; most leave in the morning. AMD-B recommends Bluewater Express: Well-designed boats with built-in safety features; a very well-managed company.

For more information on Lombok’s diving, dive resorts, transfers, and to start your planning, please contact AMD-B’s ‘Beyond Bali’ Dive Travel Consultants today. As always, they will be more than happy to offer recommendations and make arrangements to suit your preferences.
Contact us on Tours@AquaMarineDiving.com today!

Dive Sites: Menjangan Island

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

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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

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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 🙂