spot for wide angle; a short way
along the wall I find a sea fan where
I count 13 pygmy seahorses.
A 10-minute boat ride from
Tulamben is one of my favorite
sites,
Seraya’s Secrets
, the house
reef of Seraya Resort. This is an
exceptional critter dive, regularly
home to multiple frogfish, seahorses,
ghost pipefish (usually in massive
numbers) and boxer crabs. It’s also
one of the most reliable places to
see two of my favorite shrimps:
harlequins and tigers. There was
a mimic octopus there during
my stay, and a short swim away I
photographed mating wonderpus
octopuses. If all that weren’t enough,
the site is also a nudibranch hotspot
— 120 species were counted here
in just the first eight weeks it was
known as a dive site.
A little farther down the coast,
near Amed, we’re taken to a site
that’s home to a beautiful pair of
rhinopias. The resorts like to keep
the locations of these rare, beautiful
scorpionfish a secret until they have
moved on because they command
such high prices in the aquarium
trade that if word gets out they may
quickly be “collected.”
There is a wide variety of sites
farther east between Amed and Gili
Selang. These include everything
from black-sand bays to rich coral
reefs. Few divers venture this far, so
you will usually have sites to yourself.
Among my favorites here are the
picturesque and vibrant reefs near
the
Japanese Wreck
that are home
to beautiful sea fans and hordes
of small reef fish that dwell in the
extensive fields of hard corals. I
also enjoyed muck diving in Amed,
where I photographed mating ghost
pipefish and on the same site saw
seahorses, longarm octopus and
wonderpuses in the shallows.
HERE BE MONSTERS
My final destination is Nusa Penida.
I am visiting on a day trip from
Tulamben, but if you plan to dive
here for a few days it is probably
worth relocating to a hotel in
Candidasa, Padang Bai or Sanur.
It is an early start and a long day
from Tulamben. We drive down to
Padang Bai, where we board the dive
boat for the long journey into the
Lombok Strait. We’re headed to the
southern end of Nusa Penida island
to a dive site called
Manta Point
.
Nusa Penida is an intimidating place
to approach from the sea; its massive
limestone cliffs plunge straight into
the ocean. Geologically it’s a drastic
change from the volcanic landscape
of Bali. It reminds me one of those
mysterious, uncharted islands from
Saturday Matinee adventure movies.
I’m not sure if we are more likely to
see mantas or King Kong.
Much to my surprise the mantas
do turn up (usually when a dive site
is named for a species, typically that’s
the one thing you won’t see there),
and we have a great dive. It is not the
clearest water, and it’s cold, too, but
the mantas come in and spiral above
our heads for most of the dive while
gangs of wrasse swim up from the
reef to pick them clean of parasites.
We head north and cross our
fingers for the main event. Nusa
Penida’s imposing coastline looks like
a land of movie monsters, and that’s
not far from the truth. Between July
and October it is a great location to
see Mola molas, which are definitely
among the ocean’s most mysterious,
enigmatic and downright huge
creatures. For starters, these fish
have no tails. They live in the open
ocean where they feed primarily on
jellyfish. They hold the record for
producing the most eggs of any fish:
300 million at a time. And they are
the heaviest bony fish in the seas;
one caught in 1996 weighed half as
much as a female elephant.
Although everyone wants to see
these charismatic creatures, these
can be challenging dives even for
experienced divers. The reefs are
exposed to strong currents, which
upwell very cold water; exciting
animals regularly tempt divers to
stay too long and go too deep. The
cold water, depth, currents and
excitement may cause divers to
use their air much faster that they
expect, and accidents happen here
as a result. One of the hardest skills
to learn as a diver is when to say no.
This dive is not for every skill level.
The sunfish come to the reefs to
get cleaned by wrasse, bannerfish
and emperor angelfish, and on a
lucky day you may even see the
massive monsters queuing patiently
for a clean. We see just one, but it
takes our breath away as it cruises
right through the middle of the
group, and we’re able to get close
enough to stare right into those
saucerlike eyes. Everyone comes up
very happy. Despite spending an
entire dive with mantas, all the talk
on the journey back to Tulamben is
about sunfish.
Bali is an excellent diving
destination, and when you consider
all the island offers above the
surface it becomes irresistible. I
know too many divers who have
been there and never dived. Staying
a night or two in the resort towns
of Kuta or Sanur in the south is like
going to Vegas and thinking you’ve
seen the States.
Bali’s diving allure is diversity.
There is the biodiversity, which,
quite frankly, can be staggering.
Bali sits within the famous Coral
Triangle, the epicenter of marine
biodiversity, which includes 76
percent of the world’s coral species
and 3,000 species of fish. But
biodiversity is only part of the story
— it’s the diving diversity that really
sets Bali apart. Walls, reefs, black
sand, shallow bays, critters and
great ocean creatures are all there,
waiting for you.
AD
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WINTER 2014
