Tulamben Bali Diving Site
Tulamben is a little village in the northeast coast of Bali, the beach is black sand
covered by smooth, fist-size rocks. The remains of Gunung Agung exploding in
1963 has sent the lava flows along this coastal area. There is a bay here that
invites divers to visit this village to explore under water scene. The bay was
later known as Tulamben Bay amongst the divers. The excellent diving sites in
this bay are Ship Wreck (USAT Liberty
Cargo), Paradise Reef and Drop Off (actually rugged wall). These
sites are the best beach entry scuba diving in all of Bali, further east about
15 minutes cruising in a small out rigger fishing boat, will bring you to
other diving sites known as Alamanda Reef and Batu Kelebit. A
car ride 10 minutes further west of Tulamben and you will be in Kubu village
with its beach similar in condition to Tulamben Bay offers a diving on the
pristine Kubu Reef.
Ship Wreck (USAT Liberty)
Just
30 meters from the beach at Tulamben is a World War II cargo ship broken up but
still an impressively large wreck, stretching 120 meters long on a steeply
sloping sandy bottom. The top of wreckage is just 3 meters below the water
surface and the bottom is at 29 meters. January 11th, 1942, this ship was hit
by torpedoes from Japanese submarine I166 while crossing the Lombok Strait carrying
rubber and railroad part on World War II service. The damage was critical, but
two destroyers hitched up to the ship and tried to tow it to the port at
Singaraja. The wounded cargo ship was taking too much water, howeverand her crew
ran the vessel up on the beach at Tulamben. The volcanic explosion of Gunung
Agung in 1963 rolled Liberty off the beach to its present location, in the
process breaking in pieces. The wreck is completely covered with variety of
corals and hundreds of species of fish inhabit it, an Australian Rudie Kuiter,
author of the definitive guide to Indonesian reef fishes, estimates that some
400 species of reef fishes live on the wreck, which is also visited by perhaps
100 species of pelagic. This is a remarkable number for an area just 120 meters
long. On the slack tide is a good time to do night dive, remarkable flashlight
fishes (Anomalops katoptron) in the black corals at the bow blink the like
starslight in the sky. Visibility is average 15 to 20 meters and water
temperature is roughly warm 28 to 29 degrees C.
Paradise Reef
The
name of this reef has been taken from the hotel standing on the beach,
Paradise
Hotel. This shallow patch reef is delightful and richly covered more
than 200
meters long and lies in 5 to 15 meters of water. This reef is dominated
by
Acropora, hard corals, some large table corals and Fire corals, there
are also
large Clownfish Anemones, Crinoids, Leather corals and bushes of
Hydroids and
supports diversity of fish population in this area, Parrotfish, Wrasse,
Snappers and the rest of other marine fish, as well as rarities like
Ribbon Eels, Frogfish and unusual Scorpionfish. Past the patch reef down
the slope is
a rubble sandy bottom at 20 to 35 meters, in a single Crinoids feather
star is
sometimes a pair of Ornate Ghost Pipefish found with many other unusual
and
weird critters, like Steene’s Dotty Backs (Pscudochromis Steene) bright
orange
face with spiky teeth and pushed lower jaw and variety of Nudibranchs.
Photographers and divers who like macro sea life this is a favourite
site to
discover and experience unusual animals. For night dive this is a very
convenient location due its position close to main resort at Tulamben.
Drop Off (Rugged Wall)
The locals of Tulamben call this reef “Drop Off”, it is actually
rugged wall reef stretching out seaward, and the reef wall descends down
over 70 meters. Black corals, soft corals and hard corals grow well on
the crannies and overhangs at around 18 meters, there live an abundance
of Cleaner Shrimps and large fishes are waiting in overhangs to be
cleaned. The hook of the wall at 28 meters where the reef extends to the
sloping eastern reef stands a huge purple sea fan Gorgonian, over 2
meters wide this is a sticking land mark on the reef wall. A prolific
variety of schooling fish swim around the corner of the wall, and even
invertebrate animals are often encountered at this rugged wall reef. In
the shallow crannies the reef is delightfully rich with a marine life.
Flashlight Fish (Photoblepharon palpebratus) during night dives is a
remarkable scene on bushy black corals at the overhang of the wall. The
current normally runs north, as the beach entry we have to think to
travel back with the ample air in the tank, the Divemaster or Instructor
will assist with this problem. Water temperature is always warm roughly
28 to 29 degrees C underwater.
Alam Anda Reef
Pick up a small wooden local outrigger fishing boatuse it to cruise
beyond the Drop Off, you will find a healthy Alam Anda Reef. The steep
slope reef is dominated by dome hard corals,
soft corals and variety of Gorgonians, below 20 to 30 meters is rich
ridged
reef with large number of sponges, Barrel sponges, variety of reef
fishes,
Pygmy Seahorse on purple sea fan is favourite macro critter amongst the
experienced divers, sometime on a single sea fan you can find 5 to 10
Pygmies.
Current mainly bring the diver toward the Drop Off, water temperature is
warm
and good visibility, and it makes a great drift diving experience with
the boat waiting
at the end of your dive.
Batu
Kelebit Reef
Is named after the local fishermen, literally the Kelebit Rocks, are two large
underwater boulders lying just offshore, one of two pointed jagged crest of
lava is always submerged, the other point is crusted by water used as a marker
for the diving area. Sand channels between two reef ridges is covered by fire
corals leading to the reef edges at 25 to 40 meters, which are rich and healthy
reef is covered with an extremely diverse growth of hard corals, sponges,
gorgonians and every other encrusting animal. The
current runs towards the north, sometimes strong but mostly mild brings planktons
that has accumulated at the reef edges, inviting larger pelagic animals to appear
like White Tip Reef Sharks, schools of Jacks, Dogtooth Tuna and even Sunfish.
Water clarity is always good and its temperature is a bit cooler compared to
the rest of Tulamben Bay dive sites.
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