Bali Diving - Nusa Penida Bali

This is a reasonably sized island off the south east coast of Bali. The water here is colder because of the ocean currents. Penida is the largest of 3 islands which include Lembongan (one dive site, Blue Corner) and Ceningan (no dive sites). All diving is boat diving and drift diving. Nusa Penida has several dive sites, three of which are joined (ie: you can go in at Sental and drift along until you come to PED where you exit, change tanks, have a surface interval and go back into the water where you just exited, drift along to SD where you exit, out, back in at the same point). However, you often cannot do all three sites because of conditions and changing currents.

Reef characteristics: drop-off
Visibility: 15-30 metres
Current: moderate
Coral growth: stone and soft coral
Marine life: many species of reef fish, chance of shark encounters
Highlights: large staghorn coral, large gorgonie fans

Toyapakah - A reef starting at 14 m, usually with the current going to the left. It slopes down to 25 m, where the current usually goes to the right. When these two currents are strong, because they are going in different directions it can be dangerous (washing machine effect). Look out for Jackfish, Scorpionfish, Moray Eel, Napoleon Wrasse, turtles and Sunfish (Mola Mola) in season (August to September). Sental,PED and SD - Wall and slope diving, going with the current, to depths between 5 and 25 m. Currents are usually strong and the vis excellent (18-30 m). It is very easy to find big ocean-going fish because of the currents, including manta ray, white tip and black tip shark, tuna and barracuda. SD stands for Skola Desar, the junior school.

Manta Point - Off Nusa Penida's south-west point, comprises a sandy bottom at 12-18 m. This is where Manta come in to feed, there is no guarantee you will see them but it is pretty likely. This area has a small current but sometimes strong surge. The manta are 2-4 m wide (totally harmless, they eat plankton). The water is quite cold because it comes in from the ocean (22-26 degrees C).

Crystal Bay - Sandy bottom at 15 m with soft corals, surge, and sometimes strong current (horizontal). When the current is strong the fish are few. Wall diving. There is a Bat Cave: enter from underwater, surface inside the cave which is open to the sky - big waves may crash in through the top. Obviously there are bats in the cave. Sometimes 2 small reef shark are in the cave, but they leave when you arrive! Continuing along the wall from the Bat Cave, very deep, the wall has hard corals and a lot of lobster.

Blue Corner - A long thin island off Penida's north-west corner. Off the boat to a slope starting at 10 m, very popular drift diving (strong, sometimes downward). The slope has soft corals, pufferfish, boxfish. There is indeed a corner, a vertical wall, and at this corner, the depth is around 28 m. During the season Mola-Mola (Sunfish). Other fish include shark, Napoleon Wrasse (V big) and Eagle Ray. The corner is usually full of fish.

Dive Sites

NUSA PENIDA