What treasure awaits you beneath Pemuteran Bay
The reefs and other dive sites in Pemuteran Bay offer a wealth of different environments. Each with its inhabitants.
Usual Marine Life: schooling jacks, snapper, red-eye bass, trevally, batfish, sweetlips, angelfish, damselfish, and fusiliers.
Unusual Marine Life: frogfish, cuttlefish, crocodile fish, pipefish, many, many interesting nudibranchs, stonefish, scorpionfish, octopus, eels, mandarin fish, ornate ghost pipefish, robust ghost pipe fish and leaf scorpions.
Occasional Marine Life: Shark, barracuda, Tuna, Bump head Parrotfish, turtles, potato cod, whales, dolphins, and large Rays
Note: currents on all the Pemuteran Bay reefs tend to be nominal to none existent, unless we are getting the spring tides when they can sometimes be strong.
Reef Descriptions
Pemuteran Bay
Mucky Pirates Bay (Sea Rovers house reef)
Trip Time: ±5mins
Current: Rarely
Brief: Plenty of critters and small fish, excellent for night dives straight from shore with Mandarin fish, Sea moths and other critters regular sighted.
Description: This site is Sea Rovers home port, and Pemuteran Bay’s main harbour. Straight off the beach next to the jetty with shallow water 10-12 m and has a sand, lots of dark sand, sponges, and seagrass with plenty of muck. Tons of critters, pipefish in different varieties, robust, ornate, common, sea-moths, seahorses, unusual scorpionfish, devilfish, and Mandarin fish can all be found here. With it being so shallow, you have lots of time to look.
Beneath the small jetty is home to many juveniles, razorfish, shrimps and many more.
Great night dive.
Close Encounters (East slope/West slope)
Trip Time: 5 -10 minutes
Currents: Nothing to Moderate
Brief: Steep slopes down to 12 – 24 m depth, then sandy slopes down to 30 m. With a flat top reef at a depth of 4 m.
Description: A large three – sided reef, two of which are very diveable, the last side is one big sandy slope disappearing into the blue. Situated two kilometres offshore, Close Encounters has steep sloping sides coming up to a flat top, which ranges from 12 m at the far end to 3 – 4 m in the shallow. The slopes themselves start to level off to a gentle sandy bottom at 25 – 30 m. The coral cover along the slopes is a good mix of hard and soft covering; the east side is particularly good with many little nooks ‘n’ crannies, healthy sponges, providing many hiding places for a variety of interesting marine life. The top also has a good variety of corals, sponges, many small fish and is often home to baby sharks who like to hide under large table corals.
Good snorkelling location
Napoleon Reef (Pasir Putih/Eastside/Westside/Zoe Wreck/Beyond)
Trip Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Current: Nothing to Moderate
Brief: Small Wall on one side but mainly a gentle slope, very nice soft coral garden
Description: Again two kilometres offshore, a flat topped gently sloping reef, with a small wall towards the south side, depth range same as Close Encounters. Hit the hardest by El Niño, Napoleon Reef has shown a tremendous amount of recovery and is again home to a healthy variety of coral and marine life. The soft coral garden towards the west is particularly pretty; offering a nice range of gorgonians heading off into the blue. The deep end of Napoleon Reef offers the usual and unusual fish from Close Encounters, plus rays and cuttlefish are a regular sighting. Plus this is the site of what was once a small wreck, though only the iron wood keel remains, the Zoe, an ex-dive boat scuttled back in 2004.
Beyond this lies an interesting little deeper reef. This deeper section, nicknamed ‘Beyond’ Napoleon, has captivating fields of short staghorn and sponges.
Napoleon is also one of our regular night dive spots, offering a wide variety of night critters plus cat shark.
A good snorkelling location.
Gede’s Reef
Trip Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Current: Slight to Moderate
Brief: The reef top starts at 13 m, the bottom levels off at around 40 m+ so this is a deep dive for more experienced divers. Dive computer use is mandatory.
Description: A drop into the open blue ocean before seeing the reef rising to meet you. Bottoming out at the 40-50mtr with the shallowest point is at 13mtr, this reef is alive with marine life and dense coral formations. This pristine little reef makes for a fun blue water rush. With a large area of excellent coral covering which is surprisingly full of critters. Many interesting and unusual nudibranchs have been seen here, among over things. A large two-metre-high bright yellow gorgonian at twenty-four metres where we are still hoping to find a yellow pygmy seahorse, if such a thing exists:
Temple Wall / Pura Tembok (the Maze, Temple Garden)
Trip Time: ±10 minutes
Current: Slight to strong
Brief: Nice wall with a good selection of crustaceans
Temple Wall: This small wall beneath Pura Bratan is close to shore, which sometimes makes for poor visibility, but it is an interesting dive with a good selection of crustaceans. Coral cover and sponges proliferate along the far end, where the wall sharply curves into the bay beyond. The wall bottom ranges from 16 to 35 m and crosses into the deep where a fascinating maze configuration heads out across the next bay. This second deep dive offers some large Gorgonians and a spooky dive experience (experienced divers only). Be careful not to get lost down there.
Good snorkelling location and an excellent night dive.
Temple Garden
Trip Time: ±10 minutes
Current: Slight to strong
Brief: Underwater temple complex in front of the Temple Wall with a good selection of crustaceans, Depth: 30 m
Description: Constructed as one of the three BRF/AUS Aid funded projects, with the local dive centres. This spooky location consists of a small temple complex starting at 30 m and works its way back to the Temple Wall. Statues of Buddha, Ganesha, turtles and more abound behind an ornate Balinese gateway. Behind the central statue is an interesting little bommie with Buddha heads covered in cleaning shrimps. Up the wall and in the crevices behind, you can find electric clams sparking away. Then at 15 m you come to an area of plinths and statue heads sitting in communion.
Coral Bommie (BioWreck, Bommie & Walls)
Trip Time: ±10 minutes
Current: Slight to strong
Brief: Ship’s Graveyard on a sandy slope with possibly one of the largest single species coral “bommie” in Bali. Depth ranges 1 – 40 m+
Description: Constructed as one of the three BRF/AUS Aid funded projects, with the local dive centres. Marked by a floating pontoon. Once home to ‘Kuburan Kapal’ where nine wooden wrecks ranging from a 30mtr traditional motorsailer to a canoe were sunk. The largest rests at the base of a sandy slope. And though you can still see the remains, there is not much left. The nice coral wall remains and at the top is the ‘Biowreck’ and ‘BioBoomer’, part of an ongoing coral restoration project which utilises electricity to stimulate coral growth. A huge coral bommie, consisting of a single colony, stands next to the ‘Biowreck’.
The wall itself goes deep with a good selection of gorgonian among other interesting corals and marine life. Running along the opposite side from the old Wrecks is also a pretty little wall, not so deep, teaming with fascinating small stuff.
Canyon Wreck
Trip Time: ±10 minutes
Current: Slight to strong
Brief: A lonely wreck sitting in a quiet canyon with one of the best areas of hard coral covering to be found in Bali.
Description: Constructed as one of the three BRF/AUS Aid funded projects, with the local dive centres. Canyon Wreck, a 30mtr long traditional motorsailer, sits in an unusual valley. With its stern up against a wall which juts out at the open end of the valley. She rests in 30 m+ of water. Her bows point into the valley, and swimming out over her port side brings you to a steep slope which continues into one of the densest areas of hard coral cover anywhere in Indonesia. Though the wreck has fallen apart as wooden wrecks tend to do, with little remaining to be seen. The reef remains to be seen.
Pulaki Reef
Trip Time: ±15 minutes
Current: slight to moderate
Brief: In front of the temple of the same name, we are still exploring and have not yet fully mapped or explored this reef. A great wall, but the top coral covering can be Spartan in places.
Explore this steep-walled coral reef near Pulaki Temple in the Bali Sea, home to a diverse marine ecosystem including corals, sea fans, and various aquatic species. And though the top part of the reef can be lacking, the walls make it a nice alternative dive to the more popular reefs in the bay.
Deep Reef
Current: slight to moderate
Brief: Small plateau.
Description: A small plateau rising from 30 m+ with steep sides all round and a flat-ish top at 10 m. A nice little dive, though sometimes visibility can be a little lower than the norm because it is closer to shore. But lots of little hidey holes and formations make this an interesting dive.
Kebun Batu (The Rock Garden)& Karang Lestari (Biorock)
Trip Time: ±5mins
Current: Rarely
Brief: Artificial Reef project, max. 18 m depth plenty of critters and small fish, excellent for night dives
Description: Kebun Batu or Rock Garden is in front of the Karang Lestari coral project, just off the beach in front of the local hotels and is clearly marked with a very prominent white buoy. It also has a line running from in front of Pondok Sari Hotel to the site for those with dubious navigation skills:
The Rock itself rises from a sandy bottom no deeper than 18mtrs as a pinnacle or coral with a flat top at the 4mtr mark. The base of the rock on the shoreside rises in a small coral mound to 8mtrs. The surrounding sand slopes gently up to the beach. The rock is an interesting dive during the day, offering numerous critters and small fish. But it really comes alive during the night with small lobster, shrimps, crabs, and even electric clams at the base.
Karang Lestari: is an award-winning artificial reef project which stimulates coral growth on man-made metal structures using electricity. The process can purportedly stimulate coral growth by up to five times its normal rate, plus producing a healthier and stronger colony better able to resist increased water temperatures and other variables. The frames also make for nursing grounds for fish, which have come to regard them as homes. Frogfish can oft-times be found on sponge covering areas of the structures. Most of the larger structures are marked with buoys and are easily found as most are right in front of the beach.
Good snorkelling but both sites being close to shore, visibility can be a little low, depending of course on tides and sea conditions.
Kebun Chris (Chris’s Garden)
Trip Time: ±5mins
Current: Rarely
Brief: Plenty of critters and small fish, excellent for night dives straight from shore with Mandarin fish, Sea moths and other critters regular sighted.
Description: Named after Chris Brown, a local dive centre owner, eco warrior and good friend. This site is located in front of his dive centre & turtle hatchery. Simply turn follow the shoreline, keep going until you find the three BioRock coral structures, part of the Karang Lestari. The shallow water 10-12mtr up to the surface and has a great mixture of hard and soft corals, with a lot of colour. Lots of little stuff, pipefish in different varieties, sea-moths, seahorses and Mandarin fish can all be found here and with it being so shallow you have lots of time to look.
Good night dive.
Good snorkelling locations, but again depended on sea conditions for good visibility.
Other Reefs
Dive & Snorkelling Spots
Macro Dives, Muck & Critters
Pemuteran dive sites and beyond, famous for their critter and macro delights.
