Tulamben Diving Sites east of Bali

ULAMBEN HIGHLIGHTS
LOCATION:	A small village on the north-east coast of Bali
TYPE OF DIVE:	Shore Diving, Wreck-diving, Wall-diving, Night-diving, Deep-diving, photography (Batu Kelebit is a 5min outrigger journey from Tulamben)
VISIBILITY:	12 - 25 metres
CURRENT:	Zero to mild currents
DEPTHS:	3 - 40 metres (average depth 18 metres)
MIN LEVEL:	Introductory - suitable for every level and interest!
HIGHLIGHTS:	Extraordinary diversity of marinelife, huge school of Big-eyed Trevally. 120-metre shipwreck, beautifully coloured wall. Full Moon Night Dive. Great photographic opportunities and colour contrast with the black sand. AquaMarine's first choice for our special 1 Day Intro Adventure Diving Program. Great snorkelling site.
CONDITIONS:	Black sand slope with a 120-metre shipwreck, coral gardens and a wall. The fist-sized black stones can make entry tricky when there are waves present.

Tulamben is the most famous area for diving in Bali and therefore where you are more probable to the photographers and the writers internationally recognized of the meeting. The bay of Tulamben, like the rest of Bali, is located in richer the marine biogeografy zone of the world. Being in the northeast coast, the bay have very rich plankton waters of the main current of the ocean that moves from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. This, joined with the fact that the three main sites of the plunge provide totally diverse physical atmospheres, means that Tulamben contains an imposingly diverse underwater ecosystem. The beach is the fist-classified black volcanic rocks that become sand in shallows. This black sand does not provide the reflective characteristics of the white sand like the limestone stone, combined with the amount of plankton in the water, it does not explain the relatively low visibility (12-25M). Nevertheless it provides a dramatic resistance, that brings outside towards the colors of the chorales, gorgonians, the fish and the other marine life. 100s of the macro-species that live here mixes and puts wonderfully in resistance with the sand.
Tulamben is a wonderful place to learn to plunge themselves and to learn on underwater life. There is sightings occasional of the Mola-Mola (Sunfish), Manta rays, whale shark, the tuna and the other pelagic but is the permanent population of Tulamben. The shipwreck of the freedom of USAT the most famous site of the plunge of Bali. Circa constructed to east WWI cargo vessel was equipped of the arms for WWII, torpedoed by the Japanese of Lombok; in spite of attempts to tow the ship to North Bali it took in too much water so it was beached in Tulamben. On the years any re-usable thing was cleared. In 1963, with the land tremors of the eruption passed of the Agung assembly, the ruin slipped more far under the hill where still it lies (as near the beach as it can be and still to be underwater). The freedom almost lies parallel coast outside of approximately 30m to the beach in the hill of the sand and is advisable for all the levels of the qualification and the experience. The ruin lies in depths from 9-30m; the lowest part of the ruin, where it touches the hill of the sand, is in 5-10m. The depth throughout the center of the ruin is 16-20m. The edge more under the ruin, the future plain the hill, is 20-28m (in the high tide). The ruin is 120m long, he is broken enough upon (no penetration possible) but you can immovable consider the arms, dressing tables, the boilers, the chain of anchor, the etc. Is a charming site of the plunge, possibly the easiest plunge of the ruin of the world. You also can tube respirator in the ruin - the point upper of the stern is near 4m underneath the surface. The visibility is generally 18-25m, low when there is been raining. There is rarely a present present, at the most he will be smooth. During the 3 days before the Full Moon, there are waves generally. Temperature of the air is 25-32degrees, the water 26-28degrees. Trevally (cats), ruin of the freedom, Tulamben the ruin is very popular between the photographers then encrusted totally in anemone, gorgonia and chorales. The black sand provides an excellent resistance of the color for the incredible variety of marinelife, that includes an enormous school (literally 100s) of the fish of silver 10-12inch calls Great Trevally and on 400 other species of fish. All the fish are very domestic (partly as resulting from some guides that feed them, something a practice of the non environmentally sound of the Goatfish and the Wrasse that mordiscan around your feet and fins during exit door to the Unicornfish and to the Surgeonfish that make a (that alarms the first time slightly to you to see them) beeline for your mask as you swim down towards the ruin. It is absolutely difficult to enumerate what you will see because you will see just mainly in any tour guide Hindu-Pacific of Reef if you plunge yourself here. Of the Anglerfish meticulous, nudibranches, the Pipefish of the ghost, the neon systems of camarón/de goby, to traverse to the areas of the eels of the garden and clouds multi-colored of anthias and damsels and ignited to the schools of Sweetlips, Batfish, fusiliers, Butterfly fish, the variety is amazing. Then there are the invertebrates, the hard and smooth chorales, choral black, sponges with crinoids, ventilators of the sea, tunicates. If you plunge early the first snorkeling in the ruin (only possible if you remain during the night) you can, you can, to see the turtle. It is the best hour to plunge the ruin. The jump at night in the ruin is great specially during the Full Moon. You can see Spanish dancers, fish of the lantern, fosforescencia. The wall has profuse sponges, corals, black coral bushes, gorgonian fans - at 30M there's one that reaches 2M in width that we visit for the Deep Dive on Advanced Courses. The wall, the lava spur, then reverts to being a steep slope.

The fish life is similar to that found on the wreck but being a much larger area, is less dense. However, more often than on the Wreck, you will see white tip reef shark, large Napoleon Wrasse, big Bumphead Parrotfish, some big Filefish (including Scrawled), and large Moray Eel. Late afternoon is the time to see the wide variety of Lionfish that live here, I'm not the person to ask why we see so many of them! There have been sightings of Whale Shark in as little as 9M of water, and much deeper, Hammerhead Shark. The back reef at the top of the Wall, averaging 5M, contains an excellent 'aquarium section', including cuttlefish, octopus, boxer crabs and many other unexpected treasures, enabling you to finish your dive at around 5m for pretty much as long as you want to. This is, of course, also very popular with snorkelers. The Coral Garden Blue Ribbon Eel, Tulamben Coral Garden Blue Ribbon Eel Adult Female Rhinomuraena quaesita Running along the middle section of Tulamben beach is a shallow reef (averaging 8-12m so also excellent for snorkelling) of mainly table and fire corals interspersed with anemones as well as barrel and other sponges. The fishlife, as with the Drop-off and the Wreck, is very diverse. It is here that you can see a surprising number of Blue Ribbon Eels (the juveniles are black) and octopus, the variety of shrimp is surprising too along with the different anemonfish. The bigger fish seen here are Bumphead Parrotfish and Black Tip reef shark. The depth and location make the Coral Garden a very good, and popular, Night Dive on which you may see Spanish Dancers and flashlight fish. In fact the diving actually extends much deeper than 12M, if you carry on down the sand slope, you'll find barrel sponges with many surprises: juvenile Emperor Angelfish, Two-spot Lionfish, maybe a school of juvenile catfish; cleaning stations with shrimp and wrasse, a shoal of Razorfish swaying in their hiding place. If you continue along the slope, towards the start of the Drop-off, you'll come to a dry river bed, scooped out into a bowl-shape, marked by ridges radiating outwards. These ridges are often the best places in Tulamben to find unexpected specimens. Although it is certainly not an area for divers looking for a profusion of marinelife! Batu Kelebit (Kelebit Rocks) A 15 min. jukung (local outrigger) ride east from Tulamben Bay will take you to these two large rocks that lie just offshore. The dive site is quite dramatic and consists of three steep ridges encrusted with an incredible diversity of hard corals, beautiful sea fans, fire corals and sponges and between these ridges are channels of white sand. Coleman Shrimp in Fire Urchin Coleman Shrimp in Fire Urchin Periclimenes colemani In fact, it is not only the colour of the sand that differs from Tulamben Bay, the species of even the most common reef fish are different too. The marine life varies from the tiny up to the very large: the steepness of the site combined with the structure of the ridges (and plankton-rich water) means you also have much more chance to see pelagics including barracuda, tuna, manta and white tip reef shark here than you do within the Bay. The diving here is colder than within Tulamben Bay and not only because the diving here is generally deeper: there's a cold water eddy that comes up from the depths. Visibility is generally as low as 15-20M due to the amount of plankton in the water. The current can be quite strong at times but the channels are well-protected.
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