Coral Bleaching in Bali

[charlier]

I have been diving in Tulamben the past 3 days, but as it's my first visit I have no prior familiarity with the coral here. All I can say is the coral I have seen has not been especially extensive. The site known as "Coral Garden" has little nice coral. But I was informed the damage was due to a storm. Some bleaching is evident but not as bad as I saw out in Menjangan/Pemuteran last week. Water temps here have averaged (by my computer) around 29 C, compared with Menjangan/Pemuteran at around 30.5.

Too bad, we missed each other in Bali. It's one of our close to home weekend fun dive places.

 

[globetrotterdiver]

Just back from Tulamben liberty wreck, sadly can confirm significant bleaching until at least around 15 metres. Praying it will recover but difficult to say right now, water temperature was 30 celsius even at 25 metres. Heard Menjangan is in worse shape and some places in Penida.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Today is our third day on Lembongan. Northern sites not too impressive. Bleaching and damage in some spots. We wish we had stayed longer in Tulamben for the muck if nothing else.

We are told we can't dive Manta Point and Crystal Bay due to sea conditions.

 

[gekodivebali]

Yeah, we also have no plan for Manta Point til June 10th. Dive Blue Corner, Gamat Bay and Toyapakeh instead!

Guess that's the disadvantage of being in Lembongan right here: no backup, you can't do any of the sites away from Penida that have good conditions right now, like Biaha, Tepekong, Mimpang, Jetty, etc...

 

[globetrotterdiver]

Hi everyone, anybody have more updates on the corals around Bali? Specifically curious about Menjangan, the wreck in Tulamben and Nusa Lembongan. Have they recovered from the bleaching? Thanks!

 

[Lorenzoid]

Hi everyone, anybody have more updates on the corals around Bali? Specifically curious about Menjangan, the wreck in Tulamben and Nusa Lembongan. Have they recovered from the bleaching? Thanks!

In June I was diving at all three you mention. Unfortunately, it was my first visit to all of them, so I don't have a baseline to compare it to. And I obviously did not visit all dive sites in those places. Based on my completely unscientific impression, I would rank the health of the coral (not necessarily bleaching but overall health) in this order, from best to worst: (1) Tulamben, (2) Menjangan, (3) Lembongan. But who knows. I just remember remarking to my wife about the expanses of dead coral on Lembongan. Yet others who visited just as recently seemed to have gotten a more positive impression. There was bleached coral on Menjangan walls, but we tended to dive deeper than the bleaching. Again, it probably also varies from dive site to dive site. For example, my impression of Tulamben may be skewed by the fact that our guide probably showed us the best of the coral on the few dives that featured coral; most of our dives featured muck.

 

[charlier]

Lorenzoid - Where do you dive in Lembongan, or did you go to Nusa Penida? From my experience, the shallow waters of Tulamben has the most serious coral bleaching along the eastern coast of Bali.

 

[globetrotterdiver]

back in early june Tulamben was bad, i saw it, i was wondering if anybody has been there recently? second half of july. what state is it in now? any recovery?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Lorenzoid - Where do you dive in Lembongan, or did you go to Nusa Penida? From my experience, the shallow waters of Tulamben has the most serious coral bleaching along the eastern coast of Bali.

When I booked the Lembongan trip (I used Two Fish), my aim was of course to dive Nusa Penida, Crystal Bay, etc. As I understand it, that's what everyone who books a trip there has in mind. Blue water. Big pelagics. However, the weather did not permit it even once during the 3 days of diving we had. So our diving was limited to the northern coasts of Lembongan and Penida. The coral there was just "okay." Not horrible, but enough rubble and bleaching that I was surprised so many people still recommend Lembongan for great diving. I hesitate to bash Lembongan based only on my three days there, but my conclusion is that if one wants to dive Nusa Penida, Crystal Bay, and other such more southern sites to see the famed pelagics, it may be better to just take a day boat from Bali with a dive operator who has a fast, seagoing boat, on a day that the dive operator can essentially assure you that the weather will permit the crossing over to Nusa Penida.

 

[Bali1]

Just returned from Bali. Did not dive Menjangen. Tulamben around the wreck was fine though I noticed some spotty bleaching at the drop off. East Bali looked fine.

North Nusa Penida had some occasional bleaching but I would not call it widespread but more than I expected. Crystal Bay untouched and Manta Point good though swells and visability were tough but not impossible. The water was 81 degrees almost everywhere excepting a few thermoclines or cold eddies where it would drop to 78 or 76. No serious upwelling encountered at all. El Nino pushed everything back by 6 months it seems. Otherwise the diving was terrific. Reports from other divers mentioned that Thailand has some serious bleaching problems this year.

I agree that staying on Bali and day tripping to NP makes sense. IME the boat crossing was about 40 minutes and I dove 3 spots and was back at my hotel by 4pm.