Menjangan & West Bali · Indonesia · Wall · Reef
Anchor Wreck
Sea fans and frogfish on a wall, a 150-year-old wreck below
Area photo: Bernard DUPONT · CC BY-SA 4.0
A flat shelf of soft coral at 5 m runs out to a lip, then drops down a wall that reaches about 35 m, with large sea fans and several other kinds of coral covering the rock. Deeper again, on the seabed at around 40 m, lie the remains of a wooden trading boat roughly 150 years old. Frogfish, pygmy seahorses and reef sharks are all on the list here.
Also known as Anker Wreck.
Where it is and how deep
8.0915° S, 114.5034° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
You drop onto the flat soft-coral shelf at about 5 m and follow it out to where the reef breaks away. The wall below is dressed in large sea fans and several other kinds of coral, with fusiliers and banner fish along the face and reef sharks in the water off it. The face runs down to roughly 35 m before the ground eases into sand.
The wreck lies deeper still, on the seabed at around 40 m: a wooden trading boat roughly 150 years old. Bottom time goes quickly at that depth, so the usual plan is a short look early in the dive and then back up onto the wall well before your no-decompression limit gets close. Menjangan records the highest rate of decompression sickness in Bali, and profiles like this one are why.
Work back along the face as you ascend, checking the larger fans for pygmy seahorses and the coral for giant frogfish, moray eels and nudibranchs. The dive finishes where it began, on the shelf in about 5 m, which is a comfortable place to hold the safety stop with angelfish, batfish and clownfish moving over the soft coral around you.
Marine life and season
- Reef sharks
- Frogfish
- Pygmy seahorses
- Nudibranchs
- Reef fish swarms
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good |
Season follows Menjangan & West Bali: Divable all year thanks to the lee of Java; Apr–Nov is driest, and the wet season only affects surface conditions.
Know before you go
- Menjangan has the highest rate of decompression sickness in Bali and this profile is why: ascend slowly off the wreck and treat the safety stop as mandatory.
Dive videos
Diving "Anchor Wreck" in Menjangan Island, Bali · Rems Production on YouTube
Sources
- Anchor Wreck - Menjangan — Scubago (SSI MyDiveGuide)
- Diving Menjangan Island: Full Review & Tips — Divezone
- West Bali National Park — Wikivoyage
In The Logbook
- Frogfish: species, behaviour and where to diveMacro & muck · 12 min read
More dive sites in Menjangan & West Bali
Wall
A face to 60 m, pocked with gaps that fish shelter in
Coral garden
Sponge-studded coral slope from 4 m to 25 m, usually currentless
Reef
Clear water from 3 m to 40 m, 15 minutes off Pemuteran
Wall
Steep wall from 3 m to 45 m, running east into hard coral
Wall
Sea fans down a 40 m face between two of the island's classics
Sand slope
Sand dunes full of garden eels, with eagle rays overhead
Sand slope
Coral blocks scattered over sand between 10 m and 20 m
Artificial reef
Twenty-five carved statues and a split gate at 28 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Coral outcrops one side of the village, a wall past 40 m on the other.
A vertical wall of huge gorgonians on Panglao's quietest corner
A reef so long one dive doesn't cover it
A drift from schooling fish on the point to macro on the slope