Menjangan & West Bali · Indonesia · Coral garden · Reef
Blue Corner
Sponge-studded coral slope from 4 m to 25 m, usually currentless
Area photo: Bernard DUPONT · CC BY-SA 4.0
A coral garden on the West Bali mainland coast east of Gawana Bay, sloping from 4 m down to 25 m, with large sponges standing among the hard coral. There is usually no current at all, which is what makes it a macro photography site rather than a swim: you can hold position over one patch for as long as the subject stays put.
Where it is and how deep
8.1302° S, 114.5634° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The site is a slope rather than a wall, running from 4 m at the top to 25 m at its deepest, so you can enter at whatever depth suits the plan and simply follow the gradient. Large sponges sit among the hard coral all the way along it, giving the reef enough structure to work slowly across instead of covering ground. In normal conditions there is no current, so nothing dictates the direction you take.
Because the slope is shallow at the top, the usual pattern is to drop to the deeper coral first, then let the profile come up on its own as you work back toward 4 m — no ascent to plan and a safety stop taken over reef. Photographers get the most out of it: a still site with a shallow finish means long dives, and a subject found at 20 m can be revisited later in the same dive.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| 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.
Sources
- Blue Corner — Scubago
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Coral garden
Currentless coral slope from 3 m to 25 m, macro the whole way
Reef
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Artificial reef
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Similar dives elsewhere
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