Nusa Penida · Indonesia · Reef · Sand slope
Gamat Bay
West-coast slope where mola mola come up in season
Area photo: Shrigusti · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gamat Bay is a small bay in the west of Nusa Penida: healthy coral across a flat shallow area, then a slope that reaches more than 40 metres. It is one of the best places on the island to see mola mola in the right season. The logged conditions swing hard for a tropical site — visibility from 5 to 20 metres, water temperature from 23 to 30°C.
Where it is and how deep
8.7009° S, 115.4683° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The shallow half is flat and covered in healthy coral, and it is where most of a dive here gets spent. Marble rays and moray eels sit on the bottom, blue ribbon eels and nudibranchs reward anyone working slowly and close, flounder lie flat against the sand, and giant trevally cross over the top. It stays a straightforward reef dive until the edge, where the ground tilts and drops away past 40 metres.
That slope is the mola mola side of the site. Oceanic sunfish come up out of the deep in the right season and Gamat Bay is one of the best places on Nusa Penida to meet one, which is what takes divers over the edge of the coral flat and down the slope past 40 metres. The logged numbers are the warning: visibility ranges from 5 to 20 metres and water temperature from 23 to 30°C, so dress for the bottom of that range, not the top.
Marine life and season
- Mola mola
- Stingrays
- Nudibranchs
- Trevally & jacks
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Nusa Penida: August–September is peak mola mola season on the cold upwelling; mantas at Manta Point are reliable year-round.
Know before you go
- Logged water temperature here runs from 23 to 30°C, cold enough at the bottom of that range to want a hood and a thicker suit than a tropical dive usually asks for.
- Visibility falls to about 5 metres in some months. On a slope that keeps going past 40 metres, agree a turn depth and stay in contact with your buddy on a low-visibility day.
Questions divers ask
When can you see mola mola at Gamat Bay?+
In the right season. Gamat Bay is one of the best places on Nusa Penida to spot oceanic sunfish, though no months are published for the site itself, so ask the operator — and note that the water temperature logged here drops as low as 23°C.
How deep is Gamat Bay?+
The coral-covered shallow area is flat and easy, and the slope beyond it reaches more than 40 metres. Only the maximum is published, so how deep the dive goes is a plan you make rather than a fixed profile.
Sources
- Gamat Bay - Dive Site — SSI/Scubago
More dive sites in Nusa Penida
Cave & cavern
A 200-metre cave ending in an air space full of bats
Wall
Shallow reef structure, infrequent hammerheads
Drift
Bali's other mola mola plateau, deeper and rougher than Crystal Bay
The mola mola site, in cold and sometimes downward current
Reef
Bommie-topped plateau above a fan-covered wall
A manta cleaning station in 15 metres under limestone cliffs
Artificial reef
Planted restoration structures at 6 metres, shore entry
Reef
North-coast slope from 5 metres to past 40
Similar dives elsewhere
White sand to 15 m, no current, twenty minutes from town
Feather stars and sponges on a slope to 40 m
The island's Deep Diver training reef, 5 m to 40 m
Ghost pipefish and pygmy seahorses on a calm coral slope