Tulamben · Indonesia · Muck & macro · Night
Seraya Secrets
Black sand at 10 m with mimic octopus and frogfish
Photo: Bernard Picton · CC BY-SA 4.0
Seraya Secrets is a black-sand muck site down the coast from Tulamben village, dived from the beach on a bottom no deeper than 10 metres and with no current at all. There is no reef to follow: the dive is a slow search across open sand for frogfish, mimic octopus, cuttlefish and nudibranchs, and it is one of the coast's standard night dives.
Also known as Seraya Secret.
Where it is and how deep
8.2952° S, 115.6117° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Walk in from the beach and drop onto black volcanic sand. The bottom here is around 10 metres, so the dive is limited by gas and patience rather than by depth, and there is no current to push you off a subject. Visibility runs between 10 and 20 metres, which is more than enough on a site where most of the dive is spent within arm's reach of the sand.
What you find is what you look for. Frogfish, cuttlefish and the rare mimic octopus are the headline animals, with nudibranchs, seahorses, pipefish, boxer crabs, cleaner shrimp and zebra lionfish scattered across the sand between them. A slow pace and a good torch matter more here than any route, and the site is at its best after dark.
Marine life and season
- Frogfish
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good |
Season follows Tulamben: Diveable all year. April to July and October to November give the calmest, clearest water; December to March is the rainy season, with more run-off and fewer divers.
Photos from Seraya Secrets
portioid · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bernard Picton · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bernard Picton · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dive videos
Seraya Secrets, Bali · Bubble Vision on YouTube
Diving Seraya Secrets in Bali - Muck diving paradise in Indonesia · Scubabeat on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Is Seraya Secrets a night dive?+
It works in daylight, but it is best known after dark. The black-sand bottom sits at about 10 metres with no current, and the macro life is easiest to pick out of the sand with a torch.
Sources
- Seraya Secret dive site — Divezone
Photo credits
- Blue nudibranch with yellow spots and orange gills crawling over black volcanic sand by Bernard Picton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Pair of patterned harlequin shrimp with fan-shaped legs on the sea floor by portioid, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Round orange tuberculate nudibranch resting on dark sand by Bernard Picton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Spiral-shelled sundial sea snail with striped brown and white shell on sand by Bernard Picton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Frogfish: species, behaviour and where to diveMacro & muck · 12 min read
- Night diving: the best night dives in the worldNight diving · 12 min read
- The best muck diving in the worldMacro & muck · 6 min read
- The best shore dives in the worldShore diving · 8 min read
More dive sites in Tulamben
Shore-entry house reef from 5 to 30 metres with structures at 15 m
Reef
A jukung-only reef of bommies and soft coral away from the crowds
Reef
Five minutes by jukung to a coral slope dropping to 40 metres
Muck & macro
Fine sand and rock past 30 metres, dived for the small stuff
Reef
A small cave at 14 m in a terrain of stepped reef ridges
Artificial reef
Motorbike frames and concrete set on a sandy slope at 15 metres
Wreck
An upright Dutch-built freighter scuttled off Kubu
Reef
Easy shore reef a few hundred metres from the Liberty wreck
Similar dives elsewhere
Resident hairy frogfish a short ride from the island
Where the holotype of the psychedelic frogfish was collected in 2008
Mandarinfish at dusk, then straight into the night dive
Mimic and blue-ringed octopus over Anilao's best-known muck slope