Bali Divesites
Permuteran
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Pemuteran, in the north west of Bali, has three outer reefs plus a house reef. Currents are weak and the water is warm making pleasant diving for all levels of diver. Many rare macro critters can be found here.
The House Reef was very badly damaged by the 1998 El Nino so in 2001 the Global Coral Reef Alliance, in partnership with Yos Marine dive centre started an artificial reef project. Various structures were sunk with live coral samples attached. The artificial reef is stimulated with electricity to promote growth and the area is buoyed and roped off to prevent fishing. So far the coral growth has been impressive and fish stocks are growing.
It is possible to dive around the reef to see the results of this conservation success story. The reef can be a very good night dive and mating mandarin fish can often be seen dancing above the reef at dusk.
Offshore from Pemuteran are three dive sites lined up along a coral bank. The sloping reefs have soft and hard corals, sponges and gorgonian seafans. The reefs start at just 5m below the surface and slope down beyond 30m.
Close Encounter is a good site to see larger pelagics like barracuda, tuna, mackeral and blue fin trevally can be seen in the blue.
Pygmy seahorses can be found in the pink gorgonians at Napoleon Reef.
Nearby at 22m is a sunken wreck of a 16m long dive boat.