Sunfish in Bali

Hi everyone myself and two other friends are off to Bali in august and we are considering going in search of the sunfish. We are staying 8 days in Tulamben and then have around another week that we have no plans for. If any Bali regulars could give us some advise as to were to go for the second part of our trip that would be great.

Thanks Matt Shepherd

Hi everyone myself and two other friends are off to Bali in august and we are considering going in search of the sunfish. We are staying 8 days in Tulamben and then have around another week that we have no plans for. If any Bali regulars could give us some advise as to were to go for the second part of our trip that would be great.

 

Thanks Matt Shepherd

If you are looking for Mola Mola then you should stay Sanur/Kuta, Padang Bai or Nusa Lembongan. Other than that Mejangan Island in the northwest do offer a good mixture between macro and Wide angle. Eel Garden is so far my best dive in Bali, I have never seen so many pygmy seahorse in a single dive before.

Mola Mola (sunfish) point at Nusa Penida Island (from Bali 40min~1h boat ride) so staying Padang Bai is best choice (Kuta & Sanur is too far from good dive site).

In Padang Bai, You can find many dive ops. here some..

http://www.waterworxbali.com/

http://www.gekodive.com/

http://www.absolutescubabali.com/

p.s

You should try Manta point at Nusa penida.

Thanks for the info guys.

i would recommend staying in Lembongan. If you stay there you will be one of the first groups to arrive at Crystal Bay in the morning and have better chance of an encounter. Also, those operators are much more likely to take you to Blue Corner than the Bali based operators as they get a lot of inexperienced guests and they can't take them to blue corner as it can be a very hairy dive!

In high season i have seen as many as 35 boats at crystal bay by 10am... not good for photography unless you like shooting bubbles

Mike is right, Matt, but I'd also urge you to consider whether you really need to do the molas. The situation at Crystal Bay in particular is now completely out of hand, but I'm not sure publicizing the names of other sites online is the best way to go either. The few molas that still show up at Crystal Bay get mobbed by so many divers that it's hard to imagine they will keep coming back much longer.

It would be great if it were possible to limit the number of boats and divers through a licensing or lottery system, but that's probably just a fantasy. If you've never seen molas before, then I can well understand the draw - they are magnificent animals. But we're approaching the point where one has to think about the likely effects of one's participation in this phenomenon.

Frogfish

G'day Matt,

We're staying at Lembongan next month, planning on doing some dives there too. Don't go chasing all the sunfish away for us mate?

If you've got a whole week, why don't you jump on a domestic flight and go stay with Mike at NAD Lembeh?

Ryan.