Wakatobi

Posted on May 17, 2024May 17, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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The Wakatobi Island Group

The Indonesian archipelago has many of the world’s greatest dive locations, one of which is ‘Wakatobi’ located in the centre of the Coral Triangle.

Rising from the depths of the Banda Sea, south east of mainland Sulawesi, the name ‘WaKaToBi’ comes from the names of four islands: Wangi-wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, Binongko.

The Wakatobi islands have been a marine conservation area since 1996 and were declared a National Park in 2002. They are recognized as having one of the highest numbers of coral reef fish species in the world. Wakatobi also has the largest barrier reef in Indonesia, second only to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Being a National Marine Park, fishing is strictly limited. These superb reefs are supported and protected by the local fishing communities. In exchange for adopting more sustainable practices, including no-fishing zones, the fishermen receive a share of the income generated by Wakatobi Dive Tourism.

Diving with Wakatobi Dive Resort

Wakatobi Dive Resort and their liveaboard, Pelagian, offer more than 50 spectacular dive sites. These range from The House Reef where the warm water and shallow depth allow for long dives (although there can sometimes be a current) to gorgeous bays and lagoons, as well as dramatic walls and drop-offs abounding with seafans and gigantic sponges. Famed for night-diving due to the brilliantly coloured corals and resident marinelife, the reef edges attract great numbers of fish. The coral gardens bristle with large bommies and tubstrea corals. Large table corals shelter stingrays as well as invertebrates and crustaceans.

Wakatobi is ideal for divers who love macro underwater photography. Make sure you check out the muck diving in Pasarwajo 🙂 There aren’t many big fishes here although you will see Black-tip reef sharks at several dive sites.

The temperature range in Wakatobi is 26-29°C.
Rainy season is October to April.
Visibility remains consistent at approx 30m year-round.

All charter flights to/from Wakatobi Dive Resort & Liveaboard are Bali-Wakatobi-Bali return, and are currently on a Monday and Friday schedule.

If the above whets your appetite and, like so many of our other ‘Bali & Beyond’ guests, you can’t wait to start planning – please contact your friendly AMD-B Dive Travel Consultant on Tours@AquaMarineDiving.com today to start YOUR planning!

Lady Porter of Tulamben

Posted on May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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The Lady Porter of Tulamben

by Mardia, AMD-B’s 2023 Divemaster Internship

In the 1980s, Tulamben beach was a tranquil haven that had yet to be discovered by tourists. At the time, hotels, restaurants, dive shops, and other facilities were scarce. However, the calm atmosphere changed when a vehicle carrying divers showed up. Several locals ran to meet the parked car, resulting in a commotion between the helpers, who were aiding in moving the diving equipment to the dive site.

Around 1983, a group of female helpers decided to organise themselves to prevent any more commotion. This group became known as the Lady Porters of Tulamben. These lady porters offer a unique service that makes it easier for divers to transport their scuba tanks and other diving equipment weighing up to 15 kg to the dive site. Since Tulamben’s beach is rocky, having this service available is incredibly convenient.

Lady Porter Organization

The lady porters of Tulamben became the unsung heroes of diving in Bali, and the diving community appreciated their service very much. They established a very successful system that included cooperative cash management in their community. For instance, the coop provided money during holidays to assist in paying for religious ceremony supplies, and they also succeeded in providing jobs for the villagers. Many female porters were able to provide their families with a better life by allowing their kids to attend school. In the 1990s, the women porters were officially organised as the Sekar Baruna Cooperative. The word ‘Sekar Baruna’ means either flowers from the sea or fortune from the sea.

Tulamben’s lady porters are renowned for their incredible strength and endurance. They are hard working, enthusiastic about their jobs, and always smiling. They take pride in their work and are always willing to go above and beyond to ensure divers have an enjoyable diving experience. One thing that distinguishes the lady porters is their sense of community. They work as a team, and this makes the lady porters a vital part of the Tulamben diving community.

Dive Site: Tulamben Bay

Posted on May 3, 2024May 4, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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Tulamben Bay: A Dive Site for Everyone

The small village of Tulamben, famous for both its black volcanic sand and the 120m USAT Liberty shipwreck, is quite rightly Bali’s most popular diving location. Tulamben is also the place in Bali where you are most likely to see internationally-recognised underwater photographers and journalists.

Tulamben Bay, like the rest of Bali, is situated in the world’s richest marine biogeographic zone: the Indo-Pacific. Due to Tulamben’s location on Bali’s north east coast, the Indonesian Throughflow (the major ocean current that moves from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean) supplies the bay with very plankton-rich waters.

This, together with the different physical environments within the bay, gives Tulamben a remarkably diverse underwater ecosystem.

Popular Tulamben Bay Dive Sites

The 120m USAT Liberty shipwreck lies 20m offshore in depths of 5-30M, and is completely encrusted with hard and soft corals. The extraordinarily dense marinelife includes Clown frogfish (juvenile and adult), Bumphead parrotfish, a huge school of Big-eyed trevally, Leaf scorpionfish, and various pygmy seahorses. Wonderpus and Mimic octopus can be seen on early morning dives. The Wreck offers magical night diving with flashlightfish, Spanish dancers and cephalopods.

The Coral Garden, which runs eastwards from the USAT Liberty shipwreck, provides wonderful shallow dives where you’re limited by air supply rather than bottom time. You can expect to see a wide selection of marinelife from Thecacera nudibranchs, Harlequin shrimps and Boxer crabs, to frogfish and Ribbon eels in all stages of development.

On The Wall/Drop-off you will find a wide variety of sponges, hard and soft corals, and Gorgonian seafans (one of 3m diameter) – while the larger marinelife includes reef sharks, with occasional sightings of Whalesharks and Mola-Mola. During the rainy season (Dec-March) the reef flats can receive some run-off but continue to yield surprises.

Being shore entry, Tulamben is also great for snorkelling and Discover Scuba Diving. Please note Tulamben has a stony, rather than sandy, beach.

Slightly north of Tulamben is Kubu, home of Bali’s newest shipwreck. Kubu reef has Gorgonian seafans, bommies with soft corals, scores of nudibranchs, and generally calm conditions.

Taking a local outrigger five minutes east of Tulamben Bay brings you to the sites of Palung-Palung/Alamanda, Batu Kelebit and Emerald Point. Within the Tulamben area, these are the sites where you are most likely to see pelagics including, on rare occasions, dolphins.