Indonesia · Bali
Tulamben
Popular wreck and macro season with calmer dry-season conditions.
A black-sand fishing village on Bali's northeast coast, Tulamben is built around the USAT Liberty — a 120m WWII wreck that sits 30m from the beach in 5–30m of water. The wreck is famous, but the macro on the surrounding muck and the drop-off at the next bay over make it a full week's diving without a boat.
Good season
April–November is dry season with the calmest entries and best viz (15–25m). December–March is wetter with occasional surge, but the diving still happens.
Trip duration
3–5 nights is typical; macro photographers and tech divers regularly stay 7–10.
Dive style
Shore diving from the cobble beach — guides porter tanks for a small fee. Easy current, gentle depths, photographer-friendly.
Dive level
Open Water is fine; the Liberty's shallow sections are accessible to snorkelers. Advanced helps to explore the deeper bow and the Drop-Off.
Reef health
What you’ll actually findOne of the few reefs whose live coral has held up over the last decade. Plan with confidence.
Coral reef health
How is this calculated?On current trend, no live coral by ~2249. Losing about 0.2% cover per year — roughly 225 years of reef left to see if nothing changes.
Heat stress right now
Mild warmth. Worth watching — no bleaching yet.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch · updated May 2026 · 2.9 °C-week heat dose
What to expect on a dive
USS Liberty wreck is the main draw. Surrounding reef has thinned modestly since 2010 but macro and muck diving here don't depend on cover.
Sources, methodology, and the raw numbers
Raw observed numbers
- Coral cover: 45% (survey Sep 2024, Reef Check Indonesia/Malaysia/Philippines survey)
- Bleached: 8%
- Recent mortality: 2%
- Coral Triangle — observed condition reflects the stable regional pattern.
Raw thermal numbers
- NOAA CRW alert level: Watch
- Degree Heating Weeks: 2.9 °C-wk
- SST anomaly: +0.8 °C
How we summarise this
Observed coral cover, bleaching, and mortality come from named in-situ surveys with a stated date and method — they describe one snapshot of one reef and do not extrapolate to neighbouring sites. Current thermal stress is satellite-derived from NOAA Coral Reef Watch at ~5 km resolution; it indicates risk, not observed coral damage. We deliberately separate observed condition, current thermal stress, and projection — and we never publish a projection without a documented model and uncertainty.
Sources
- Reef Check — Reef Check Foundation
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch — U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program — Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network — GCRMN / ICRI
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment — AGRRA Program / Perry Institute for Marine Science
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program — NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
- NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch — NOAA NESDIS / STAR
- Allen Coral Atlas — Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority — Australian Government
- International Coral Reef Initiative — ICRI Secretariat
- Reef Life Survey — Reef Life Survey Foundation
- NASA PO.DAAC — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech
- Copernicus Marine Service — Mercator Ocean International for the European Union
- NASA Ocean Color (OB.DAAC) — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Ocean Biology Processing Group
- Argo float network — International Argo Program / UCSD
- CoralWatch — University of Queensland
- IMOS / AODN — Integrated Marine Observing System / Australian Ocean Data Network
- WRI Reefs at Risk Revisited — World Resources Institute
- Ocean Health Index — OHI partnership (Conservation International + UCSB + NCEAS)
- IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere (SROCC) — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- GOA-ON — Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network — GOA-ON Secretariat + IOC-UNESCO
- HAEDAT — Harmful Algae Event Database — IOC-UNESCO Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms
- NCEI Marine Microplastics — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Reef condition changes year to year. If you visit, consider supporting responsible-travel and conservation operators on the ground.
Pressure on this reef
Protection · fishing · what you can doProtected-area status
Multi-use MPAInside a designated MPA that permits regulated fishing and other uses. Worth checking which zones at this location are no-take.
Fishing pressure
Moderate fishing pressureDominant pressures
- small-scale fishing
- coastal development
- plastic
2 Green Fins-verified operators known at this location.
What you can do
Bali's reef diving sits outside strict MPA frameworks; village-level conservation initiatives at Tulamben are growing. Coral Triangle outside formal MPAs — local fishing communities depend on these reefs. Tip local guides directly; buy reef-safe sunscreen before leaving home.
Protection status sourced from Protected Planet / WDPA and refined with Marine Protection Atlas. Fishing pressure proxy is Global Fishing Watch AIS data. See the methodology for what these sources can and can’t prove.
Dive sites here
5 curated
USS Liberty Wreck
A WWII US Army cargo ship torpedoed in 1942 and pushed into the sea by the 1963 Mount Agung eruption. The 120 m hull now rests parallel to s…
The Drop-Off
A near-vertical wall plunging from 3 m to beyond 60 m at the eastern end of Tulamben Bay. Black volcanic sand at the base contrasts with den…
Coral Garden
Shallow sloping reef west of the Liberty wreck, seeded with artificial reef structures and bommies that host an unusual density of cleaner s…
Manta Point (Nusa Penida)
Southwest-coast cleaning station off Batu Lumbung where reef mantas queue up at coral bommies while cleaner wrasse pick parasites from their…
Crystal Bay (Nusa Penida)
A sheltered bay on Nusa Penida's northwest coast where a sand-floored channel slides past coral slopes to 30–40 m and a rocky islet at the e…
Gear
What to bringSite-specific add-ons
Some dive sites here call for extra gear. Check the individual site page for full context.
- Dive light — Penetrable sections of the hull are dark even at midday. · USS Liberty Wreck
- Dive computer — Easy to overshoot depth on the wall — watch your profile. · The Drop-Off
- Macro light — Best on night dives when mandarinfish display. · Coral Garden
- 5mm wetsuit — Lombok Strait upwelling pulls water down to 22 °C in the dry season — colder than the 3mm setup most divers bring from Tulamben or Sanur. · Manta Point (Nusa Penida)
- Reef hook / patience — Stay off the bottom and behind the cleaning bommies. Pushy divers send the mantas off and end the show for everyone. · Manta Point (Nusa Penida)
- 5mm wetsuit + hood — Lombok Strait upwelling drops water to 18–20 °C through a sharp thermocline in the July–October mola season — far colder than the 3mm most divers bring from Tulamben or Sanur. · Crystal Bay (Nusa Penida)
- SMB and solid buoyancy skills — Crystal Bay is known for sudden down-currents along the outer channel toward the pinnacle; divers must be able to swim off the reef and signal a drifting boat. · Crystal Bay (Nusa Penida)
What divers say
“Nowhere else can I do four shore dives a day on a world-class wreck and walk back to a warung for nasi goreng between them.”