Manta Hot Spots
We have two excellent manta dive sites in Nusa Penida: 1) Manta Point and 2) Manta Bay.
Manta Point is around 45 minutes boat ride away from Nomads Diving. It is located on the southern coast of Nusa Penida and is our most popular Manta Dive site. This specific site is a manta ray cleaning station with an average depth of 10-15 metres. The top of the cleaning station is around 5m and the bottom around 10m. Our resident mantas regularly come to this location to get cleaned by various clearer fish that live on top of a large bombie. This is where you will get multiple manta sightings.
Other things to see at this site include octopus, nudibranchs, brown banded bamboo shark, and if you are luck you might spot our resident juvenile eagle ray.
Manta Bay is around 20 minute boat ride from Nomads Diving. It is a manta ray feeding area where these ocean giants congregate in the shallow bays for to snack down on their favourite meal, zooplankton. This is often where you can see unique manta behaviour such as barrelling or “manta trains”. The average depth of this site is 10-15 metres. Juvenile mantas (around 2m+ wing span) are often seen on the surface playing and feeding while the larger mantas are spotted coasting along the bottom.
Other things to see at this site include some dramatic topography such as walls, small caverns, and large hard coral formations. Also a great spot for sea turtles, brown banded bamboo sharks, and macro life.
Both of our manta dive sites are extremely exposed to the southern swell which makes Bali such a famous surf destination. This means there are times when the trip to the manta sites are canceled due to unsafe weather conditions. Your safety is our number one priority at Nomads followed by your enjoyment, and the final decision on the dive site destination is left to our knowledgable captains.
No matter how much we try to prepare by reading forcasts and tide charts, sometimes we will not know until that morning if the dive site has to be changed. On average there is 3-5 days per month where our Manta trips are canceled. However we will always go diving! We have a selection of beautiful diving spots around the north side of the island which is protected from the sea conditions. But there is a saying in Indonesia, Never Try Never Know!
