The Blue Corner dive site is not suitable for inexperienced divers, please make sure you are confident with the difficult conditions that this site can throw at you.
Mola Mola season, Bali
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Regular sightings are now on their way with colder water.
Now is a good time to come to Bali to see the sunfish.
Please remember some basic rules:
1) Sunfish are often encountered at depth on challenging sites. Those sites are not suitable for beginner divers. Please acquire experience including deep diving and current dives before putting pressure on operators to show these to you. Your own safety depends on it!
2) Mola-molas come to the reef to get cleaned by reef fish. This is a vital process for them. Please do not interfere with this natural behaviour by chasing sunfish away from the reef. When sunfish approach the reef they are quite skittish. Stay at least 10m away until they are undergoing cleaning. You can see they are being cleaned when their head is up towards the surface. The fish then enters a semi trance and lets divers approach within 10m. Please do not approach the sunfish closer than 3m in any case. This is not necessary in order to appreciate the show or take good photographs.
3) Some dive sites around Nusa Penida get very crowded during mola-mola season. Please ask operators to dive alternative dive sites when this is the case. If you find yourself in the water with dozens of divers and one or two poor mola-molas, please make sure not to bar the exit route away from the reef for the sunfish. Doing this places undue stress onto the animal and may incite it not to come back close to the reef for further cleaning.
Remember to stay safe and that not seeing a fish is better than dying while trying.
Now is a good time to come to Bali to see the sunfish.
Please remember some basic rules:
1) Sunfish are often encountered at depth on challenging sites. Those sites are not suitable for beginner divers. Please acquire experience including deep diving and current dives before putting pressure on operators to show these to you. Your own safety depends on it!
2) Mola-molas come to the reef to get cleaned by reef fish. This is a vital process for them. Please do not interfere with this natural behaviour by chasing sunfish away from the reef. When sunfish approach the reef they are quite skittish. Stay at least 10m away until they are undergoing cleaning. You can see they are being cleaned when their head is up towards the surface. The fish then enters a semi trance and lets divers approach within 10m. Please do not approach the sunfish closer than 3m in any case. This is not necessary in order to appreciate the show or take good photographs.
3) Some dive sites around Nusa Penida get very crowded during mola-mola season. Please ask operators to dive alternative dive sites when this is the case. If you find yourself in the water with dozens of divers and one or two poor mola-molas, please make sure not to bar the exit route away from the reef for the sunfish. Doing this places undue stress onto the animal and may incite it not to come back close to the reef for further cleaning.
Remember to stay safe and that not seeing a fish is better than dying while trying.
billt4sf
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Cedric / Geko:
What water temps should we anticipate if we're trying to see mola molas during the August - Oct season?
Planning to sign up with you guys next year for this (and other) dives.
Thanks,
Bill & Emily
What water temps should we anticipate if we're trying to see mola molas during the August - Oct season?
Planning to sign up with you guys next year for this (and other) dives.
Thanks,
Bill & Emily
Luko
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billt4sf
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Ouch that's Monterey temps! Should I really bring my drysuit? Or maybe buy a 5 mil? (If I need 7 mils I'll bring the drysuit).
- Bill
- Bill
adventureswithwill
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Hintermann
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Late July and August are very good times - the peak infact - for Mola Mola. Although they are seen in Nusa Penida and Nusa Lemborgan, the most likely place is Candidasa with its 3 major dive sites - Gili Topekong, Mimpang and Biaha.
Will, at the beginning of August, when this post was written, sightings were few and far between around Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, while we had lots already in Gili Tepekong and Gili Mimpang.
Anyway, it's not a pissing competition and 2015 was definitely the best end of sunfish season for mola molas since i've arrived in Bali. Bring it on 2016!
billt4sf
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Hello Geko (Cedric):
Was researching your idea that Lembogan does not offer access to three sites you mentioned that are also viable places to look for mola-mola: Gili Biaha, Mimpang and Tepekong.
I could not find any of those places on Google maps. I suppose they are dives sites, not "locations" in the map sense. Can you be a bit more specific about where they are?
Given that (apparently) we need cold water to see them, I think that Emily and I might do is wait until they are starting to be seen, then come down from Ubud to dive with you guys for a week or two. Is that a sensible approach do you think?
Thanks,
Bill & Emily
Was researching your idea that Lembogan does not offer access to three sites you mentioned that are also viable places to look for mola-mola: Gili Biaha, Mimpang and Tepekong.
I could not find any of those places on Google maps. I suppose they are dives sites, not "locations" in the map sense. Can you be a bit more specific about where they are?
Given that (apparently) we need cold water to see them, I think that Emily and I might do is wait until they are starting to be seen, then come down from Ubud to dive with you guys for a week or two. Is that a sensible approach do you think?
Thanks,
Bill & Emily
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