TULAMBEN SNORKELING

WRECK AT THE USAT LIBERTY AND THE CORAL GARDEN

1-a. See vibrant coral and fish life – Wreck of the USAT Liberty, Tulamben

Tulamben is probably the most famous destination among divers in Bali, being home to the American warship wreck, the USAT Liberty that torpedoed during WWII while traversing the Lombok Strait.

The Liberty eventually made it to Bali but had taken on too much water and eventually beached off Tulamben and sank.

The bottom of the wreck is at around 30m, making the deep part of it accessible only to advanced SCUBA divers and expert free divers, but the top reaches up to 5m, and when the water is clear, much of the huge 125m long wreck can be seen from the surface.

The best thing about the Liberty for snorkelers though, is the huge amount of fish life that have made the wreck home – now an artificial reef completely overgrown with vibrant, healthy coral.

Because Tulamben’s economy is heavily tied to the dive industry, the locals have agreed not to fish on or near the wreck, and as a result, the fish population has exploded.

With swarms of tropical reef fish and loads of interesting history, the Liberty is easily one the best snorkeling wrecks in Asia.

Snorkel right above an ocean garden – The Coral Garden, Tulamben

Being Bali’s premier dive destination, there’s more to Tulamben than just the wreck of the Liberty. In fact, the highlight for snorkelers is probably the Coral Garden, a shallow reef that starts almost as soon as you step into the water.

The coral garden is a mixture of original rocky reef and man-made structures, placed on the site by dive resorts to help promote coral growth and repopulate the (now unofficially protected) reef after decades of fishing.

The 150m reef is very shallow, with soft and hard corals from 3m down to about 12m.