Diving in the Gili Islands

Indonesia is host to 25% of the world’s reefs with 3,500 marine species living in its seas and reefs.  The Gili islands offer a good sampling of sea fauna such as sharks, manta rays, cuttlefish, eels, crabs, turtles and fish.  There are 15 to 17 dive spots around the Gili Islands.

The Gili Air Wall is covered with soft coral, and shines yellow orange in the sun.  The coral block at 22 meters is surrounded by shrimps, pipefish, glass fishes and in the deeper parts, white tip sharks.   

Shark Point at Gili Trawangan has different levels at 24, 20 and 18 meters.  It is home to the Hawksbill and Green turtles and a wide variety of marine life such as Napoleon fish, White Tip sharks, manta rays and eels.  There is an undersea 'golf course', the ‘Volker Golf Course’, so called because of its green color, east of Shark Point. This dive is best tackled by the pros for its very strong currents.

Another dive for the pros is the 20 meter long Japanese wreck south of Gili Air, sitting upright on the sandy bottom at 45 meters.  It is home to huge frogfish, lionfish, scorpion fish and much more. And don’t forget to check out the Biorocks, the manmade reefs by the dive schools at Gili.

This video by cacchionegiovanni  shows of the wonders of the waters around the Gili Islands.