AMED DIVE SITE DESCRIPTION
| Difficulty: | Easy to Moderate |
| Max. depth: | 40m / 130ft |
| Access from Sanur: | 2 hours by car & 10 min. with traditional boat |
Amed is a small fishing village about 20 mins. before Tulamben, in North East Bali. Tulamben is the more famous of the two dive sites because of the USS Liberty shipwreck. However this means that Amed gets fewer divers and so is a less crowded place to dive.
Amed is also famous for sea salt production. The all-natural unrefined sea salt made here is said to be the best tasting salt. You can cheaply buy bags of this salt, which is sold as quite large crystals, and this can be a nice souvenir of Bali. It can be used in cooking, fish, salads and as bath salt.
Amed offers easy dives in usually gentle conditions. Because it is sheltered inside Jemeluk Bay it is usually free from the strong currents which are found in other dive sites in East Bali. For this reason it is a suitable dive for less experienced divers. The dives are either from the beach or from a small local outrigger boat. The shallower reefs suffered some coral damage during the El Nino event of 1997 (the rest of Bali luckily escaped) but still have a rich and varied population of reef fish and other marine life.
The deeper sites offer chances of encounters with Whitetip and Blacktip reef sharks, Parrotfish and Turtles. Blue-spotted stingrays can be found here too, and a large colony of Garden Eels. The corals are much healthier at deeper levels and the wall is very enjoyable with a variety of Seafans and Sponges.
These local sites are good places for a night dive with a wide variety of nocturnal marine life. Lobsters can often be seen at night and sometimes Barracuda.
Amed is on the East coast so it is worth making the effort to see that famous Balinese sunrise and make an early morning dive. The underwater world is very active and alive at this time of day.
Amed is just 20 minutes drive from Tulamben so divers staying at Tulamben can easily dive Amed as a day trip from Tulamben.
