Timor Leste Diving

Bounded by the Timor and Banda Seas, Timor Leste offers divers many different sites with diverse topography and a fantastic array of marine life. You can expect all the wonderful creatures and colourful corals that would be found in Indonesian waters, yet this area is little explored and many new dive sites are ready to be discovered. Pristine corals, sandy muck diving slopes and off shore pinnacles await the adventurous diver.

Diving Highlights of Timor Leste

The Church
On the Northwest coast of Atauro Island the steep walls rise up from depths of 50m+. Covered with hard and soft corals this site attracts passing pelagics such as tuna, barracuda and swordfish along with reef sharks and hawksbll turtles. A closer look at the wall reveals a startling diversity of crustaceans and molluscs.

Tasi Tolu
The sandy slope gradually descending to 30m/ 100ft is the place to scour the sand in search of amazing and interesting creatures. If thorny seahorses, rhinopias, mimic octopus,pipefish, frog fish and a range of nudibranchs are not enough to hold your interest then you can turn your attention to the grazing dugongs or hunting sea snakes.

Jako Island
Off the eastern tip of Timor Island lies the small island of Jako. Currents pass through bringing nutrients that support the life of some large marine animals. Expect to see mobula rays, grey and white tip reef sharks and schooling trevally and snappers.

K41
On the northern coast to the east of Dili, the coral garden of K41 attracts schools of midnight snappers, huge batfish and yellow-fin bass. Dolphins are heard and occasionally seen during the dives and whale sharks often make an appearance. Hiding underneath the coral bommies whiptail rays can be found, whilst the shallow waters are the place to hunt for ghost pipefish and sawblade shrimps.