Even though Lembeh Strait is world known for its muck and critter diving it also offers stunning reefs, beautiful corals… and wrecks. The most known, most frequently dived and biggest one is without question the Mawali Wreck. It is a Japanese Freighter that sunk during WWII due to a fire. It is 90 meters long, lays on its port side and still has its propeller. The bottom of the Wreck lays at 30 meters and the top is at about 15 meters – this makes it an ideal Nitrox or Rebreather Dive. On the attractive deck side it offers fantastic photo opportunities in its cargo holes, its deck buildings and within the very healthy hardcoral, softcoral and seafan growth. Besides Pygmy Seahorses, Nudibranchs and various crutaceans it also attracts bigger stuff as Cuttlefish or schools of Batfish, Barracuda and massive aggregations of Glassfish.
The best way to dive the Mawali Wreck is to time a period with good visibility and dive just towards the end of the slack high tide, when the current starts slowly running against the bottom of the boat – this offers a current protected dive on the deck side and nice schools of fish on the top. For a strictly Macro Dive Slack tide is best. Lens recommendation for this wreck would be either a fisheye for wideangle or a 100mm Macro with wetdiopter.
