Toyapakeh

Overview

Toyapakeh, also written Toya Pakeh, is a boat-dived reef and wall on the north-west coast of Nusa Penida, in front of Toyapakeh harbour. nusapenida.org, a Nusa Penida dive guide, says the site sits right in front of the Adiwana Warnakali hotel and the Dune Penida dive centre, two minutes by boat from the harbour. AquaMarine Diving – Bali, a Bali dive operator, places it off the island's north-west coast and says it is partially protected from the current flowing through the Ceningan Channel. Scuba Center Asia, a Nusa Lembongan dive centre, says Toya pakeh means salt water in Balinese and that the site is often called the Jewel of Penida. The Dutch dive directory Duikersgids.nl lists Toya Pakeh Bay as another name.

Scuba Center Asia's page and a directory listing each carry a map pin for the site, about 800 metres apart, and neither says how its pin was set, so this record has no map point.

How the site is dived

nusapenida.org, Scuba Center Asia and Duikersgids.nl all describe a boat dive. nusapenida.org says the reef forms a long wall stretching several hundred metres parallel to the coast: a shallow coral plateau in front of the harbour slopes gently and then tips into a vertical wall down to 30 to 40 metres, with canyons and large coral bommies. It says divers drop in under the “Tree” at the far end of the wall and follow the reef toward the waterpark platform, which marks the end of the dive, and that the site can also be dived drifting toward Gamat Bay or toward SD Point. AquaMarine describes a reef starting at 6 metres and bommies at around 10 metres passed on a drift, with a deeper slope below. Scuba Center Asia describes a set of coral plateaus starting at 3 metres. Scuba Center Asia gives a travel time of 20 minutes without saying from where, and Duikersgids.nl gives a distance of 25 minutes. nusapenida.org adds that snorkellers follow the wall from the surface, the line it calls Toyapakeh Wall, reached from the boat or from Toyapakeh beach.

Depth

nusapenida.org gives a depth of 5 to 40 metres: beginners stay on the plateau between 5 and 12 metres, the drift along the wall runs between 15 and 25 metres, and experienced divers go down to 40 metres, where it places a mola mola cleaning station in front of the entry point. Duikersgids.nl gives a depth of 50 metres. Scuba Center Asia's page lists a maximum depth of “5-100+ meters” without explanation. This record uses 40 metres as the maximum and marks it disputed. It uses 5 metres as the minimum, from nusapenida.org alone; Scuba Center Asia's plateaus start at 3 metres, and nusapenida.org says the coral bommies rise to within 3 metres of the surface for snorkellers.

Level

nusapenida.org rates the site from beginner to experienced depending on the zone. It recommends the sheltered plateau for a discovery dive or the first dives of an Open Water course, the wall drift for intermediate divers, and the deeper zones and canyons, where it says the current can pick up, for experienced divers, and it says that whatever the level, divers there go with a local guide. Scuba Center Asia lists the site as Beginner, and Duikersgids.nl says it suits all levels and calls it an easy dive site. Because the sources tie the level to the zone and the current, this record sets no single difficulty and no certification requirement.

Current

The sources describe the current differently. nusapenida.org gives it as mild to moderate and sometimes strong on the drift, says it can strengthen depending on the tides, and says it can pick up in the canyons and deeper zones. AquaMarine says the current often heads north-east, which makes for an easy and pleasant drift, but that the current in shallow and in deeper water sometimes runs in different directions, so the direction of the dive can change with depth; at slack tide, it says, there is no current at all. Scuba Center Asia says there is always a current between Ceningan and Nusa Penida. Duikersgids.nl lists the current as limited and describes a light current. This record sets no current strength.

Marine life

nusapenida.org describes green and hawksbill turtles, schools of trevallies, barracudas and mackerel, sometimes whitetip reef sharks, Javan and ribbon moray eels, scorpionfish and marble rays, with eagle rays more rarely, and for macro harlequin and Thor shrimps, porcelain crabs, nudibranchs, leaf fish and pygmy seahorses on the gorgonians. AquaMarine names anthias, scorpionfish, moray eels, trumpetfish, puffers, giant trevally, sweetlips, jackfish and batfish, with occasional Napoleon wrasse and turtles, and blue ribbon eels, orangutan crabs and nudibranchs at slack tide. Scuba Center Asia names mantis shrimp, trumpetfish, frogfish, lionfish, clownfish, ribbon eels and scorpionfish, and Duikersgids.nl names turtles and moray eels.

On the ocean sunfish (mola mola), nusapenida.org says it rises between July and October to a cleaning station at around 40 metres in front of the entry point, and that encounters are never guaranteed. AquaMarine says larger pelagics including mola mola may be seen deeper on the slope, Scuba Center Asia says that on the perfect day a mola mola or an eagle ray may pass, and Duikersgids.nl says one is met only very occasionally, with better chances the colder the water. No source gives a measured sighting rate for any animal.

Conditions

nusapenida.org gives visibility of 20 to 40 metres depending on the season, often above 25 metres on average, and a water temperature of 22 to 29 °C, cooler during the mola mola season, and says the site can be dived year-round. Duikersgids.nl gives visibility of 15 to 25 metres, 20 metres on average. This record marks the visibility as disputed, takes the temperature range from nusapenida.org alone and sets no season. Duikersgids.nl also says Toyapakeh is a busy site where sometimes more than ten boats are moored, and warns divers to watch for boats when ascending.

Sources and lineage

The four sources are worded independently. nusapenida.org is written by Blaise Jaeger, whom the page describes as having opened Nusa Penida's first PADI dive centre in 2017, above the site at Adiwana Warnakali; the page promotes the Dune Penida dive centre there and was updated on 2 July 2026. AquaMarine Diving – Bali is a Bali dive operator and Scuba Center Asia a dive centre on Nusa Lembongan. Duikersgids.nl is a Dutch dive-site directory. Nobody has verified this record in person; it was researched and written by an automated process from the sources named here.