Alor: Kalabahi Bay – Lipa Dive Site – Alor Archipelago

Site Overview

Lipa is a sheltered reef and seagrass site located in Kalabahi Bay approximately 15 minutes by boat from Kalabahi harbor, offering accessible reef diving with abundant marine life in a protected bay environment. The site features a mix of coral slopes and seagrass beds descending from 2 meters to approximately 20 meters, creating diverse habitat types within a single dive. The shallower sections at 2 to 6 meters feature extensive seagrass beds that serve as nurseries for juvenile reef fish and feeding grounds for green turtles. The coral slope at 6 to 12 meters is covered in hard corals including staghorn, plate, and brain corals, with schools of fusiliers, damselfish, and anthias. The seagrass transition zones at 6 to 10 meters are home to cuttlefish, pipefish, juvenile seahorses, and various gobies and blennies. The deeper sections at 12 to 20 meters have scattered bommies on sandy substrate where blue-spotted stingrays, garden eels, and moray eels are common. Hawksbill and green turtles are regular visitors throughout the dive. Lipa is best dived from April through November when the dry season provides optimal visibility. The site is popular as a checkout dive, afternoon dive, and training site. The seagrass beds make the site particularly productive for macro photography, with seahorses, pipefish, and nudibranch species hiding among the grass blades. The sheltered conditions and proximity to Kalabahi make Lipa an ideal complement to the more adventurous dives in the Pantar Strait and outer archipelago.