Marine Conservation Courses in Nusa Lembongan

Project AWARE is classroom-only and open to non-divers, so it works even if you are not diving on this trip at all. The other two, Dive Against Debris and Manta Ray and Mola Mola Conservation, each pair a short classroom session with 2 dives.

You can take any of the three on their own, and several divers do all three across a longer stay, since each one covers different ground rather than repeating the same material.

A half-day, non-diving programme covering why the ocean matters, the specific pressures on reefs, seagrass and mangroves around Nusa Lembongan, and PADI AWARE's Ten Tips for Divers to Protect the Underwater World. It ends with practical steps you can actually take, not just awareness.

Because it involves no diving at all, it is a genuine option for a non-diving partner or family member travelling with you, or for anyone who wants to understand the reef before getting in the water for the first time.

You learn to identify marine debris, plan a proper survey using mesh bags, shears and gloves, and remove debris safely without damaging the reef around it. Data from your dive gets logged to PADI AWARE's global Dive Against Debris database, which is used in real research on marine litter. It overlaps closely with the skills taught in our Search and Recovery specialty.

It is deliberately practical rather than purely educational. You come away having actually removed debris from a real site, with the classroom half explaining why the survey method matters and how the data you collect gets used beyond just the day itself.

Removal is done carefully, not by yanking at anything tangled in coral. Part of the classroom session covers when to leave something in place rather than risk damaging the reef trying to free it, which is as much a skill as the removal itself.

This course covers the biology of both animals properly: the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) that you are most likely to see at Manta Point and Manta Bay, and the much larger, more pelagic oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris), an occasional visitor. The sunfish seen around Crystal Bay is usually Mola alexandrini, the bumphead sunfish, though it is still commonly called mola mola locally, and is among the heaviest bony fish in the world.

You also cover the real threats these animals face, overfishing, plastic pollution and uncontrolled tourism contact, and the passive interaction guidelines that keep divers from disturbing them: keeping your distance, no touching, no chasing, no flash photography. Sightings you log can contribute to ongoing population research being carried out around Nusa Penida.

This course only requires PADI Open Water Diver certification, not Advanced, so it is genuinely accessible to newly certified divers who want to put their first certification to use somewhere meaningful.

Nusa Penida holds a genuinely significant population of reef manta rays, and researchers are actively studying it. Diving here responsibly, and understanding what you are looking at, is a small but real part of keeping that population healthy for the long term.

Marine debris is also a real, visible issue around the islands, not an abstract problem from somewhere else. Divers who complete Dive Against Debris here are working on the same reefs they dive for fun the rest of their trip.

None of this requires a dramatic lifestyle change to matter. Divers who take one of these courses tend to notice small things afterwards, buoyancy near the reef, where their fins are, what they do with rubbish on a boat, that add up across a season of visitors far more than any single course does on its own.

Read more about the animals themselves on our manta ray and mola mola pages, then book online or contact us directly to arrange a date.