Located still within the confines of the Bali Barat National Park, the island is originally known as home of small habitat of Java Deer for which the name 'Menjangan' means. These animals can still be occasionally seen crossing from and to mainland of Bali during low tide.

Covering an area 7,000 hectares of coastal waters and coral reefs, the is rated as Bali's top dive destinations. Steep dramatic vertical walls with clear water and enormous soft coral formations makes both diving and snorkeling popular in the island. Water temperature ranges from 26 to 28 C throughout the year with visibility of 20 to 60 meters. Underwater varieties include schooling, bannerfish, frogfish, butterflyfish, groupers, triggerfish, batfish, bluefin travelly and giant travelly, jackfish, sweetlips, midnight snappers and occasionally white and black tip reef shark.

There are 8 points all round the island - Pos 1, Pos 2, Garden Eel, Ship "Anchor" Wreck, Cave Point, Coral Garden, Bat Cave and Temple Points. Dive point along the south coast has perhaps the most interesting structure of any of the sites. Yet each features its own distinguished varieties of life.

The Anchor Wreck

Menjangan western tip holds a deeper, but more interesting dive on an old wreck. The so-called Anker wreck it just off the coast, next to a small dock and guardpos - Pos 1. It is a small ship, just 25 meters long, and its stern sits in 45 meters of water. It is believed that a cooperseathed sailor from the last century tried to anchor just off the reef, broke the anchor chain, sank and slid back to its resting place on the sloping sand bottom.

Flat rectangular sheets, perhaps copper sheating materia lay in what had been the hold, which also contains an assortment of ceramic and glass bottles. These perhaps had contained 'arak', a powerful local booze distilled from palm wine that had been a major trade item of the last century. Miraculously previous diver have not stolen the bottles- yet large gorgonians grow on the wreck as well as on the slope leading to it. The wreck and the area around it was communized by soft corals.

Other Points

The Garden Eel in the west tip of the island offers superb white sandy point with its abundant garden eel population. With an approximate depth of 18 to 25 meters, it is also home to goby, shrimp and jowfish. Even manta ray may be occasionally spotted along its drop off sites.

The southern part, where three major points line up, has dynamic structural sites with dramatic vertical walls and several unique underwater caves along its middle parts. Pos I has an approximate depth of 1 to 3 meters with enormous coral reefs as well as such varieties as batfish, bluefin travelly and giant travelly. Deeper sites along Cave Point and Pos 2 is known to feature several large species as the white and black tip reef shark as well as turtle.

Frequent current flow along the southeastern corner of the island makes it a bit difficult to thoroughly discover the sites along Bat Cave Point. In the eastern tip coast stands Kelenting Sari, believed to be one of the oldest Hindu temples of Bali. The sites just off the temple coast features enormous hard and sift coral formations.This lines up to Coral Garden in the mid-northern part of the island.

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