This week in Lembongan… Even though the mola season has been far from that of other years, they are still around. While diving this week at Crystal Bay, dive guides Murry and Tino were lucky enough to show one of these weird and wonderful creatures to their guests. The mola was sitting just off the reef, close by the first corner of the small island inside Crystal Bay. This is the spot, where though the years, we often see the molas there being cleaned. Just as we have, so many times before, we spotted this one cleaning. The mola was not so bothered by the divers watching it be cleaned, which resulted in the guests getting some stunning photos of the creature and Tino got his photo with the mola.

The lack of mola sightings this year is believed to be due to the warmer waters that we have had over the mola season. Normally around September time, Crystal Bay can be as cold as 18 degrees but this year it has been a steady 27 degrees at all dive sites. With the water being too warm, the molas are not coming up from the deep, so we are not seeing them while diving. In saying that, the molas are still here, often the boat staff are seeing the molas jumping out of the water.