Dive with
Best places to dive with Bali sardinella
Sardinella lemuru
A small schooling sardinella, heavily fished across Indonesia and the Philippines and assessed by the IUCN as Near Threatened in 2022. It is the species usually identified behind the resident 'sardine run' aggregations at Napaling Point on Panglao and at Panagsama Beach in Moalboal, Cebu, though the exact species composition of those schools has not been formally surveyed at either site. The schools are resident rather than migratory, and shift in size and location from year to year.
Destinations ranked by how reliably bali sardinella is seen. The bars show the likelihood by month — never a guarantee. See the full species page for more.
| Month | Likelihood |
|---|---|
| January | commonly seen |
| February | commonly seen |
| March | commonly seen |
| April | commonly seen |
| May | commonly seen |
| June | commonly seen |
| July | commonly seen |
| August | commonly seen |
| September | commonly seen |
| October | commonly seen |
| November | commonly seen |
| December | commonly seen |
The Napaling school is present most of the year and sits shallow enough to snorkel, but it moves along the reef and breaks into smaller groups on some days. Operators do not treat it as seasonal. Not the same aggregation as the Moalboal baitball, which is a separate resident school of the same species roughly 100km away in Cebu.