Dive with
Best places to dive with Giant sunfish (bump-head mola)
Mola alexandrini
A heavy-bodied mola distinguished from Mola mola by a head bump, a chin bump and a smoother, scalloped clavus. The sunfish at Nusa Penida were long called Mola mola locally, but morphological and genetic work identified them as Mola alexandrini, and images previously reported as Mola mola were re-examined and reidentified. Individuals can be told apart by their body patterns, which underpins the Bali photo-ID catalogue.
Destinations ranked by how reliably giant sunfish (bump-head mola) is seen. The bars show the likelihood by month — never a guarantee. See the full species page for more.
| Month | Likelihood |
|---|---|
| January | rare |
| February | rare |
| March | rare |
| April | rare |
| May | rare |
| June | rare |
| July | peak season |
| August | peak season |
| September | peak season |
| October | peak season |
| November | occasional |
| December | rare |
Present in the area year-round from the surface to well below recreational depth, but divers encounter them mainly between about July/August and November — the locally named sunfish season — when southeast-monsoon upwelling brings cold Indian Ocean water up the southern and western coasts. Crystal Bay is the best-known site, with Blue Corner, Toyapakeh and the north-coast drifts also producing them. Encounters are usually deep and brief, and nothing about them is scheduled.