Atauro Island & the Dili Coast (Ombai Strait)

• Reefs in Timor-Leste's Ataúro Island hold the world's highest reef fish species average, Phys.org, reporting Conservation International
• Timor-Leste, Conservation International
• Marine Conservation, Conservation International Timor-Leste
• Timor-Leste Travel Advice & Safety, Smartraveller, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Unregulated tourism risks disrupting Timor-Leste's whale migration, Mongabay
• Intimate private lives of blue whales revealed for the first time, ANU Reporter, Australian National University
• Diving in East Timor, Wikivoyage
• Diving and Snorkeling Sites, Ataúro Tourism
• Ferry Schedule: Dili to Atauro & Oecusse, Tourism Timor-Leste
• Timor-Leste Diving Rates, Timor Sunshine Divers
• Diving Timor-Leste, Diveplanit
• Sea water temperature Dili, Seatemperature.info
• Flights from Darwin to Dili: DRW to DIL Flights + Flight Schedule, FlightConnections

Note on the data: The load-bearing biodiversity claim is well sourced: Conservation International's rapid assessment, reported by Phys.org and repeated by Ataúro Tourism, gives an average of 253 reef fish species per site across 10 sites surveyed in July 2016, 642 species total, 315 at the richest site, up from an average of about 212 in CI's 2012 survey. Note a date conflict — CI's own country page describes it as a 2015 biological survey, while Phys.org and Ataúro Tourism both say 2016; 2016 is used here. The peer-reviewed RAP report itself was not fetched. The 'no recompression chamber' claim comes from the Australian Government's Smartraveller advisory, read via search extract because the page timed out on direct fetch — re-verify on the verification pass. Blue whale seasonality is taken from Mongabay's reporting and Charles Darwin University / ANU coverage of Karen Edyvane's research programme (September–December southbound migration, 2,700+ pygmy blue whales sighted since 2014) rather than from operators, and is coded conservatively as peak in October–November only. Ferry days, times and fares are from the Tourism Timor-Leste schedule page (2026); the Dragon Star fast boat is listed as out of service since late 2025 and that status should be re-checked. Prices are from a single operator (Timor Sunshine Divers) and may be stale. Dive-site coordinates for the Dili coast come from the Wikivoyage guide and are usable; Atauro site coordinates are approximate village-level positions, not surveyed GPS. Species identities for the seahorse and the tuna at Atauro are inferred from generic operator descriptions ('seahorses', 'tuna') rather than confirmed to species. Dugongs are reported over the seagrass at Tasi Tolu by dive-media sources but were left out for want of a stronger source. Water temperature: Published monthly minimum and maximum surface values for Dili, which is the same water mass Atauro sits in; August and September are the coolest months and December the warmest. Deep wall dives in the strait can run cooler than the surface figure, but no per-depth measurement was found — a 3mm suit covers most of the year, with a 5mm worth considering for repetitive August–September wall diving. Access: Dili's airport is 15–20 minutes from the city dive centres and the Atauro ferry pier, and the Dili-coast shore sites are a 10–60 minute drive along the coast road; Atauro adds a 2.5–3 hour ferry that sails Tuesday to Sunday with no Monday service. Independently verified 2026-08-28. The biodiversity claim CONFIRMED and correctly framed: Conservation International's July 2016 Rapid Assessment found an average of 253 reef fish species per site across 10 sites — the highest average recorded anywhere — with 642 species total and 315 at the richest site; the entry states the average-vs-total distinction explicitly and if anything under-claims. Pygmy blue whale identification, the Sep-Dec window, the Oct-Nov peak and the Endangered status all confirmed, as were the ferry schedule and the Royal Darwin evacuation pathway. Corrections applied: Dili's wet season runs December-May, not December-March, so May is dropped from bestMonths and the runoff window widened; the four Dili-coast sites were coded as boat entries while their own text describes roadside shore diving, which undercut the region's shore-diving premise — now corrected to shore; the whale framing implied in-water tours are not offered when they are (largely unregulated, and criticised by the researchers monitoring the population); and the chamber line softened to 'available to divers', since sources describe no reliably staffed civilian facility rather than categorical absence. All eight sites confirmed real and Timorese, none imported.