Lombok Strait
The Lombok Strait is abundant of flora and fauna species which have been well explored through Bali’s diving tourism. As the Lombok Strait connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean, the abundance of flora and fauna is due to its location between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, where the strait acts as a passage for currents. Accompanied by its flora and fauna is its marine habitats which vary in water temperature, its presence of volcanic and limestone sediments, local freshwater inflow between creeks, sandy reef slopes, and strong currents. According to the results obtained from a coral reef expedition conducted by the National Museum of Natural History-Naturalis Leiden, in partnership with the Research and Development Centre for Oceanology of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (PPPO-LIPI), Jakarta, and the WWF Indonesia-Wallacea Bioregion, Bali in April 2001, the coral reef fauna of the Lombok Strait was one of the most diverse and richest in the world. The diversity of its marine biogeography includes the following groups: stony corals (Scleractinia and hydrocorals), soft corals (Octocorallia), sponges (Porifera), forams (Foramanifera), shrimps (Decapoda), snails (Gastropoda), and fishes.