Alor
The Alor archipelago lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda chain, between Flores and Timor. Most diving happens in the Pantar Strait between Alor and Pantar, where the islets of Kepa, Pura, Ternate and Buaya sit in the path of the Indonesian Throughflow, the water mass pushing from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. The result is fierce, moon-driven currents, cold upwellings in the south (with sunfish and thresher sharks rising to clean), coral walls and pinnacles, carpets of anemones around Pura and first-class muck diving in Kalabahi Bay and Beang Abang. The strait was declared a district marine park in 2001 and most of the archipelago became part of a national marine protected area in 2010.