Keep on with the standard Raja Ampat dive websites and also you’re assured a unprecedented underwater expertise – however typically the best thrills lie in taking an opportunity on someplace totally new, as Jenny Inventory discovered on board the Raja Ampat Aggressor
Phrases and images by Jenny Inventory
These fortunate sufficient to take a liveaboard journey in Raja Ampat will probably discover themselves visiting Piaynemo lookout. After climbing 300 steps to this prime vantage level, you might be blessed with a panoramic view of this tropical paradise.
Gazing out to sea, you see clusters of jutting limestone islands dipping their ft into crystal clear water. The Halmahera Sea glistens teal, navy, cobalt, azure and emerald inexperienced. It’s an astonishing vista, but it surely’s no match for the magic beneath the floor.
Raja Ampat interprets from Indonesian as ‘4 Kings’, a reference to the 4 important islands within the archipelago: Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo.
There are a further 1,500 islands and cays in Raja Ampat, spanning 46,000 sq. kilometres (17,700 sq. miles). A lot of this space – with ecosystems of coral reef, seagrass beds and mangroves – is but to be explored, however extra on that later.
That is essentially the most biodiverse marine area on Earth: 1,638 reef fish species have been recorded in Raja Ampat, plus 22 shark species. You’ll discover cleansing stations for oceanic manta rays, and the world’s largest nesting seashores for Pacific leatherback turtles.
I’m right here as a result of I used to be fortunate sufficient to win DIVE Journal’s Large Photographs pictures competitors again in December 2023.
My prize? A visit on Aggressor Adventures’ Raja Ampat liveaboard, Ocean Rover, a gleaming 100-foot vessel that couldn’t be extra totally different to the normal Indonesian crusing boats moored sedately alongside her in Pelabuhan Perikanan harbour in Sorong.
I’m warmly welcomed on arrival at Ocean Rover by cruise director Pep Cors Ruiz. When you’ve seen the animated movie The Incredibles, he’s mainly the dad: a tall, broad, muscular man with a chiseled jaw. And, it seems, a style for exploration.
RAJA AMPAT’S THRIVING MARINE LIFE
First, the basic Raja dive websites. Many individuals are drawn to this space to see manta rays. Magic Mountain is a feeding station dive web site so a probable place to see them, and even when the mantas don’t flip up, the large faculties of yellow snappers that congregate there are completely spell-binding.
Infinite fields of coral type Melissa’s Backyard, which must be the most effective dive websites on the earth. Whereas there, verify underneath these overhangs as wobbegong sharks are a typical sight.
My dive at Puri Pinnacle is a heart-pounding expertise. Seconds after descending to the reef, I see thousands and thousands of ethereal, shimmering anchovies race above me, their our bodies glittering within the solar. They move barely a foot from me with an enormous whoosh – the power is wild, frantic even, and I can’t get sufficient of it.
These anchovies are extremely motivated – these little fish are clearly swimming for his or her lives. And certainly, not far behind, I spot searching jacks choosing off the slower swimmers.
Then, hastily, there’s calm. I keep in mind to breathe once more. A couple of moments of quiet, of constructing anticipation, then swoosh, the anchovies return, darting previous me once more with intense energy.
Fish are thriving right here due to a ban on all however native, sustainable fishing. The implementation of the primary Marine Protected Space in Raja was in 2004. Right now a community of 10 MPAs covers two million hectares.
Lots of the fishers of yesteryear are actually the rangers who shield this sanctuary, and people conventional crusing boats I noticed at Pelabuhan Perikanan harbour are actually extra probably for use as pleasure craft by the tourism trade than for fishing.
Regardless of the quantity of prey meals out there, sharks, the apex predators, are taking their time to return. A couple of black and white tip reef sharks circle us on the dive web site Mayhem, however transfer on rapidly. I’m instructed shark numbers are on the rise – hopefully future guests can have higher luck than I do.
Then again, what of the macro? It’s a really totally different story. Cephalopods embrace flamboyant cuttlefish, wunderpus, blue-ringed, coconut and mimic octopus. We additionally see juvenile batfish and angelfish. Tiny yellow boxfish potter about; I even see a uncommon orange painted frogfish munching krill on an evening dive.
Raja can be dwelling to 5 species of pygmy seahorse – Hippocampus bargibanti, H. denise, H. pontohi, H. satomi and H. servensi – plus the Santa Claus pygmy, a festively-themed color variant of Denise’s pygmy seahorse.
Though not unique to Raja, this uncommon discover is extra widespread right here than anyplace else on the earth. That is presumably right down to the presence of a lot of Melithaea followers, which could be discovered rising in every single place in Misool.
I managed to identify the Santa Claus due to the eager eyes of dive information Adrie, who identified this tiny (simply 1 cm!) creature on the dive web site Boo Window.
It’s at all times a difficult expertise photographing these characterful however completely camouflaged animals. In reality, it’s typically unclear whether or not you’ve nailed the picture till you’re again within the edit.
This dive had a little bit of present, so though I attempted my greatest to line up the shot, I did higher with a H. bargibanti in calmer water at Nudi Rock dive web site, later within the week.
Selection is the spice of life, and on each different voyage the Ocean Rover‘s crew see one thing new underwater: a lone hammerhead shark on one journey, an enormous 300kg goliath grouper or a curious dolphin on the subsequent. As soon as, they inform me, a blue whale slowly circled the boat.
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Day three comes round and Pep pulls out his briefing board. The title of the hand-drawn map is ‘Pep’s Comfortable Place’. He explains that it’s a dive web site he found whereas flying his drone near Jellyfish Lake, an remoted lagoon the place Aggressor friends have the chance to swim with 1000’s of non-stinging jellyfish after a brief island hike (an expertise I extremely advocate).
The digital camera on Pep’s drone had revealed one other lagoon that he realised should hook up with the ocean in some way. He determined to analyze, taking an adventure-minded Aggressor visitor alongside for the trip.
They descended a wall and found an 8m-wide gap at 15m of depth, which turned out to be the mouth of a protracted tunnel with mild on the finish of it. Following the sunshine, they ultimately emerged right into a lagoon surrounded by lush inexperienced timber.
The concept of diving a web site that has solely been visited by a couple of different folks is vastly thrilling – I can’t wait to expertise it for myself.
The primary group of divers are capable of entry the tunnel and make it into Pep’s secret lagoon with no bother. However my group, the second to leap, is thwarted by a powerful present that sweeps us straight previous the outlet within the wall.
We nonetheless have a implausible dive, coming into a deep cave and taking part in with a peeping octopus, however I’m gutted nonetheless. Particularly when afterwards the eight divers that made it by means of the tunnel instructed us about popping up from the ominous darkness into vivid daylight to have a jovial dialog mid-dive, encircled by tropical timber on this hidden idyll.
The temper amongst those who missed Pep’s particular place is subdued, however he’s undaunted. ‘Let’s discover and discover a complete new dive web site,’ he suggests, with characteristically puppyish enthusiasm. ‘If it’s implausible, you’ll be able to title it and we’ll put it on Ocean Rover’s common itinerary!’
Pep pulls out his laptop computer. Google Maps and Google Earth reveal a promising shallow-looking space of reef close by. He launches his drone, explaining, because it buzzes away throughout the waves, that he’s searching for a hidden function comparable to a pinnacle or seamount.
Raja’s clear water signifies that the drone’s digital camera offers view right down to a depth of at the very least 15m. Squinting on the display, he immediately exclaims, ‘This seems like our dive web site!’
VIRGIN TERRITORY
As we package as much as enterprise into uncharted territory, I really feel nervous. There are dangers related to exploring a brand new location.
Most instantly, you could be dealt a awful dive web site, which might be an enormous disgrace given the variety of spectacular tried-and-tested dives on supply on this itinerary.
Diving in Raja on a luxurious liveaboard isn’t low-cost, so each second within the water counts.
Then there are the protection considerations: the closest hyperbaric chamber is a 130-km boat trip to Sorong. I can’t assist however dwell on the opportunity of ripping currents, perilous caves or a leviathan with gnashing enamel and pointy claws able to tear me to shreds (however that the pictures can be fabulous).
However Pep and the remainder of the crew assuage my fears. He jumps in first to ensure the world is secure, checking for currents, swell and different potential risks. He additionally notes that there’s some attention-grabbing marine life round to maintain us occupied.
The plan for the dive is extra conservative than standard: we are going to keep collectively, there’s to be no deep diving, and if anybody is uncomfortable, they will let the information know and their group of 4 can floor.
After leaping in we descend to a plateau the place I see among the largest, most vivid pink fan corals I’ve ever seen. These delicate, intricate organisms have by no means felt the kick of a careless diver’s fin.
We go deeper and discover that this untouched reef has grown to epic proportions. It’s an superior sight and I can hear the excited exclamations of my fellow divers by means of their regulators underwater.
We descend to a deep cavern whose entrance is enchantingly embellished with six big orange followers. We fortunately discover till hastily the present picks up, the water darkens and the visibility deteriorates.
Perhaps the underwater gods need to maintain this place for themselves.
Our guides tell us that it’s time to ascend. We finish the dive feeling an unlimited sense of feat as a bunch. The altering circumstances made pictures difficult, however that’s okay – my recollections will greater than suffice.
Across the dinner desk that night time the group got here up with a reputation for our dive web site: Fan-tasy Falls. If you find yourself diving there your self, take pleasure in these big followers, take beautiful footage, however keep in mind that we acquired there first!
Jenny was travelling on board the Raja Ampat Aggressor, courtesy of Aggressor Adventures. For extra details about the vary of itineraries that Aggressor has to supply, go to www.aggressor.com.
Originlly from the North of England, Jenny is an underwater photographer (British Underwater Photographer of the 12 months 2024) and documentary maker whose work has featured in Nationwide Geographic and on the BBC.
Extra nice reads from our journal
