I first dove in Raja Ampat (in Papua, Indonesia) two years ago: https://theperennialpilgrim.com/diving-in-raja-ampat
It was a nice experience, but it wasn’t as mind blowing as many people I talked to experienced. Especially since Raja Ampat is considered to have the richest variety of marine life in the world. So, I decided to return this year. I’m glad I did.
Instead of staying only on Kri Island as I had the first time, I decided to experience Raja Ampat on a liveaboard dive boat. It made all the difference. We went to a wider range of sites over both southern and central Raja Ampat and what I saw was wonderful.
As before, the natural scenary above the water was spectacular. Below is Lover’s Lake.
This is the famous Piaynemo Viewpoint which is also pictured on the back of the 100,000 Rupiah note, which is Indonesia’s largest banknote.
Surfacing from each dive provided another way of appreciating Raja Ampat’s landscape.
The sunrise one morning before our first dive.
And the sunset about twelve hours later.
General Sea Life
As expected in a place that is credited with having the richest marine biodiversity on Earth, the abundance of the sea life was wonderful to behold.
Specific Fish Sightings
Raja Ampat had more than just large, diverse fish schools. There were a lot of nice sightings of specific fish.
One of the most dramatic scenes in coral reef diving is seeing lean, agile reef sharks gliding by. Here are grey tip, white tip and black tip reef sharks.
The coolest sharks in the area are wobbegong sharks who use their unique mouth and lip structure to both blend into their surroundings and sense for prey.
We saw some pretty hungry turtles on these dives.
It was strange to see some ramoras out on their own and not attached to a larger fish or turtle.
This eel was in the middle of a nice spa session with some local cleaner shrimp.
This octopus put on a nice show for us.
There were some really interesting small sea life nestled among the larger fish.
Right at the end of the video this cuttlefish flashed its tongue out and caught some prey.
This mantis shrimp seemed to be trying to size my camera up for a possible attack.
Pegasus fish are also called mothfish. You can see the resemblance to moths in the video below. They have modified pelvic fins that allow them to “walk” across the sea bottom where they live.
A similar looking relative is the sea robins. This one was having a really nice meal.
Coral
The foundation of all this sea life is the healthy, abundant coral throughout Raja Ampat. Which makes sense since this area is in the heart of the Coral Triangle. As usual, I saved a lot of the coral videos. Hopefully when people dive here 20-30 years from now it looks just as robust.
The Boat
In 2023 I did a weeklong liveaboard on the Lady Denok in Komodo. It was a great experience. In the rainy season in the south of Indonesia they move up to Raja Ampat. So I did this trip with them and I, again, really enjoyed their service.
The boat was built in 2015 in Sulawesi in the traditional Indonesian phinisi design, as are a lot of the Indonesian liveaboards.
There’s a nice open lounge area.
The diving staging area.
The very comfortable dining area.
My surprisingly large single cabin.
The crew had a nice top deck dinner for us near the end of the trip.
We had a great group shot at Pianemo
Clowning around with my Swiss dive buddy.
The friendly and very competent crew.
The 32 dives we did. I skipped two night dives, so I “only” got 30 dives in.
