Forested Islands of Raja Ampat
Viewpoint of Sorong Bay
Within the Dampier region we did three dives, Sawan Darek was a highlight dive. Within the sheltered bay you enter close to the jetty, where you are instantly welcomed by shoals of sweetlips and batfish. From the jetty you follow the gentle slope down, where there’ s an opportunity to see the large green turtle usually seen hiding among the coral overhangs.
Heading deeper, it levels out to where there are large formations of hard coral with shoals of fish. Take a look under these, as there are opportunities to see wobbegong sharks sheltering, another species which I was keen to tick off while on the trip, where we saw a few at this site. As you pass the fan corals, it’ s worth looking closer for the opportunity to see some pygmy seahorses. Whether it’ s macro or the larger species, this site has it all, especially as the visibility was even clearer, with little to no current.
Whale sharks feeding close to the bagan
Coral reefs densely filled with a diversity of species
From Dampier Strait, we headed to the Fam Islands, where we visited the iconic dive site Melissa’ s Garden. This site features two pinnacles, with a network of gullies and overhangs below the surface. What makes it famous is the vast array of brilliantly colored corals extending as far as the eye can see. Swimming over the corals, the water is full of small reef fish, especially damsels and anthias, which constantly move in and out of the coral formations as predatory fish such as blue spotted trevally cruise across the reefs. Swimming through this site is truly relaxing – you can take in the diversity unfolding in front of you amid the soft and hard corals.
South to Misool
The journey continued to the region of Misool. One of the most feted sites here is Nudi Rock, so-called because it looks like a nudibranch on the surface. Misool is also home to a much photographed scenic dive known as Boo Windows and the manta cleaning station known as Magic Mountain. The latter is an extensive seamount known for its reliable manta ray encounters. We were fortunate to dive this world class site twice. We descended on the reef top at around 7m, then headed down to the deeper cleaning station at 20m. Here there was a bit more of a current running so we stayed close to the reef and then tucked in to wait to see what would appear out of the blue.
Abundance of colourful coral reefs are found across region
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