Diving in West Papua, Indonesia
The Raja Ampat islands are an archipelago of hundreds of jungle covered islands. According to many divers we’ve spoken to over the years, this seems to be the best diving in the world.
We had flown into Sorong, and then had a 2 hour boat ride to the resort. Our home away from home for the next 2 weeks -
Our bungalow was the fifth down on the left, and we could always see ours coming back from a dive, due to the laundry hanging out on the lines we strung on the deck. :)
There was no AC, and since we’re near the equator on a jungle island, we constantly lived in a sheen of sweat, even with fans running.
On one of our first dives, we were excited to see a Wobbegong shark -
We soon learned that their family name is “carpet shark” and they definitely lived up to that moniker. We never saw one move, and we saw at least one on every dive.
That one was for you Nemo lovers! Anemones and their resident anemonefishes were everywhere. I won’t bore you with pictures of all the different species we saw. ;)
This Peacock Mantis Shrimp is a big dude (probably about 6 or 7 inches long)!
I caught this picture on just our second dive of the trip. For the rest of the 2 weeks, we’d only see their heads after they had scurried back into their holes -
Many fish are masters of disguise. Can you spot the Scorpionfish in the picture below?
be careful not to put your hand down on him - the spines on his back are venomous
When putting this blog together, I’m scanning through 13 folders of pictures trying to pick out the best and most unique, and not wanting to bore too many of you.
We saw tons of different nudibranchs (sea slugs), ranging in size from 1/4” to 3” or more.
From sea slugs to Mantas, we saw it all.
This big guy/gal (wingspan 16 ft!) flew right near us, and you can see how murky the water was. Steve’s video captured the show we were treated to at the Manta cleaning station -
(be sure to click the link at the bottom of the email to be able to see the videos)
There are also some pretty unique creatures we saw - a Leaf Scorpionfish…
… is just a tad ungainly, wouldn’t you say? This Bubble Coral Shrimp is almost transparent -
This is what it feels like to become one with the school…
… and this is the big picture:
The sheer numbers of fish were just mind blowing!
Two super neat creatures that we were thrilled to see were the Pygmy Seahorse and the Blue-ringed Octopus. Over 9 dives, the 2 dive guides accompanying us and other divers scoured every dive site for the Pygmy Seahorse. We couldn’t really help because we weren’t sure what we were looking for (how big exactly and where they like to hang out). First I’ll show you a short clip from Steve showing the sea fan where our guide found them…
Did you see them? Neither did I. But I aimed my camera where the guide pointed, and the camera did the rest -
That little one is less than an inch tall; be sure to zoom in and see how cute it is!
Now, to the most venomous creature in the ocean - the Blue-ringed Octopus. On our last day of diving, our guide showed us a tiny octopus in the reef. He’s the size of my thumb.
After I got a number of pictures of him, I moved on down the reef, and Steve started filming with his GoPro -
We later identified the fish as a Cheek-lined Wrasse; but, interestingly, Bard (Google’s AI) doesn’t believe it:
"There are no reef fish that are known to prey on blue-ringed octopuses. The blue-ringed octopus is one of the most venomous animals in the world, and its venom is fatal to most animals, including fish. Reef fish are typically small and do not have the strength or speed to overcome the blue-ringed octopus's venom. Additionally, the blue-ringed octopus is a skilled predator and is able to defend itself from most threats."
(We didn’t follow the fish, to see if or how quickly it died.)
A Radiant Sea Urchin (that’s actually the species’ name) on a night dive -
This next one is probably my favorite, due to the brilliant colors -
did you see the shrimp in the anemone above the fish?
So now you’ve seen the highlight reel from 2 weeks and 38 dives.
Oh! I almost forgot the resident Cuscus!
She would climb down the tree for the bananas left there by guests. A cuscus is a large marsupial found only in the forests of northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.
We had a number of gorgeous sunsets, but I limited myself to only two, to close out this post.
