Raja Ampat

The archipelago is a place that has the potential to serve as a tourist attraction, especially diving tourism. Raja Ampat Islands waters according to various sources, is one of the 10 best waters for diving sites around the world. In fact, it may also be recognized as number one for the completeness of underwater flora and fauna at this time.

Dr. John Veron, coral experienced experts from Australia, for example, in a site it is revealed, the Raja Ampat Islands located in the westernmost tip of New Guinea, about 50 miles northwest of Sorong, has the best reef areas in Indonesia. Approximately 450 species of coral had been identified during the two weeks of research in the area.

Raja Ampat

A team of experts from Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and National Oceanographic Institutions (Lon) Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) have done a quick assessment in 2001 and 2002. As a result, they noted in these waters there are more than 540 species of hard corals (75% of the total species in the world), more than 1,000 species of reef fish, 700 types of mollusks, and the highest record for gonodactyloid stomatopod crustaceans. This makes 75% of the world's coral species in Raja Ampat. None of the places with the same area has a number of coral species as much as this.

There are several areas of coral reefs that are still very good condition with the percentage of live coral cover to 90%, namely in the Dampier Strait (the strait between P. Waigeo and P. Batanta), Kofiau Islands, Islands and South East Misool Wayag Islands. Types of coral reefs in Raja Ampat is generally fringing reef with gentle slope to steep contour. But it was also found atoll type and type of burns or taka. In some places like the village Saondarek, when the lowest tides, coral reefs can be seen without a dive and with his own adaptation, the corals can still be alive despite being in the open air and direct sunlight.

Raja diving

Unique species that can occur during diving are some of the pigmy seahorse species or kudalaut mini, wobbegong and manta ray. There are also four endemic fish king, namely Eviota king, which is a kind of fish gobbie. At Manta Point which is located in Dampier strait Arborek, you can dive in the company of some tail Manta Ray is benign like when you dive in Derawan Islands, East Kalimantan. If you dive at Cape Kri or Chicken Reef, you can be surrounded by thousands of fish. Sometimes a collection of tuna, giant trevallies and snappers. But those tense when we are surrounded by a collection of barracuda fish, although in fact it's relatively harmless (which is dangerous if we see barracuda solitary or alone). Reef sharks are also frequently seen, and if lucky you can also see the turtle is still eating sponge or swim around you. In some places like in Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo also seen dugong or sea cow.

Because the area of ​​many islands and narrow straits, so most of the dive at a particular time has a strong current. It allows also to perform drift dive, dive, following a strong flow of water is very clear as he broke through a collection of fish. There is also a sunken airplane World War II relic that can be found in several places to make diving a great place to dive as in P. Wreck Wai. And many more reef sites that actually have never been touched. This makes diving in Raja Ampat was more challenging.