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Stick to the usual Raja Ampat dive sites and you’re guaranteed an extraordinary underwater experience – but sometimes the greatest thrills lie in taking a chance on somewhere entirely new, as Jenny Stock found on board the Raja Ampat Aggressor
Words and photographs by Jenny Stock
Those lucky enough to take a liveaboard trip in Raja Ampat will likely find themselves visiting Piaynemo lookout. After climbing 300 steps to this prime vantage point, you are blessed with a panoramic view of this tropical paradise.
Gazing out to sea, you see clusters of jutting limestone islands dipping their feet into crystal clear water. The Halmahera Sea glistens teal, navy, cobalt, azure and emerald green. It’s an astonishing vista, but it’s no match for the magic below the surface.
Raja Ampat translates from Indonesian as ‘Four Kings’, a reference to the four main islands in the archipelago: Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo.
There are an additional 1,500 islands and cays in Raja Ampat, spanning 46,000 square kilometres (17,700 square miles). Much of this area – with ecosystems of coral reef, seagrass beds and mangroves – is yet to be explored, but more on that later.
This is the most biodiverse marine region on Earth: 1,638 reef fish species have been recorded in Raja Ampat, plus 22 shark species. You’ll find cleaning stations for oceanic manta rays, and the world’s largest nesting beaches for Pacific leatherback turtles.
I’m here because I was lucky enough to win DIVE Magazine’s Big Shots photography competition back in December 2023.
My prize? A trip on Aggressor Adventures’ Raja Ampat liveaboard, Ocean Rover, a gleaming 100-foot vessel that couldn’t be more different to the traditional Indonesian sailing 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. If you’ve seen the animated film The Incredibles, he’s basically the dad: a tall, broad, muscular man with a chiseled jaw. And, it turns out, a taste for exploration.
RAJA AMPAT’S THRIVING MARINE LIFE
First, the classic Raja dive sites. Many people are drawn to this area to see manta rays. Magic Mountain is a feeding station dive site so a likely place to see them, and even if the mantas don’t turn up, the huge schools of yellow snappers that congregate there are totally spell-binding.
Endless fields of coral form Melissa’s Garden, which has to be one of the best dive sites in the world. While there, check under those overhangs as wobbegong sharks are a common sight.
My dive at Puri Pinnacle is a heart-pounding experience. Seconds after descending to the reef, I see millions of ethereal, shimmering anchovies race above me, their bodies glittering in the sun. They pass barely a foot from me with a huge whoosh – the energy is wild, frantic even, and I can’t get enough of it.
These anchovies are highly motivated – these little fish are clearly swimming for their lives. And indeed, not far behind, I spot hunting jacks picking off the slower swimmers.
Then, all of a sudden, there’s calm. I remember to breathe again. A few moments of quiet, of building anticipation, then swoosh, the anchovies return, darting past me again with intense power.
Fish are thriving here thanks to a ban on all but local, sustainable fishing. The implementation of the first Marine Protected Area in Raja was in 2004. Today a network of 10 MPAs covers two million hectares.
Many of the fishers of yesteryear are now the rangers who protect this sanctuary, and those traditional sailing boats I spotted at Pelabuhan Perikanan harbour are now more likely to be used as pleasure craft by the tourism industry than for fishing.
Despite the amount of prey food available, sharks, the apex predators, are taking their time to return. A few black and white tip reef sharks circle us at the dive site Mayhem, but move on quickly. I’m told shark numbers are on the rise – hopefully future visitors will have better luck than I do.
On the other hand, what of the macro? It’s a very different story. Cephalopods include flamboyant cuttlefish, wunderpus, blue-ringed, coconut and mimic octopus. We also see juvenile batfish and angelfish. Tiny yellow boxfish potter about; I even see a rare orange painted frogfish munching krill on a night dive.
Raja is also home to five species of pygmy seahorse – Hippocampus bargibanti, H. denise, H. pontohi, H. satomi and H. servensi – plus the Santa Claus pygmy, a festively-themed colour variant of Denise’s pygmy seahorse.
Although not exclusive to Raja, this rare find is more common here than anywhere else in the world. This is presumably down to the presence of a large number of Melithaea fans, which can be found growing all over the place in Misool.
I managed to spot the Santa Claus thanks to the keen eyes of dive guide Adrie, who pointed out this tiny (just 1 cm!) creature at the dive site Boo Window.
It’s always a challenging experience photographing these characterful but perfectly camouflaged animals. In fact, it’s often unclear whether you’ve nailed the image until you’re back in the edit.
This dive had a bit of current, so although I tried my best to line up the shot, I did better with a H. bargibanti in calmer water at Nudi Rock dive site, later in the week.
Variety is the spice of life, and on every other voyage the Ocean Rover‘s crew see something new underwater: a lone hammerhead shark on one trip, a massive 300kg goliath grouper or a curious dolphin on the next. Once, they tell me, a blue whale slowly circled the boat.
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Day three comes around and Pep pulls out his briefing board. The title of the hand-drawn map is ‘Pep’s Happy Place’. He explains that it’s a dive site he discovered while flying his drone close to Jellyfish Lake, an isolated lagoon where Aggressor guests have the opportunity to swim with thousands of non-stinging jellyfish after a short island hike (an experience I highly recommend).
The camera on Pep’s drone had revealed another lagoon that he realised must connect to the ocean somehow. He decided to investigate, taking an adventure-minded Aggressor guest along for the ride.
They descended a wall and discovered an 8m-wide hole at 15m of depth, which turned out to be the mouth of a long tunnel with light at the end of it. Following the light, they eventually emerged into a lagoon surrounded by lush green trees.
The idea of diving a site that has only been visited by a few other people is hugely exciting – I can’t wait to experience it for myself.
The first group of divers are able to access the tunnel and make it into Pep’s secret lagoon with no trouble. But my group, the second to jump, is thwarted by a strong current that sweeps us straight past the hole in the wall.
We still have a fantastic dive, entering a deep cave and playing with a peeping octopus, but I’m gutted nonetheless. Especially when afterwards the eight divers that made it through the tunnel told us about popping up from the ominous darkness into bright daylight to have a jovial conversation mid-dive, encircled by tropical trees in this hidden idyll.
The mood among those that missed Pep’s special place is subdued, but he’s undaunted. ‘Let’s find and explore a whole new dive site,’ he suggests, with characteristically puppyish enthusiasm. ‘If it’s fantastic, you can name it and we’ll put it on Ocean Rover’s regular itinerary!’
Pep pulls out his laptop. Google Maps and Google Earth reveal a promising shallow-looking area of reef nearby. He launches his drone, explaining, as it buzzes away across the waves, that he’s looking for a hidden feature such as a pinnacle or seamount.
Raja’s clear water means that the drone’s camera gives a good view down to a depth of at least 15m. Squinting at the screen, he suddenly exclaims, ‘This looks like our dive site!’
VIRGIN TERRITORY
As we kit up to venture into uncharted territory, I feel nervous. There are risks associated with exploring a new location.
Most immediately, you might be dealt a lousy dive site, which would be a huge shame given the number of spectacular tried-and-tested dives on offer on this itinerary.
Diving in Raja on a luxury liveaboard isn’t cheap, so every moment in the water counts.
Then there are the safety concerns: the nearest hyperbaric chamber is a 130-km boat ride to Sorong. I can’t help but dwell on the possibility of ripping currents, perilous caves or a leviathan with gnashing teeth and pointy claws ready to tear me to shreds (notwithstanding that the photos would be fabulous).
But Pep and the rest of the crew assuage my fears. He jumps in first to make sure the area is safe, checking for currents, swell and other potential dangers. He also notes that there’s some interesting marine life around to keep us occupied.
The plan for the dive is more conservative than usual: we will stay together, there’s to be no deep diving, and if anyone is uncomfortable, they can let the guide know and their group of four can surface.
After jumping in we descend to a plateau where I see some of the largest, most vivid pink fan corals I have ever seen. These delicate, intricate organisms have never felt the kick of a careless diver’s fin.
We go deeper and find that this untouched reef has grown to epic proportions. It’s an awesome sight and I can hear the excited exclamations of my fellow divers through their regulators underwater.
We descend to a deep cavern whose entrance is enchantingly decorated with six huge orange fans. We happily explore until all of a sudden the current picks up, the water darkens and the visibility deteriorates.
Maybe the underwater gods want to keep this place for themselves.
Our guides let us know that it’s time to ascend. We end the dive feeling an enormous sense of achievement as a group. The changing conditions made photography tricky, but that’s okay – my memories will more than suffice.
Around the dinner table that night the group came up with a name for our dive site: Fan-tasy Falls. If you end up diving there yourself, enjoy those huge fans, take stunning pictures, but remember that we got there first.
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