Raja Ampat, Indonesia

I just returned from another trip to Indonesia; this time to an area called the Raja Ampat Archipelago.

The Raja Ampat archipelago encompasses nearly ten million acres of land and sea off the northwestern tip of Indonesia’s West Papua Province. Raja Ampat means “Four Kings,” and consists of the four large islands of Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati, and Misool, plus hundreds of smaller islands. Located in the so-called Coral Triangle, the heart of the world’s coral reef biodiversity, the seas around Raja Ampat possibly hold the richest variety of species in the world.

Recently, when I told a friend that I would be traveling to Raja Ampat, he commented that I would be going to the “edge of the earth.” Well, flying there and back certainly makes you feel that way. To get there, I flew from Washington, DC, to London, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Denpassar, Bali, Indonesia. After a night and a day in Bali, I took a short flight to Ujung Pandang (Mankassar), on southwestern Sulawesi, spent another night at a hotel, and then flew onward to Sorong.

But calling Raja Ampat the “edge of civilization” is perhaps even more appropriate. The airport at Sorong, the “gateway” to Raja Ampat, is a small, dimly lit single story building, covered with a corroding iron roof, with portions of the ceiling missing and others stained brown to announce that they too would soon be falling to the floor. Sections of the tile floor are missing, the pale blue painted walls are peeling and bare; there are no enticing travel posters here, no colorful photographs of the beautiful attractions in the area or of beautiful, smiling tourists with their “come join me” looks, only a small sign tucked in the corner near the exit with the name and a listing of the amenities of one of the area’s two hotels.

I was met at the airport by Mark Heighes, my host and guide for this trip. Mark is a round faced, blond haired, enthusiastic, forty year old Australian who has lived and operated dive charters in Indonesia for over twenty years. Mark was introduced to scuba diving by his aunt and uncle, pioneers Ron and Valerie Taylor. If you have ever watched “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel, then you have seen the Taylors (she’s the one in the metal dive suit who gets bit on the arm by a shark--ouch!).

The scene at the airport was chaotic. Outside, children and dogs greeted the arrival of our flight by running around on the tarmac. In a curious procedure, since I had already been in Indonesia for two days, Indonesian immigration officials stopped us to inspect our passports, apparently to “protect” the local Papuan population from foreign agitators who would support the Papuan desires for independence from Indonesia. Inside the building, these same Papuan men gathered to collect baggage for a fee of 10,000 rupiah (Indonesian) per bag, which after further and heated negotiations with Mark was increased to 20,000 rupiah. I was undeterred by the price; I had three very heavy bags of equipment and since 20,000 rupiah converts to about $2.20 I concluded it was within my budget.

Leaving the airport was simple. All that was necessary was a short walk past the sidewalk vendors selling dried fish to the dock in front of the airport, where my baggage was lowered into a small boat for the short ride to the MV Bidadari, anchored in front of the airport, to begin the cruise.

Scuba diving in Raja Ampat is characterized by outstanding scenery, both above and below the waterline. Much of the diving is on coral reefs beneath small mushroom shaped rock islands, topped with green vegetation and rising from the blue ocean. Beneath the water’s surface, the reefs are covered with lush soft corals, sea fans and sponges in every possible color, which are swarmed by thousands of small orange and purple anthias (a kind of fish). Large fields of pristine hard corals cover the top of the reef and large table corals compete with the soft corals and sea fans for space on the reef walls. Most of the reefs are surrounded by clouds of baitfish and fusiliers (also a kind of fish) so thick they can block the sum. Large fish such as groupers, tuna and mackerel, attracted by the schooling baitfish, are present on many of the reefs, as are all of the normal smaller reef dwellers.

The diving in Raja Ampat can be unique. At Kabui Passage, between Waigeo and Gam Islands, a narrow passage, only the distance of a short Peyton Manning touchdown pass, separates the two islands. There is often a swift flow of water in the channel and the key to the dive is staying close to the edge of the channel, where there are many large rocks and small bays in which shelter from the current can be found.

Cruising up the passage in a small boat, I sensed that the passage was more like a tropical river, with beautiful and lush jungle foliage hanging over the edges of the water, than an ocean passage. But beneath the water’s surface, it became immediately apparent that I was in the ocean, with soft corals, sea fans and sponges growing from the sides and floor of the channel, and even from trees that had fallen into the passage. There were lots of fish, including large trevally, sweetlips, batfish and bumphead parrotfish, and many small reef tropicals as well. Kabui Passage is an unusual place where the ocean meets the tropical forest and the experience of diving in the ocean with the jungle above my head is one that I’ll long remember.

Even the least inspiring reefs provided exciting moments. At Pulau Bada (a much more romantic name than Stupid Island, which is what Pulau Bada actually means), I dove on a relatively unremarkable reef with small coral heads surrounded by areas of coral rubble and sand. In the shallow areas, there were large fields of staghorn coral, much of which was dead. After over an hour in the water in which I found little interesting to watch or photograph, I was ecstatic to finally find, in only five feet of water, a purple mantled anemone inhabited by a pair of large spot porcelain crabs and a couple of small clownfish.

Pleased by my good fortune, I adjusted my camera settings and began to photograph the crabs. After a couple of releases of the camera shutter, I stopped to adjust the aim of my strobe lights. Pulling my eye from the viewfinder, and for an instant looking down, I saw the unmistakable black and white tail of a venomous banded sea snake in the dead coral mere inches beneath me. I know that sea snakes are not aggressive and are considered harmless to humans, but believe me, my adrenaline overwhelmed my logic and my heart raced. As a precaution, I watched the snake while it slowly passed by in its continuing search for dinner, and then I completed photographing the crabs.

I mentioned previously that the waters in the vicinity of Raja Ampat may hold the richest variety of species in the world. A recent scientific expedition, which was organized by Conservation International, revealed an extraordinary wealth of marine biodiversity: 450 species of hard coral, more than 600 mollusk species, and as many as 1,100 fish species.

The area’s massive coral colonies show that its reefs are resistant to threats like coral bleaching and disease —threats that now jeopardize the survival of corals around the world. In addition, Raja Ampat’s strong ocean currents sweep coral larvae across the Indian and Pacific Oceans to replenish other reef ecosystems. Raja Ampat’s coral diversity, resilience to threats, and ability to replenish reefs make it a global priority for marine protection. To advance this goal, Raja Ampat is being considered as a possible world heritage site by UNESCO.