Trip Reports

Starting from Missols with an early dive. From far we could hear a school of Bumpheads feeding on hard corals. The sun rays of an early morning shining over the wall making a beautiful contrast of natural lights over the reef, a perfect underwater background. Out in the blue, hundreds of Big-eyed trevallies swim together […]

Recently there has been a considerable amount of action on the surface here in Raja Ampat. In the first month or so of the season we had multiple encounters with the ultra rare Omura’s whale as they demonstrated how to properly lunge feed to their oversized offspring. The plankton which drew the whales close into […]

Years ago, well before Raja Ampat became a marine protected area, it was a mecca for sharks. As a result of the devastating effects of shark finning, the shark population was decimated. Thanks to the  protective measures from conversations group, shark fishing, and all other forms of commercial fishing have been banned within the marine […]

Raja Ampat, which translates to The Four Kings in English, is made up four main islands. According to myth, these islands are where four kings ruled after hatching from the eggs of a megapode bird. It is these four islands; Waigeo, Salawate, Batanta, and Misool that make up the worlds largest repository of tropical marine […]

Mermaid1 goes to an extraordinary journey from Raja Ampat all the way to Lembeh Straits with an outstanding Barracuda stopover in Halmahera! Oceanic Manta rays, schools of Jacks and Barracudas showing off right at the first dive! A great start from Dampier Strait. Arrived in Missols with blue skies, no wind and an amazing visibility! […]

It’s that time of the year where amongst all the schooling fishes, it’s quite common to also bump into Santa on one of these dives. This year’s presents are just phenomenal: colorful reefs full of fish down in Misool, several Oceanic Manta Rays are the icing on the “Christmas cake”. Surprised by clear visibility and […]

Light is an important thing as we immerse ourselves in the underwater world. As divers we all know that the deeper we go, the less light we have and the less light we have the less color we see. Even in Raja Ampat, well known for it’s magical coral gardens which beam with an array […]

Diving in Raja Ampat you’ll run into and often surrounded by a number of schooling fish. Fusileers congregate in giant swarms in the blue and can engulf you completely as they uniformly try to escape the jaws of tuna and travelly. Mountains of Sweetlips and rivers of snappers are found in the same spots on […]