The Magic of Raja Ampat

This week on Mermaid 1 we had a friendly dive club join us from Sydney, all armed with cameras to capture the magic of Raja Ampat! We headed straight down south to Misool – the soft coral & sea fan capital of the world in our opinion – and had some fantastic dives on the ‘must do’ sites Nudi Rock & Karang Bayangan, where we had a few mantas circling around the cleaning stations on Karang Bayangan. Over the next few days in the south, pygmy seahorses were out in force, and our guests got to see many individuals, including the bargibanti & denise species. Our guests were blown away by the beauty above water too in the lagoons at Balbulol.

We then moved up north for the rest of the trip, and at Kawe we had spectacular dives at Eagle & Black Rock, with many sightings of Raja’s renowned wobbegongs. In Aljui Bay, we again had some sightings of incredible critters such as a marble-mouth frogfish, and Braun’s pughead pipefish.

We finished the trip off at the serene blue water mangroves at Yangefo, and some very fishy dives at Blue Magic and Chicken Reef – a perfect end to another great trip. A big thank you to all our guests!

Mermaid I, Raja Ampat
February 25 – March 6, 2018

Christian Loader