ABOUT RAJA AMPAT
Waigeo island is the larger of the four brother islands that make up Raja Ampat and lies north of the famous diving of the Dampier Strait. The island is around 3,150 square kilometers and measures around 110 km from it’s west to east points.
The Raja Ampat Marine Park is one of the most famous MPA success stories in the world. It is a network of marine protect areas that covers 4.6 million hectors of ocean and 411 islands within the region. The area is recognized as the most biodiverse marine ecosystem on the planet with over 1,600 species of fish and 550 species of coral recorded.
Raja Ampat is world famous for it’s exceptional diving. It has several manta ray cleaning stations that hosts a large population of reef mantas (Mobula alfredi) and the occasional oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris). It has some of the healthiest shark populations in South East Asia with regular sightings of reef sharks like white tip (Triaenodon odesus), black tip (Carcharhinus melanopterrus), and grey reefs (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos). Other noteworthy sharks include the Indonesian Wobbegong (Orectolobus leptolineatus), zebra shark (Stegostoma tigrinum), walking or epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium greycineti). Occasional sightings of migrating whale sharks and marine mammals are also spotted. Raja Ampat is also the birthplace of macro diving and is filled with incredible endemic critters.
