Raja Ampat Underwater Photography Cruises

Raja Ampat and the Birds Head Seascape are known to have:

• 1,629 species of reef fish in the Bird's Head Seascape

• 1,427 species of reef fish in the Raja Ampat (and counting...)

• 35 species of endemic reef fish found only in the Bird's Head Seascape

• 600 species of hard coral recorded in the Bird's Head Seascape

• 75% of all known coral species in the world

• 10 times the number of hard coral species found in the entire Caribbean

• 57 species of Mantis Shrimp in the Bird's Head Seascape

• 13 species of Marine mammals in the Bird's Head Seascape

• 5 species of endangered sea turtles in the Bird's Head Seascape

---

Arborek Bommie has beautiful soft coral and fish life in shallow water.

Gillian Robertson snorkels above the spectacular reefs of Fam Passage.

Beautiful mangroves with corals just below the surface

Fam Passage has beautiful corals in shallow depths

Pygmy Seahorses are found in the shallow waters of Raja Ampat

Soft Corals grow in very shallow depths with jungle growing just above the surface

Papuan boy greets us under his village jetty

Schooling snappers at Mioskon Island.

Raja Ampat is the location of the World's richest reefs. This group of islands surround the western tip of the island of Papua in eastern Indonesia.
The reefs of Raja Ampat have the largest concentrations of fish and coral life anywhere in the World. The area literally teams with masses of fish living around the the most colorful reefs on earth.
Our next cruise with vacancies is in 2022. Please Contact Us for more details.

---

---

Video Filmed on our Raja Ampat trips

---

Raja Ampat diving is both rich and diverse. With fantastic above water  scenery as well as beautiful reefs below the surface. Our trips are timed around the best time of year for u/w visibility and around moon phases as these are the driver of currents that sweep through this region twice daily. We do our best to only dive on locations that are current prone, when tidal exchange is at a minimum, so we experience some current to allow the soft corals and fish to feed in the plankton rich waters, but not so much that we can't take photos! We will try our best too:

• Dive on reefs accompanied by dense schools of fish and be surrounded by reefs of unequalled richness; literally dripping with soft corals, seafans and sponges of every colour imaginable.
• Descend on sand slopes where rare and exotic critters hide in cryptic homes, even a walking shark!
• Explore below jetty's where schools of fish surround the soft coral covered piles and schools of batfish meander.
• Dive on shallow coral reefs that grow right up to the surface among mangrove trees, the perfect location for half-in, half-out photos.
• Explore the steep walls and ledges of a sheltered island where rare nudibranchs and small critters abound.
• Drift through a narrow, river-like channel between two islands, where jungle reaches down to the surface of the sea. Below the surface brightly coloured soft corals and sea fans reach upwards to almost touch the overhanging trees that line the limestone cliffs. Nudibranchs in all shapes and sizes feed in the shadows.

The adventure of the unexpected is one of the great draw cards of these trips. But the things that we can guarantee are:

• Cruising among islands of incredible beauty.
• Fantastic diving with opportunities for both great macro and wide angle photography.
• No unnecessarily long boat journeys.
• No-one rushed to finish their dives, with ample bottom time on every dive.
• No-one watching you still have 50bar when you board the dive boat.
• You won't be treated like a beginner, as we only invite experienced divers (minimum 100 dives)
• Free help with your underwater photography.
• All levels of photography & camera types catered for: Compact, Mirrorless, DSLR & Video.
• Free help with editing your photos with Adobe Lightroom.
• These trips are all about fun, u/w photography, plain relaxing, diving and cruising around the picturesque islands of Raja Ampat.

Raja Ampat is a remote area and requires two flight legs out of Bali.  We organise accommodation for one overnight on the outward leg of the journey, which is included in the cost. We set our trip length at 12 days, as we then get to cruise at a sensible pace, with enough time to travel comfortably between dives and have limited overnight motoring. Our plan is to be anchored or moored each night at a night dive location, and most travelling will be between dives during the daytime.

The rock islands inside Penemu Lagoon are spectacular when travelled by dinghy.

---

There is more information and photos of our live-aboard vessel at Raja Ampat - Vessel Details page.
We also have a video about the MV Kalabia, a floating education centre traveling around the islands of Raja Ampat. This video was produced by our good friend professional videographer Chris Paporakis of Spice Island Films.
If you have any questions not answered here then please use our Contact Us - Live Aboard page.
We have photos from our previous trips to Raja Ampat at our Flickriver Photo Site, or click on any small thumbnail image below to go to our Flickr photo site images from Raja Ampat:

---

Island Scenery Northern Raja Ampat

Schooling Scad at Arborek Jetty