Raja Ampat
Located
off the northwest tip of Bird's
Head
Peninsula
on the
island
of
New Guinea
, Raja Ampat, or the Four
Kings, a fast archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands, cays and
shoals surrounding the four main islands Misool, Salawati, Batanta and
Waigeo. It is a part of the newly named Papua
province
of
Indonesia
which was formerly called Irian Jaya.
Raja Ampat's pristine beauty, both above the water and below the water, is truly unrivalled. Its remote location and lack of infrastructure have inhibited the growth of tourism. This area's staggering abundance of marine life is due in part to its incredibly low human population density. Beneath the dense jungle canopy, the islands are primarily karst limestone, which are dry, inhospitable, and overwhelmingly vertical. The few resident Papuans are mainly a subsistence society, exploiting a variety of resources to meet their basic needs. Fishing is only one of these resources, and they continue to employ traditional, low-impact fishing techniques, using a hook and line from dug-out canoes.
Papua
was resently on the news in the Netherlands, they high-lighted the area
as the most unprecedented fish area of this planet.
The discoveries where made bij "Conservation International"
( http://www.conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/ )
.
Watch the latest video review from Bill Macdonald on 
Fish Capital of World Ocean recorded in Raja Ampat
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Papua
Diving
is a Dutch owned and managed company. Max Ammer and Rob Hoogendoorn are
owners/managers, while almost all the rest of the staff are indigenous Papuan
people. Our Kri
Eco Resort and Sorido
Bay Resort are positioned in close proximity of the richest reefs and a 75km distance from Sorong the only town. We have been operating our "Kri
Eco Resort" since 1994, while our luxurious resort "
Sorido
Bay
Resort" just opened its doors in November 2004.
Our
company Papua Diving has
experience diving and pioneering the area since 1990. With 16 years of
diving experience in the Raja Ampat we know the area as no other. Some of our guides have close to 9.000 dives and it will be clear that the diving we offer reflects this. We can share more locations than you can dive in many weeks and our guides can find almost anything! Because of this we have a very high number of returning guests. Our company was the
first to explore the islands on scuba and a lot of our
knowledge we gained by working with the local Papuan people. All of our
diving staff are born and raised in the area.
New
discoveries are still made
here almost daily. The area never ceases to amaze us, even after all the years we have been
exploring!!! Scroll to our recent
discoveries section above to find out what
are our latest finds!
Scroll
to our Expert comments section above to find out
what leading marine biologists, scientists and researchers have to say
about the Raja Ampat. Their comments support our
vision on the unique biodiversity and beauty of this area. A stunning
example of this are the comments made by World-renowned
ichthyologist and author of several fish identification books Dr. Gerald
Allen. Dr. Allen,
has been our guest several times. He broke his personal
record on a single dive by identifying 283 different species of fish and
concluded that the Raja Ampat
harbors the greatest biodiversity he has ever
registered. The research team recorded 828 species of reef fishes in the assessment, raising the known total in that region to 970. In addition, 456 species of hard corals were recorded, which is more than half the world's total. Including previous studies, this brings the total number of hard coral species in Raja Ampat to 565, and no other area of comparable size has this many species.
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Raja
Ampat
The Raja
Ampat
island group spreads out over a huge area and consists of over 610 islands. The four
largest islands are Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati and Misool and are located at the Westside
of the “Bird head peninsula” in New Guinea. The Indonesian province Papua is the
western half of the island of New Guinea, while Papua New Guinea is the eastern half.
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Michael Aw:
"I was like a five-year-old, seeing a reef for the very first time. I was awestruck, held by the incredible power of this richest reef. We must, with all available resources, preserve the beauty of Raja Ampat. This may be the last frontier."
issue 2 of Asian
Geographic in 2003 |
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Kri Eco Resort
Our
longest established Kri
Eco Resort consists of traditional
buildings over the water, along a jetty and offers traditional
Papuan accommodation with excellent food and a relaxed,
friendly atmosphere. The whole resort is consequently built by Papuan
villagers and many of the former builders are now part of our permanent
team. The resort is truly part of nature and every morning guests are
awoken by an orchestra of birds.
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Sorido
Bay
Resort
The
newly built Sorido
Bay Resort offers western
comforts in traditional Papuan setting. We combined modern and
traditional building methods to create a balanced and very comfortable
resort. This resort is built for the more demanding diver and special care
has been taken to have everything right for the UW photo & video
enthusiast. After been active in the dive industry for more than 10 years
the idea was borne to built the ideal dive resort. Great
accommodation, fantastic cuisine and TOP diving!
The resort has all comforts but is completely integrated in nature and has one of the worlds richest dive sites as its house reef. Our guides are very experienced/knowledgeable and the diving reflects that. We take a maximum of 6 divers in each boat and strive to have one guide for every 2 divers. Thus all diving is tailor made and personalized. We take great pride in our work and can and will amaze even the most seasoned divers. As you read through our web site you will see that we have had quite a number of world's prime UW photographers as our guest. The experience we gained in guiding them will be to your benefit
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Scroll
to our Expert
comments section above to find out what leading
marine biologists, scientists and researchers have to say about the Raja
Ampat. Their comments support our vision on the
unique biodiversity and beauty of this area. A stunning example of this are
the comments made by
World-renowned ichthyologist and author of several fish identification books
Dr. Gerald Allen.
Dr. Allen, has been our guest several times. He
broke his personal record on a single dive by identifying 283 different
species of fish and
concluded that the Raja
Ampat harbors the greatest
biodiversity he has ever
registered. The research team recorded 828 species of reef fishes in the assessment, raising the known total in that region to 970. In addition, 456 species of hard corals were recorded, which is more than half the world's total. Including previous studies, this brings the total number of hard coral species in Raja Ampat to 565, and no other area of comparable size has this many species.
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Dr. Gerald R. Allen:
"On
his first visit with Irian Diving (Now Papua Diving), Dr. Allen
stated in a report for Conservation International, that the reefs were among
the best he had ever seen and that he had never seen so many big fish during
any of his previous visits in Indonesia"
Dr. Gerald R. Allen
Western Australian Museum
Perth, Australia
Author of 25+ marine life books
During his last stay with us, Dr. G. Allen recorded 283 different species of fish during ONE dive, which is a worldwide record! Dr. Allen made this amazing record while diving "Cape Kri" which is our home reef!
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Kri
Eco Resort