Looking for somewhere new to dive?

Not just another new dive site or an area that has been discovered, this is a whole new dive destination. Earlier this year I was the luckiest fella who got to lead a trip for Conservation International with Gerry Allen, Mark Erdmann and a whole bunch of other marine life experts. This trip was to survey the reefs on southern Irian Jaya way further south of the Raja Ampat. We had already surveyed the northern islands around Teluk Cendrawasih. Coral experts were blown away in Teluk Cendrawasih with the biodiversity of hard corals, they found many unknown species, though for recreational diving and general fish biomass it was not all that hot! What we found on the south though was a totally different ball game. Gerry & Mark came across 13 new species of fish. As Gerry flooded his camera on the first dive of the trip, and guess what... never had a back up either, as you'd imagine he never managed to get any images at all. Needless to say they are hanging out to get back there to photograph these new fish species and look for more early next year. Me, I only managed to get a few critter and topside shots, this was a trip where I wished had a real camera as the underwater scenery was just incredible. Even more... the fish biomass was the highest ever recorded in Asia. The only guys who never really got buzzed were the hard coral experts, well you can't please everyone! Even though we found gorgeous hard coral gardens, the species diversity was fairly low, one theory is that the fresh water vents (I found a site with a few great underwater vents) were killing off the coral spores early in their life when they are on the surface -- sounds feasible hey! Anyway needless to say I am now hanging out to get back there and have arranged for a boat to be there from November onwards where we will be taking every trip round this new destination.

Rather then clogging the blog so to speak, you can see my basic gallery of images from this area at http://www.diving4images.com/fakfak_gallery.html. These are a few of photo’s that I took with my little Sony T1, great camera for macro that fits in ya pocket!

See ya there…

Graham

http://www.diving4images.com

Hi Graham,

Looks like a great area. Loved the photographs. I'm interested in the whale photo- is it a blue? and did you get any other sightings? As a marine biologist I've been involved in whale research in the Arabian Sea and elsewhere. My wife's just in the process of writing an article on blue whales globally, so any additional information on sightings (even if anecdotal) would be interesting.

Keep up the good work, and I hope to get out to some of these new areas at some point myself.

Fergus

I have been diving through the galleries and right now I am very nervous!! what a collection of frogfish etc... I did Maumere-Sorong with the Ondina once and it was something to remember...

I think the whales were Minke's though I have to admit I am not all that hot on my whales if they were blue they were certainly very small ones. They may actually trapped in this bay, if so I will let you know, I am back in this area from November onwards. You bet I am counting down the days before I can take groups of divers and show them this great new place.

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I am gald you enjoyed your trip with Ricard on Ondina! However it's hard not to enjoy that itinerary. In my mind this is the Ultimate Indonesia trip! You get the chance to dive on every kind of environment possible on this route. Did Ricard take you to south Pantar to try and see the wonderpuss, froggies and more?

I took Ricard and Ondina for their first trip though Banda, showing him most of the sites I know through here. I think everyone who who comes to Indonesia regularly has to make this trip at least once. I have a few friends who try and join me every time I take a trip.

Cheers

Graham