Scientific survey on Raja Ampat

Max does have a fairly nice place. When we dropped in, David Doubelet (SP?) from National Geographic was there with a trainload of equipment. However, that place is outrageously expensive. For a mere 100 eur. you can stay in the old section with no air conditioning, no screens, thatched rooves that haven't been repaired and has holes. It was not even fun/rough. If you could afford the new side (a long walk for the poor people) I guess it would be nice. Me, I'll kick back on the boat.

We have been in Raja Ampat every month except Jan-Mar and have had the best trips in NOV-DEC.

I have been 3 times, Feb., Mar. and October, all were similar to me. The big constant was that for all the wonderful animals and environment I never had consistently good water for wide angle. In a place like Raja THAT is frustrating <_< Even as I look around the web there is a dearth of good wide angle with good background water. I have considered giving up on Raja because shooting macro for days on end just isn't appetizing. We have always had an abundance of subjects, but good wide angle water was infrequent at best. Hence, I read your advert about raja trips based on tides, moon phase etc. with great and hopeful interest.

Do you get reasonably consistent good water in Nov-Dec, or is water clarity an occasional condition? I guess I am just wondering how much better you have found Nov-Dec to be over the rest of the months Raja is dived, as it applies to water clarity and shooting wide angle?

As far as where to stay, I have always liked the option of moving on to another place if water and conditions weren't particularly good at a given location. My last trip was this past February and we anchored a couple days at Kri when David and Jen were there. Kri was awful for those two days. Probably the worst water conditions we had for the whole two weeks. You could shoot all the macro you wanted and chase a few fish around but anything wide was out of the question. Currents were significant in the afternoon too, but that is my Kri experience on all 3 trips. In a case like this having the latitude to move on is sometimes a welcome option.

As I have said, I just returned from RA. We did mostly the southern areas. I was very disappointed in the vis. Lots of particulates in the water. Unfortunately, those healthy well fed reefs feed on all that stuff. I guess to get that great biodiversity, you have to pay the price. I had only a few days worthy of wide angle shooting.

Tony, are Nov.-Dec. consistently good?

I have been 3 times, Feb., Mar. and October, all were similar to me. ....

Do you get reasonably consistent good water in Nov-Dec, or is water clarity an occasional condition?

We don't think viz or conditions are guaranteed at any time of the year at any location. In our experience, mid-October to mid-Dec have consistently the best conditions in Raja Ampat. least rain, best weatther. Viz is variable any time of the year. Our experience is that viz does vary, sometimes from day to day, so we are prepared to alter the itinerary based on what we find.

We get first pick of each year's liveaboard schedule before it is published, so the dates we choose are those we believe have best conditions.

We do a lot of wide angle, probably 80%. Some days we put the ship at a good macro spot and let everyone dive as much as they want. Other days we plan for wide angle (one can always shoot macro). We sit with the captain, our local "expert" and look at the currents, then choose our dive site based on that and the time of day (for the angle of the sun). Some sites we do the other liveaboards don't. One is a site we tend to base the rest of our itinerary around since for good diving there it is critical to get the current in the right direction with the sun at the right angle. It is one of the photographer's favorites.

I can't imagine a trip in Raja Ampat doing mostly macro! Have you seen our galleries?

Raja Ampat Gallery 1

Raja Ampat Gallery 2

Raja Ampat Gallery 3

2006 was the worst year we've had for viz. One of our favorite sites for wide angle had terrible viz. We'd planned to spend the day there, but instead moved the boat 1.5 hours to a site that had excellent viz. Kri also was disappointing on the 2nd trip. Viz was pretty good, but No fish! First time we'd done dives there that were boring. We noticed the top of the reef was all broken up (recently as chunks of coral when moved revealed perfect coral underneath) and the "Koteka" was broken off. Possibly from too many divers grabbing onto it in the current.

I like land-based diving but in Raja Ampat you miss too much of the best stuff staying at one place... plus are stuck in one spot. Add up the costs of the land based with surcharges for trips to Fam, etc. and it will be more than a liveaboard. We do 4-7 dives per day, so if you add that in too.... liveaboard is less expensive, visits more sites and depending on the flexibility of the cruise/charter has the option to move if conditions are not right.

Also.. Seven Seas is a very nice new boat. Last Dec. we looked at chartering it for photo trips and determined that SMY Ondina is much better for photo groups & lots of diving so are sticking with it for all our groups. Ondina does have ensuite bath in each cabin !! plus a lot more storage space. SMY Ondina does not do marketing in the USA and Deb is the only agent for them. We feel very lucky to have found it.