Any diver will tell you that the last few dives of a dive trip tend to be among the best of the entire journey! Our last day was the most colorful. I’m not sure why that is, perhaps the ocean and its creatures want to make sure we will come back to see them. Whatever the reason, here is a photoblog of day 10 in Raja Ampat, on the luxurious Arenui Boutique Liveaboard, with Andrea Marshall and Ray of Hope Expeditions! Enjoy the colors of the sea!
There are few things in this world I enjoy more than scuba diving, and when I can combine my love of the ocean and its creatures with performing citizen science, I feel like I am doing something to contribute in a positive way to help our environment. I love to travel with my friend, Dr Andrea Marshall, the co-founder of Marine Megafauna Foundation, and principal Manta Ray scientist for the foundation. She was the first person to do a PhD on Manta Rays, and identified two separate species. Her citizen science expeditions are called Ray of Hope, and the trips are always thrilling and informative. Andrea’s love and passion for Mantas is infectious, and I have absolutely caught her enthusiasm for the species.
My first introduction to Manta Rays was off the coast of Ft Lauderdale, Florida, when I was a little girl. They could be seen on the surface during the month of June. Nothing was known about these animals so we were called out of the water so the “devil fish” wouldn’t eat us. My dad always had binoculars with him, and he and I would take turns looking at them from the beach, and from our 5th story hotel room. They looked like they were flying in the water. Until Andrea Marshall (aka Queen of Mantas) began to study them for her PhD in Mozambique, very little was known about them. In a little more than a decade, much has been learned about Manta Rays, thanks to Andrea. She identified two species of Manta in 2008, and this was the first major species to have been discovered by a scientist in 50 years!
I met Andrea when I was in Mozambique in 2012 volunteering in a program to photograph and identify Whale Sharks and to count reef fish. Since that time, I have traveled with Andrea to participate in citizen science in Ecuador, the Yucatan, Komodo National Park, and most recently, on this trip to Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Whenever I travel and have the opportunity to see Manta Rays, I photograph them and upload their photos to Manta Matcher, a global identification software to track Mantas and their movements all over the world.
I am fascinated by the ocean, and by everything that lives in it, but Mantas are the most thrilling animal for me. I will go just about anywhere to see them. Both species are large, an Alfredi’s wingspan average is about 3 or 3.5 meters (12 feet or so) while a Biostris (Giant) Manta’s wingspan can be up to 7 meters (over 20 feet!). In Raja Ampat, our research targets were both Alfredi and Biostris.
The particular dive site we went to is known only to a few people, so I will not name it here. I will say that it is a very pretty site, with stag corals and small cleaner fish. Blue spotted rays were also all over the site. One of the major activities of a Manta’s day is visiting a “cleaning station”, a spot where numerous reef cleaner fish live, waiting to eat the parasites, dead skin, bacteria, and other good stuff from large pelagic (deep ocean) animals. Cleaning is vital to a Manta’s health. By removing harmful detritus from the Manta, the reef fish get food, and the Manta is kept infection free (and wounds are picked clean, allowing them to heal.) Witnessing the cleaning station is a magical experience. The Manta slows down (Mantas always must swim or move through water, it can never rest), hovers over the “station” which is usually a coral head or rock, and the reef fish swoop in for the cleaning. They make several very slow passes over the reef, allowing the fish to do their work. Their mouths are a bit open to allow the fish into the mouth and gill plates (Mantas are filter feeders, eating krill and plankton, the smallest creatures on the planet), and the Manta unwinds its cephalic fins, allowing them to be picked clean as well. It is a ritualistic and beautiful process.
What part do I play when I go on these trips? I get photo identifications of the animals. Manta Matcher takes these ID photos and matches them with others to see if the animal has been seen before, and where. Behavior is important to note, as is the physical condition of the ray. One of the mantas we saw on these dives was missing the tip of her wing. It looked like a clean cut, but I didn’t get a photo, though I did get film.
Also on this day, we snorkeled with the Mantas. ID shots are a goal when snorkeling, but watching behavior and just the sheer joy of being in the water with them are paramount. Manta Rays are gentle creatures, and are endangered. Indonesia in particular is being fierce regarding their protection. Their economic value far outweighs fishing them for their gill plates for Chinese medicine. Manta Rays are endangered, but not every country protects them. For instance, Mozambique has lost 90% of their population over the last twelve years, and that is beginning to be felt economically. Divers who went to Mozambique to see Mantas are now heading to Indonesia and the Maldives where they are more plentiful.
I hope you enjoyed a little citizen science trip with these magnificent creatures! I’m headed to the Yucatan to look for them soon, then off to the Revillagigedos Archipelago, where encounters are very special.
On day 8 of one of the best dive trips of my life, the Arenui Liveaboard headed into the Dampier Strait of Raja Ampat. Our dive sites were Cape Kri, Blue Magic, and Saonek Jetty. Saonek Jetty brought the biggest shock of the day! The dive site is at a jetty, just as it sounds, and it was a nice, shallow dive site. During my first dive there, I saw a Titan Triggerfish. The Titan has a bad reputation for being aggressive, and I had heard the stories of broken jaws, stitches, and broken ribs. Yikes! I have always been very respectful of the Titan, it is a meaty, muscular triggerfish. On this dive, I saw a Titan diving down, and realized it was building a nest. I didn’t go close to her, but she saw me and came after me with a vengeance! Scared me to death. I had my brand new camera in my brand new Nauticam housing, and the only thing between my face and the fish was my housing. As the fish shot toward me I pushed out at it with my housing. My thought was, great, my first trip with this gear and it is going to be broken. The Titan came after me three times, and how it did not crash into my housing dome I will never know. My dive buddy swam up afterward to make sure I was okay. Okay but a bit shaken, I admit!
Cape Kri was an absolutely beautiful dive site, one of the most visually beautiful of the trip, both above and below. A large group of Bumphead Parrotfish were in the shallows, hanging out on our safety stop. The light was decent so I was able to take good photos of them. They are so ugly, but big and fascinating to watch!
Blue Magic was a gorgeous dive site, and almost an eerie dive. The fish shoals were huge, and so still, we all knew there had to be predators around. We were rewarded with Black Tip Reef Sharks, and finding a Woebeggone Shark snoozing under a ledge. We did two dives at Blue Magic, so we also saw a variety of fish, and a couple of Giant Manta Rays!
Black Tip Reef Sharks were hanging around the shoals. It was so still and quiet!
It was a beautiful day of diving!
This completely awesome trip was a Ray of Hope Expedition from Marine Megafauna Foundation with Dr Andrea Marshall.
Misool Island continued to be good to us, and there was beautiful diving on day 5. It was a short dive day, so the dive had to be good! We went to Watch Towers, and enjoyed a great variety of fish and coral! And I saw my first Woebeggone Shark, so exciting! Enjoy!
Diving is sometimes similar to a Dr Seuss book.
The first dive day in Raja Ampat on The Arenui! Exciting! The currents were strong as you can see on the video, but it was wonderful. There were 15 divers on the boat and we were split into four dive groups, and each group had a guide. Most divers dive with a guide though there are some places in the world (Australia for example) where divers can go off with a buddy. My personal preference is to have a guide nearby, but that depends on the location and site as well. There are some places where I stay pretty close to the dive guide.
The first day of diving in Raja Ampat found us at Misool Island, and the dive sites Yuliet, Shadow Reef, Boo Windows and Boo Ridge. Before each dive the divers receive a dive briefing from one of the dive guides. The briefing consists of a map of the dive site, a discussion on typical currents, entries and exit points, and what animals are typically seen there. I have been on boats where a briefing is not given, in Key Largo I was given a map of the dive site to look over before jumping in.
I took GoPro video on this first day. Why? Because I have a new and fabulous camera, the Olympus OMD EM5 Mark ii, a mirrorless camera with DSLR quality photo ability, and I had to learn how to use it underwater. My new housing, a Nauticam, also took quite a bit of getting used to. For the most part, the first day was spent relaxing, getting used to diving again (I had not been since July 2016), and taking in the environment. On one dive, I took my new camera, but forgot to take the lens cap off! I thought the dive guide would drown he was laughing so hard! Ah, well, I can be somewhat forgetful at times, but by the end I had it down. Overall, I was happy with the photos I took, but they were certainly better by the end of the trip. I have to say I am just thrilled with my new camera and it’s capabilities!
During July 2016 I took a fabulous dive trip to Komodo National Park in Indonesia with Ray of Hope Expeditions, to document manta rays in the area. Dr Andrea Marshall, the foremost Manta Ray scientist and co founder of Marine Megafauna Foundation, does several of these expeditions every year, and I absolutely love these trips, and I travel solo! I wrote about my Komodo trip extensively, and the diving was so intensely beautiful, I decided I just could not wait to get back and do more diving in Indonesia. So, in February 2017, I went to Raja Ampat with Andrea, and once again stayed on The Arenui, a Boutique Liveaboard, the most luxurious dive boat I have ever been on!
Video by Andrea Esty.
Where is Raja Ampat? It is in West Papua, on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of Indonesia which consists of over 1,500 islands! Raja Ampat means “four kings”, and the four kings are islands, Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo. We went to all four of the kings. The kings are named for local mythology that tells about a woman who finds seven eggs. Four of the seven eggs hatch and become kings that occupy four of Raja Ampat biggest islands while the other three become a ghost, a woman, and a stone. What is so great about Raja Ampat? It is part of the Coral Triangle, which contains the richest marine biodiversity on earth. The diving I have done in Indonesia confirms that there is life…on every inch of the bottom of the sea. Thankfully, the warming ocean temps and acidification seems to be better tolerated by the reefs of Indonesia, for unknown reasons. I don’t know if it will always be so, but for now, the area is doing well.
I flew Japan Airlines (incredible service!) from Dallas Ft Worth to San Diego, to Narita, Japan, to Jakarta, Indonesia, then I rested! I spent one night in Jakarta, just to catch my breath. The next day I boarded Garuda Indonesia (the national airline of Indonesia which is quite nice) in Jakarta, connected in Makassar, then arrived in Sorong, Indonesia. Ronald, one of the dive masters on The Arenui, was waiting to greet us at the airport. It was lovely to arrive onboard, go to the cabin I would be sharing with Andrea, and wait for the trip to begin! I love citizen
science expeditions.
The start of a trip is always exciting, and it was fun to see the cruise directors, Debbie and Jerry, and all of the crew and staff I remembered from July 2016. Another passenger, Elias, who was also on the Komodo trip was onboard as well. There was a group of six fun loving, dive crazy, adventurous women, and we were all anxious to see manta rays! So, off we went!
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