Sorry for the gap…I was busy diving and relaxing
Beyond the sheer diversity of critters to be seen in Raja Ampat, the reefs are just incredibly vibrant and beautiful. My photos cannot even begin to reflect just how breathtaking and awe inspiring these reefscapes are. Every dive just takes your breath away with the variety of hard and soft corals. Its an explosion of color and fish that my photographs can barely represent. This place is not immune from the problems seen in other poverty-stricken areas of the world such as dynamite and cyanide fishing (in fact, one of the dive boats heard a nearby explosion one day), but the current momentum in the region is towards preservation of the reefs versus unsustainable exploitation. Also, an increasing volume of dive operations and liveaboards makes such illegal activities more difficult to execute anonymously.
This photo provides a taste of both color and fish life on just about every dive site, and this is just a sponge!
In fact the small bait fish can be a bit of a nuisance. Take, for example, my attempt to photograph this sleeping Wobbegong Shark. Even when you shoo them away, by the time you get the camera up to your face, they’re back in the way!
Below are some more reef photos
You didn’t miss the black crocodilefish at the lower left of the last pic, did you? That’s some good camouflage.
hey! great photos and thanks for sharing them! where did you stayed? i recently came back from R4 and had wonderful time. i stayed in mansuar island with yenkoranu homestay. let me know your recommendations!
regards
Posted by: reynaldo | March 26, 2012 at 09:53 AM