Barefoot Conservation are now able to offer an amazing opportunity to join our liveaboard 'science research & community' expeditions in Raja Ampats Central, North and South locations. By joining one of our below trips, guest will be fun diving each day in some of the worlds best dive sites, while contributing to Barefoot Conservation's science research and community programmes.
This is because all profits from these trips go directly towards the conservation work and community projects Barefoot Conservation runs through our Indonesian Yayasan Foundation (same as a UK Charity), called "Jejak Kaki Konservasi"
Jejak Kaki Konservasi translates to "Footprint Conservation", and often a Marine Biologist and a Community Liaison Officer from the Yayasan and/or from Barefoot Conservation will be on the below trips to liaise with guests on what work/research these two NGO's are undertaking.
Guests will get to see presentations and hear talks on various topics from our resident Marine Biologists. These topics could cover anything from our Manta
Ray and Marine Megafauna research to our Reef Check and Climate Change surveys.
The guests on these trips will be taught how to take ID photographs of manta rays, by our Manta Ray Project Scientists, and then get the opportunity to help enter any manta ray they have ID'd, into our Manta Ray Database. If no match is found the guest will get the chance to name the new manta ray.
Cost & Dates Table - 2023/2024
Dive Gear Rental Costs
The following items are available for rental on board (costs are per day and in US Dollars $) :
- Bouyancy Control Device (BCD) - $10
- Full regulator set (1st, 2nd stage, Octopus and SPG) - $12
- Mask, Fins and Dive boot set - $8
- Wetsuit (Shortie or long 3mm) - $6
- Dive Computer* - $10
* For safety reasons, it is now mandatory for all divers to use a dive computer on all dives, and not share one. If you do not own one, you will need to rent one from us.
* Full dive gear package (BCD, Reg set, Wetsuit, Mask, Fins and Dive Computer) for 7 days = $250
* Full dive gear package (BCD, Reg set, Wetsuit, Mask, Fins and Dive Computer) for 10 days = $350
**We DO NOT have any dive torches on board for rental, so please bring a dive torch if you wish to do the night dives**
If you would like to rent any of the above items for your liveaboard trip, please indicate this on your booking form or inform one of our trip advisers, before you go.
7 Days / 6 Nights Central & North Raja Ampat trip itinerary
Day 1
We will first meet you up at 8:00am at Darefan Hotel lobby in Sorong West Papua. Leaving there at 8am we will take you to the small Harbour to catch the 9am ferry to the island of Waigeo, arriving in the small town of Waisai, the capital of Raja Ampat around 11am. Here you will join our boat the Ratu Laut and get settled in your rooms while we cruise to the island of Mansuar.
Your first dive will be a check dive at either Soenek or Miskon Island. These are both great dive sites and is very easy to dive. You can see everything from mantas to pygmy seahorses on this dive.
Day 2
On day 2 we move to the other side of Kri island and dive the famous chicken reef (Karang Ayam). This is a stunning submerge coral reef and is excellent for big marine life, like grey reefs sharks, white/black tip reef sharks, wobbegong sharks, tunas, Spanish mackerel and big schools of fish. It is best to dive here when there is current bringing lot of hunting action.
On the second dive of the day we will move closer to the world famous cape Kri, where schools of barracuda, jackfish, batfish, snapper, small reef fish, rays, sharks, turtles, and groupers, as well as the coral itself, are out-of-this-world.
For the third dive, we move to west of Mansuar to dive the Jetty of the Sawandarek village, a protected dive site with stunning reef and good for pygmy seahorses, nudibranches, common octopus, and wobbegong sharks. Just under the jetty we can see schools of jacks. Next, we move to the west part of the Dampier Strait to visit Arborek Island, that sits between Gam and Mansuar Islands. Arborek is home to our NGO Barefoot Conservation, so you will get a chance to meet the amazing marine biologist scientists and volunteers that work hard every day to protect and conserve the coral reefs and marine life in the region. The community team from Barefoot Conservation will show you around the village introducing you to the Papuan people and their culture.
Dive 4 of the day will then be an amazing night dive at the world famous Arborek Jetty. In the evening the manta ray scientists of Barefoot Conservation will do a presentation on Ratu Laut about Manta Rays ready for our next days diving.
Day 3
For dive one we will only have about a 15 minute boat ride to manta sandy/manta ridge from Arborek Island. Manta sandy is one of the more famous manta ray dive sites in Raja Ampat, where you can see 4-5 mantas cleaned at the same time. We will dive manta ridge if the tide falls, to see a big amount of manta rays hovering only a couple of meters away, and feeding on plankton carried by the strong current.
Next we head west to Penemu and Fam Island aiming to dive the famous Melissa garden. Here you will see some of the best hard coral reef in Raja Ampat. The site is rich in underwater biodiversity: thousands of tiny reef fish, black tips, wobbegong sharks, pygmy seahorses, and much more.
For the third dive, we move to Kerou Chanel which can be a great drift dive if we get a little bit of current. It features a very nice reef, huge sea fans, and wonderful soft corals which are very good for macro. Though, some bigger marine life can pass us out in the blue.
Finally, we’ll trek to Bintan Lagoon viewpoint to get some amazing scenic photographs. After this we start our 6-7hr night crossing up to the north to Kawe Island, one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.
Day 4
For day four we dive around Kawe Island, starting around the 3 famous islands called Eagle Rock with their stunning reefs and big fish soup, if we are lucky. The main reason to dive here is to see more Manta rays coming in to get cleaned in the cleaning stations around the rocks.
On the second dive, we move over to Black Rock, one of the best coral reefs in the north of Raja Ampat. It has nice soft coral reefs and a crazy amount of different schooling fish, it is great for pygmy seahorses, turtles plus black tip reef sharks. Going a bit deeper, we will see big marble rays and maybe manta rays passing by in the shallow areas.
After the second dive, we move back to the eagle rock again. Normally, the current has changed by the time we get there and we can dive on a different rock.
After the third dive, we visit the local village to get a permit before mooring up inside the stunning Alyui Bay for a night dive at the famous pearl farm. Before diving here, prepare your camera and macro lens for some muck diving. The underwater view of Alyui Bay is perfect for your macro and wide-angle lenses to capture diverse marine life like nowhere else.
Day 5
For the morning of day 5 we will go for another wonderful dive in Alyui Bay, starting the dive at chanel #5., a dive site with nice swim throws among the big rocks, big schools of sweetlips, and fusiliers. White tip sharks sleep under the big rock, and pygmy seahorses are here and there. Here, we can also encounter dolphins, so keep an eye out for them upon going up to do your safety stop.
Then, we move to Yangeffo Islands for our second dive. The site is very good, with a great mix of macro and bigger marine life. Getting a sloping reef down to 15 meter, continue drifting until hitting the sand area where you can see flamboyant cuttlefish, robust ghost pipefish, ornate ghost pipe fish, decorator crabs, nudibranches, shrimps, and frogfishes if you are lucky. After a while, you’ll hit the reef again where you can spot eagle rays and manta rays on lucky days.
After a stop around Yangeffo, we’ll continue the trip for our last dive of the day around Gam Island. The famous citrus ridge dive site, has a huge abundance of fish to see. Stunning coral garden, yellow soft corals, schooling barracudas, sweetlips, tunas, Spanish mackerel, nudibranches, pygmy seahorses, frogfishes, and others.
Day 6
We will wake you up at 04:45 for small breakfast and coffee before taking you with the boat around 05:00 to watch the birds of paradise. Then, we have a big breakfast and a break before diving the famous Blue Magic, close to the island of Mioskon. On good days, this submerged reef has 5 meters visibility because the whole dive site is covered with schools of fish. We can also encounter the oceanic manta rays here.
For the second dive we move to Sardine reef with submerged sloping coral reef which should be dived in a current. Otherwise, there are no fish around. It’s very good for big marine life, as you’ll see school of fusiliers, rainbow runners, barracudas, sweetlips, giant trevallies, Spanish mackerel, grey reef sharks and much more. If there is a current, you can see lots of hunting action and hear underwater thunder when the small fish move so fast upon the tunas striking the bait ball.
Then, we move down to Kri Island again to visit a traditional homestay and trek to the amazing viewpoint over Mansuar Island. You can just bring your snorkel gear if you do not wish to do the trekking.
Later we will do our third dive of the day, a night dive on the Yenkoranu Jetty. It’s a coral sloping reef with sand and bommies at the beginning and more reefs later which is very good for macro. There are pygmys seahorses, bobtail squids, pipefish, walking shark, mandarin fish, octopuses, cuttlefish, and even sleeping turtles on the reef to see there.
Day 7
On your final day we have an opportunity for one dive in the morning. Since this is going to be our last cruise day, you’ll have time to dry your equipment on the way back home to Waisai. Normally our guests wish to go back to blue magic dive site again or maybe a different dive site around Kri Island. We will do a final briefing after the morning dive on whats going to happen next.
You will have lunch on the boat, exchanging emails and photos, and say farewells to the crew. At around 1pm we will take you to the ferry going back to Sorong. The crew will follow you all the way back to Sorong and organize transportation to your hotel.
*Please note this is just one example of our 7 day trip itineraries, you can see another of our 7 day trip itineraries here