First two days of diving with Raja Laut, Frewin and Mioskon in Dampier Strait and Way Pretty Shallow, Citrus Ridge, and Mayhem Ridge off Yanggeffo Island, 1-19,20, 2023

We had a wonderful 17 days on Raja Laut, because of following Raja Ampat with 15 days in New Zealand and then, home for a week and off to Florida for a vacation celebrating my sister Bette's 80th birthday. So here's my blog for the first two days of diving in Raja Ampat with the dive boat Raja Laut. One of the fish I hoped to see on this trip which I had never seen in all my other South Pacific diving was the Wobbegong Shark. I saw them from the first day and was thrilled. They have extraordinary camouflage! The other thing that was immediate apparent was that Raja Ampat does indeed have the greatest variety of coral in the world and has immense quantities of fish, large and small. Beautiful soft coral:

Below: Donna looking at Zebra Puffer

Zebra Puffer:

Above: Stingray Below: Regal Angelfish

Below: We saw many Green Morays on this trip

Below: For a photographer, or careless diver that gets too close, a Titan Triggerfish is far more worrisome than any moray!

Below: Bluespotted Stingray

Dive Briefing for our second dive at a site called Mioskon. The twelve dive passengers are broken into groups, Donna and I were in the second group with Dennis and Dorothy whom we knew from previous dive trips and from visits we've made to each other's homes. Below:

Below: Dennis is a very large man, 6 ft 7 inches, both he and his wife are extremely experienced, excellent divers but Dorothy uses air at about half the rate of Dennis (or me for that matter), so her backup octopus regulator has a very long hose so that Dennis can easily extend their dive time by using some of her air! Below:

Below. Can you see the well camouflaged Scorpion Fish, an ambush predator, in this picture?

Below, zoomed in on the Scorpion Fish, look for its eyes:

Below: Emperor Angelfish

Above: Queen aka Niger Triggerfish Below: Did I mention there were lots of fish on our Raja Ampat dives?

Above: Fish frequently like to shelter under the wide spreading "Plate" Corals Below: Lamark Angelfish, bottom, and, I think, a type of Fusilier, top:

Below: Throughout the trip we saw many different types of Sea Anemones each with their own type of Anemone (Clown) Fish:

On our second day we had a nice encounter with a patient Green Sea Turtle on the "Way Pretty Shallow" dive site:

Below: Brain Coral with a Beautiful Sea Fan:

Below: My first half decent Wobbegong Shark photo of the trip, well camouflaged, tucked into coral with small fish:

I saw many cleaning stations with cleaner wrasses picking parasites off of fish that stop by their locations for a cleaning. Below is a Spadefish getting attended to by cleaner wrasses:

Lettuce Leaf Coral, below:

Below: Majestic aka Blue-girdled Angelfish

Below: Anemonefish

Below: Sea Fan with Juvenile Spadefish, followed by more Juvenile Spadefish photos:

Two Wobbegong Sharks at Citrus Ridge, one is very light colored, the other, to the right is dark:

First Wobbegong departs, the second, zoomed in edit lets you see the well hidden "cat's" eye near the highest point of the shark's head in the picture, below:

Second Wobbegong moves:

Terror, the attack, thankfully quickly aborted, of a Titan Triggerfish. Their beak can give a painful bite!:

False Clownfish, Nemo's cousins:

Dive Briefing for "Mayhem Ridge" off Yanggeffo Island:

Below: Seascapes

Above: Beautiful Green Sea Turtle and Giant Clam The first two days of diving on a fantastic 17 day diving trip on Raja Laut!