Note: While Nate is primarily a watercolor artist focused on marine life, he is also an accomplished photographer.  As an artist his comments about Raja’s reefs create quite an impression.  As you read the descriptions of his dives, you quickly realize he not only has the “eye” but is pretty darned good with “words” as well.  Take it away Nate…

I returned to Raja Ampat in May of 2024, less than a year since my 1^st trip (view his 1^st trip blog). On this journey I spent two and half weeks on Kri Island at Sorido Bay Resort, in northern Raja’s Dampier Strait. The biggest difference between this (May) trip and diving there in July was reduced visibility. I believe that in general the currents were different and there was more particulate matter in the water. On some dives, it was like diving under an overcast sky; sort of blue-gray underwater. Visibility between 12-15m. The compensation for this was an enormous amount of schooling small fish on most sites. There were huge aggregations of bait fish, red tailed cardinal fish, convict blennies, golden sweepers and other small fish hovering over bommies on nearly every dive.  It’s obvious to me that returning at different times of the year is a must if you really want to know Raja Ampat!  There’s no “been there…done that” in Raja, even a couple of months can make a big difference.

Mioskohn – first dive in nearly a year.

We started on the backside of the island and drifted in. There were tons of fish. A good mix of macro and big stuff. We saw several kinds of nudibranch along the way and a trio of orangutan crabs in a bubble coral. The highlight for me was a massive bommie shrouded in golden sweepers and red spot cardinal fish. There was a huge spiny lobster under one of the shelves of coral near the reef crest and a massive gray and yellow finned snapper circling away from us as we moved over the top.

Our surface interval was made at a small pocket beach on Frewin. Banana bread and coffee on the beach; someone pulled out a guitar. I went down to the beach. There was a shallow gentle swell and I floated with it, slowly being pulled out to sea, bobbing along the wall of rocks and the greenery of the jungle spilling down toward the water. Bliss!

Melissa’s Garden – a brilliant dive

This site is a bit of a boat ride from Kri; west down the Dampier Strait past Arborek near the Fam Islands. I dove there twice on my 1^st trip and it does not disappoint.

We started deep, drifting along the edge of the reef slope and the sand bottom. Looking up slope, the reef was cloaked in a living curtain of fish, shifting and whirling above the coral. There were silver and yellow jacks ripping into the clouds of damselfish and anthias who scattered and reformed their shoals in seconds. Heading up slope, the variety of fish life over the coral was incredible. I lost count of the types of wrasses, angelfish and butterfly fish. We moved over fields of scrolling coral and then into a forest of Acropora. A big Napoleon Wrasse drifted over the branches. Rays of sunlight shot through the water on the diagonal. A small jack hid in the larger wrasses shadow and darted out to seize smaller fish. The dive finished along a wall covered in schools of anthias, sea fans, and clumps of orange sun coral (Tubastrea sp.). It was a brilliant dive.

Batu Rufus – perhaps my favorite dive of the trip!

There was a bit of a current was we descended the slope. Dropping down to 20 meters or so, we drifted along a wall that turned into a steep reef slope covered with sea fans and soft corals that seemed to go on forever. We wrapped around a point covered in fish, into a pocket of calm water. Here the reef was covered in big stands of leather corals and pulsing Anthelia. Eventually we arrived at a massive arch/swim-through in the shallows. The arch was surrounded by massive pink sea fans, with the light streaming down through the arch; it was quite spectacular. Swimming through and into the face of a strong current, we emerged onto a shallow garden of soft coral and schooling anthias. The fish life along the rocky shore bobbed in the surge of small waves crashing into the island. Orange sun corals and big yellow and purple sea fans covered the wall and we moved back around the edge of the island. It was a really special place.

Frewinbonda – the fish life is simply incredible

We dropped in alongside the tail-end of the wall and worked our way along the bottom from bommie to bommie and out to the point…where last week we saw a wobbegone shark sitting atop purple encrusting coral and shrouded in a huge school of juvenile convict blennies. The fish life is staggering!  As I come up over the edge of the point I find myself sandwiched between a school of twin spot snappers below me and and arching school of convict blennies stacked above me. Between the blennies and the surface a huge school of tiny silver bait fish dances. They move between contracting into a dense ball and expanding out again, as a few small jacks cut through the school. The light is a blue gray; partly because of the particulates in the water, but also because the density of the schooling fish, which partially blocks the light from the sun. We turn and drift back along the base of the reef to find a huge scorpion fish sitting at the base of a bommie while a school of golden sweepers drift just above him. As we move shallower following the reef down the channel, huge orange seafans hang from the wall. There is a slight overhang and the wall is covered in soft corals, mostly closed, due to the lack of current. They look like red and orange puff balls. Emperor angels, snappers, and Moorish idols, cruise the wall just out of reach. In one spot the wall looms out into an overhang; creating a cavernous indention six or seven meters high and several meters deep. The whole space is packed with a huge school of silver bait fish that barely parts as I fin through. It is floor to ceiling life, wedged between the wall and giant sea fans. At the top, a coral trout slices through the packed fish, leaving tunnels in their wake that quickly close. Just past this feature the current picks up. It’s like hitting a wall but I am entranced in the mass of fish, a silver curtain that ebbs and flows around me. We reverse our course and climb upward where the light is brighter and the soft corals are opening; finally surfacing along the karst overhangs and trailing evergreen jungle of the island.

Cuttlefish dives

One of the highlights of my trip was being able to tag along with two scientists who were researching cuttlefish. They have been working their way around the edge of Kri island in 100 meter increments and were masters at the art of locating elusive cuttlefish. We would locate a spot they hadn’t dived and start at the bottom of the steep reef slope. I dove with them several times and on each dive they were able to locate the incredibly camouflaged cuttlefish in a matter of minutes. Apparently (I am by no means an expert), cuttlefish are able to view polarity and they were conducting experiments to measure this. Basically, all three of us would lay close to the bottom and the scientists would present crabs to the cuttlefish. Some of the crabs had polarized eye spots glued to their carapaces, some did not. The cuttlefish (in my estimation) prefer the crabs without polarized eyes by eating them. The cuttlefish would change their color from a brown mottled camouflage pattern to a striped hunting pattern almost instantaneously. It was really surreal to see an animal alter its appearance so quickly in real time. I really appreciate the opportunity I had to dive with these guys.  After twenty minutes or so of watching cephalopods eat crabs I would turn my attention to the rest of the reef. I enjoyed being able to spend the rest of the dive in one place, observing one particular patch of the reef. There is a real trade off between cruising along a reef, having the chance to see a wide variety of sea life and choosing to sit in one place, really noticing the little things by allowing the marine life to become accustomed to my presence.

“Tarran” one of many Leopard/Zebra sharks released by ReShark into Raja’s waters.

ReShark Hartchery

For those of you unaware, there is an awesome re-wilding project going in the Bird’s Head Seascape. The organization ReShark has two hatcheries; one on Batbitim Island (S.E. Misool) and another on Kri Island at Sorido Bay (Dampier Strait). Zebra/Leopard Sharks eggs are transported to both locations from public aquariums in Australia, Singapore and the US. The eggs are tended by a trained group of “shark nannies” and hatched in tanks. When big enough, the baby sharks are then transferred to tubs in the hatchery, and eventually to a sea pen where they learn to forage on their own. When they reach a large enough size the juvenile sharks are tagged and then released into the waters of Raja Ampat where they will hopefully repopulate an area where they were once were common. Many times during my stay I would walk the boardwalk or snorkel out to the hatchery  to see the baby sharks swimming in their tubs or watch them being fed. Zebra/Leopard Shark pups may be some of the cutest animals on the planet and it was wonderful to see them being raised with such care and attention. It’s even better to know that steps are being taken to reintroduce them into the wild in such a beautiful and important part of the ocean!

I was really lucky to be at Sorido the same time a team from ReShark arrived to tag the juvenile sharks that were going in the sea pen. I have done some paintings for ReShark and it was great to meet many of the project members, face to face, that I had known only through email. I was fortunate enough to get into the sea pen when the juveniles were released and take some photos. This may have been the favorite part of a truly fantastic trip.

I have to say a big thanks to Max Ammer and his staff at Papua Diving for letting me stay at Sorido. I also wish to thank Shannon, Ale, Tevara, Melissa, Foley, Osa, Deo, James, the Shark Nannies, and all the rest of the fantastic people that made my stay so great. It’s a wonderful experience in a beautiful place.

You can view more of Nate’s work on his website, https://www.natewilsonpaints.com/ or his Facebook page IG (@natewilsonpaints).