Raja Ampat Diving and visit to local village with Calico Jack Liveaboard

Selection of the best diving and unforgettable inland activities. We know Raja Ampat better than anybody else! Check our website https://www.calicojackcharters.com/ra... to find out more about diving cruises around Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Located in the Northwest corner of Indonesian West Papua, at the meeting points of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, pristine coral reefs (home to 75% of all known corals) teem with such an array of marine life that scientists describe it as a ‘species factory’. This spectacular variety of marine life (over 1,300 species of fish, 600 mollusk species) combines with some of the natural world’s most exotic birds including distinct Birds of Paradise. This is Raja Ampat: the undisputed epicenter of marine biodiversity and one of the richest marine ecosystems in the World. The Raja Ampat archipelago (which when translated to English, means ‘Four Kings’) encompasses 40,000 square km’s of land and sea, consisting of over 1,500 that surround the 4 main islands of Misool, Batanta, Salawati & Waigeo. The first comprehensive scientific study of the area was conducted as recently as 2001, and a record-breaking census found nearly 1,000 previously unknown tropical fish species. With the unearthing of Raja Ampat’s biodiversity still in progress, international conservation groups, in partnership with local communities and government, established 7 ecologically connected marine protected areas (MPA) in 2007, and another 5 across the Birds Head Peninsula have been added since. The relative remoteness of Raja Ampat has been the region’s greatest defense against overuse and exploitation, resulting in a pristine ecosystem unfettered by the maelstroms of industrialization with ecological wealth unsurpassed anywhere else on the planet.