Coral Bleaching in Dampier Strait?

[cetacean]

Yep. Been there & done on EVA Air. The miracle flight leaving from Houston was 2 hours late & my bag was stuck in Taipei.

I called it a miracle flight is because there were so many passengers on wheel chairs going into the airplane, those passengers were miraculously able to walk out of the plane on their own at the exit.

My 3-hour layover in Taipei was down to 1 hour and I had to dash out of the 1st airplane to the next one. The flights leaving TPE-CGK operated once a day. So I had to wait for my luggage to catch up with me on the next day. Luckily I had an extra day as contingency plan.

Lesson learnt.

@Dan

"Miracle flight" - funny, but...

Going to Asia this time of year you will find a fairly large number of elderly people queue to board in wheelchairs (I experienced this most recently heading for Manila end of last month).

Having read a number of your posts in the past, I can't tell if you're poking fun at these people or suggesting they aren't really limited in mobility. In either case, I'm not sure it really matters - did they either prevent you from boarding or cause you issues leaving the plane?

Regardless, you likely saved some $$ flying on EVA through TPE. I've benefited from this same connection route numerous times before. Here's the issue - EVA is a decent airline (but significantly smaller than the other airline homed at TPE, China Airlines), however TPE itself looks nice, is clean, seems efficient, etc. however it's rated (Skytrax) as the 82nd best airport out of the top 100 (it's been in decline for the last 3 years). One of the areas called out: it needs to modernize it's baggage handling facilities.

I've experienced baggage delays in TPE on 2+ hour transit times. If I need my bags to make a somewhat tight connection I'm flying through HKG or Singapore... more costly, more reliable.

I really like EVA (and my kids liked flying on the Hello Kitty plane when they were younger). You can definitely stretch your $ flying EVA, but TPE can have issues.

Good you built in the time for your bags to catch up.

 

[CaliDiver14]

I have heard a couple of recent (late November/December) reports of significant bleaching. I should be able to confirm in 72 hours or so (although I think my dive gear just missed my connection thanks to United )

Hi @cozcharlie hope your gear made it. I’m also planning a trip to raja Ampat in March/April 2025 but can still adjust plans if there is significant bleaching. Any update?

 

[cozcharlie]

Hi @cozcharlie hope your gear made it. I’m also planning a trip to raja Ampat in March/April 2025 but can still adjust plans if there is significant bleaching. Any update?

I’m in Triton Bay. Most of the bleaching when we were there was in the immediate area of Cape Kri. Even less than hour away by a relative slow dive boat there was minimal bleaching . We didn’t see significant bleaching at Melissa’s Garden (west of Cape Kri) or down south at Misool. Raja is still a pretty spectacular place even with some bleaching.

No bleaching to speak of in Triton Bay btw (a couple of hundred miles from Raja roughly ) . Dove with whale sharks , dolphins and sailfish this morning but start the trek home tomorrow

 

[Dan]

Hi @CaliDiver14
I was with @cozcharlie from 15 to 24 January, going to Misool and Triton Bay. We saw some coral bleaching during our check out dive in Pulau Matam, near Sorong, as shown in the pictures, below. One interesting sight there was the presence of 5-6 Wobbegong Sharks just sleeping on top of unbleached cup corals. What an awesome sight to see on the 1st dive of the trip.

As we cruise down to Misool, no more bleaching seen even down to Triton Bay.

On 25 January some of us flew back to Sorong & dove in Pulau Pef on the west of Waigeo, Fam (Melissa’s Garden) & Wofoh (NW of Waigeo) and there was no coral bleaching either.

Hopefully the bleached corals would recover with all the rains (almost every day) we got there.

 

[Dan]

Dove with whale sharks , dolphins and sailfish this morning

Glad to hear that you saw the Sailfish, Charlie!

Andrew’s shot if the sailfish with his GroPro without light at depth wasn’t too good. The Whaleshark one was a bit better since it was near the surface. The best shot of the dolphins were taken by Chris, as shown below. If you have some better shots, please share and I put them in our trip video.

 

[Joneill]

I’m in Triton Bay. Most of the bleaching when we were there was in the immediate area of Cape Kri. Even less than hour away by a relative slow dive boat there was minimal bleaching . We didn’t see significant bleaching at Melissa’s Garden (west of Cape Kri) or down south at Misool. Raja is still a pretty spectacular place even with some bleaching.

No bleaching to speak of in Triton Bay btw (a couple of hundred miles from Raja roughly ) . Dove with whale sharks , dolphins and sailfish this morning but start the trek home tomorrow

Hi Charlie - did you dive the baggan again? Sounds like it was pretty similar to the week before in terms of what showed up? Any more whale sharks thank the 4 we saw? Safe travels - I head home tomorrow morning too so may see you at the airport in Sorong!

 

[cozcharlie]

Dan (and any interested others )

Just reposting comment already sent to trip WhatsApp group for anyone on scubaboard who is interested . I got some good sailfish and few more whaleshark and dolphin photos today I will hopefully post tomorrow night from hotel in Sorong . Links below are only through last Friday but have another 50-60 Triton Bay photos I hope to upload tomorrow . Last week Triton already has dolphin and whaleshark photos but no sailfish.



Links to my smugmug account are below (note I just treat this a memories album , there are a mix of good photos , OK photos and probably a few bad photos that I wanted to keep for one reason or another )
Triton Bay Photos
[Triton Bay January 2025 - CozCharlie]

Transit Photos (Momon and Pisang, though Pisang photos actually lumped in with Misool Photos at moment)
[Pisang and Momon (Misool-Triton Transit) - CozCharlie]

Raja Ampat Photos (includes photos taken in Central Raja out of Sorido Bay Resort before boarding White Manta, also has some a few Pisang photos that I may move later
[Raja Amat January 2025 - CozCharlie]

 

[Dan]

Dan (and any interested others )

Just reposting comment already sent to trip WhatsApp group for anyone on scubaboard who is interested . I got some good sailfish and few more whaleshark and dolphin photos today I will hopefully post tomorrow night from hotel in Sorong . Links below are only through last Friday but have another 50-60 Triton Bay photos I hope to upload tomorrow . Last week Triton already has dolphin and whaleshark photos but no sailfish.



Links to my smugmug account are below (note I just treat this a memories album , there are a mix of good photos , OK photos and probably a few bad photos that I wanted to keep for one reason or another )
Triton Bay Photos
[Triton Bay January 2025 - CozCharlie]

Transit Photos (Momon and Pisang, though Pisang photos actually lumped in with Misool Photos at moment)
[Pisang and Momon (Misool-Triton Transit) - CozCharlie]

Raja Ampat Photos (includes photos taken in Central Raja out of Sorido Bay Resort before boarding White Manta, also has some a few Pisang photos that I may move later
[Raja Amat January 2025 - CozCharlie]

Thanks, Charlie!

Helge & I are on our way home, boarding the SQ to Singapore in a few minutes. Once I’m home, I’ll browse your album for our trip video.

 

[Cali_diver]

Here is an interesting take on the bleaching... One of the worst algae blooms I have seen in Raja was in June of 2022 right when the country opened again and we were the only boat I saw during our Raja trip so you can't blame tourists and boats on that one.

Cyanobacteria in Raja Ampat: Trouble in paradise

In the biodiversity oasis of Raja Ampat, cyanobacteria poses a serious threat to the health of coral reefs. Is tourism to be blamed?

oceanographicmagazine.com

 

[hillz3]

I'm planning a land based trip to Raja Ampat at the end of April 2025. I've been following some Facebook groups for travelers in R4 and came across some posts documenting a bleaching incident around the Dampier Strait. Has anyone dove around Kri recently? How bad is the bleaching? Some of the photos look pretty bad

I'm not sure whether I should change my planned itinerary (Kri-Arborek-Gam) in light of the bleaching event and instead try to visit a less impacted area (Pam/Fam)

Any input from recent travelers would be much appreciated!

Hey @kiwidives

I’m on Kri now. Speaking openly, it’s not great. Dived Yenbuba jetty yesterday and it was probably one of the saddest dives of my life - there was a lot of sea life - but at points of the dive it was literally just totally bleached coral as far as the eye could see. There was also a lot of rubbish. It was quite shocking I can’t lie. We also dived Sawadarak (I know I’m spelling this wrong) which wasn’t much better.

In the afternoon we dived Cape Kri which was significantly better. However my plan is to stay in Kri for one more day then get out to Fam islands which apparently are in much better condition (but going to cost me a load to get to I think!). I’ll report back then!

Separately, has anyone dived Cendarwasih Bay? Triton is full and so I’m thinking of heading over