Hi all, this is a report of my trip to Ahe Dive Resort, Cenderawasih Bay. It is on the northern coast of Papua island, a bit east from the Rajah Ampat area. It is a little remote, but not too much trouble to get to, all things considered. I was also pleasantly surprised that the planes to and from there were good sized, so I was able to get away with two carry ons and about 23 kg in the hold, on all connections. Ahe is a small island in Cenderawasih bay, about half an hour from the mainland.
The publicity from the resort touted the diving in general, as well as the whale sharks. They also indicated feeding of the whale sharks, but the impression I got from that was that the feeding was incidental, and that the sharks were there in general. They did give fair warning that this was a pretty rough resort, only 6 hours of electricity a day, no showers, no hot water, no English spoken by general staff, etc.
The part about the rough resort was true enough (!) - but no problem, that was expected. They are set up for about 6 guests but seem to be expanding.
The part about the excellent diving in general was overstated to say the least, as far as my experience went. The coral was very decent (maybe good bit of bleaching) but the fish life was very disappointing. Especially since they were talking about pristine reefs, untouched by divers etc. Apparently they have stopped the dynamite fishing and overfishing, but it will take time for the stocks to recover. Very disappointing in this regard. Visibility was also poor while I was there, although apparently this is unusual. Someone who had been there the previous month had seen about 200 dolphins on the surface and had better visibility, but was also disappointed in the fish life. Basically mediocre is how I would describe it (the diving in general).
But the whale sharks were the main attraction and that I got. The whale sharks feeding location is about 2+ hours away from Ahe; departure from Ahe to them is at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am! We saw three of them, one about 12-15 feet, the other two about 15-20 feet, I may be a little conservative in my estimates. But be aware that this is a shark feeding operation. They were there because they were being fed, nothing more. They say they believe the sharks are resident year around in the bay. I don't know how much they have researched this, but be that as it may, at the spot we go to see them, they are there for the feeding. In general, I don't have a problem with shark feeding (PROVIDED it is safely done, and the sharks are not fed too much) but I wonder about this for whale sharks which are pretty rare and very poorly studied even by marine biologists.
Anyway, that being said, it was a blast for sure. Very shallow, maximum 30 feet, average 10 feet, so the dive lasted 2 hours! And the sharks were there all the time, swimming in and out of where we were, although it seemed that one of the larger ones may have left for the last half hour. We were within touching distance often, although we were not allowed to touch.
Overall, would I have gone there, if I knew then what I know now? Probably not. But if someone has been diving 15-20 years and just wants to see whale sharks, then sure go ahead. But personally, I would probably prefer to go to the Maldives, Philippines, Seychelles, Belize during the whale shark seasons before getting to that stage of coming here. It's pretty pricey for the basic operation they have.
The real bad part is their operations. The person in charge (Arne) is not a diver (!!!). Nobody else speaks English (or any European language). We had to write out or mime out communication as Arne was off the island a good 50% of the time. The dive guides do the best they can, but they need better leadership. They have a couple of pirahu boats fitted with motors. These are the traditional outrigger boats. They were not in good condition and broke down while we were there. Motor failure as well as outrigger coming off while we were at sea! The resort is very new and has had help setting up their operations and training of their dive guides. Both of the professional outfits that did this (one in Bali and one in the Netherlands) are no longer working with them. Arne is determined to go it alone from what he told me. They used to have a British?Australian? Operations manager who was a diver and had experience in Rajah Ampat but Arne dismissed him in Dec after a couple of months or so. So far the cylinders and compressor are okay, but without good management, who knows what will happen over time. As it is, one of our divers was not regular in checking his cylinder before putting it on the boat and had empty cylinders twice, so had to sit out the dive. They do not carry extra cylinders on the boats.
We come back to shore after every dive. Gear is put onto new cylinders and put back on the boat. We jump into the water with fins and mask, then they hand down the BCD/cylinder combo. Similarly, we hand up the gear before climbing back into the boat. The staff is not used to currents and given the condition of the boats are very leery of even minimally rough waters. The overall impression is that this is an outfit that needs a lot more time and good management/leadership to come up to standard. Right now, their view is This is an eco resort out in Papua, so you get what you get. In my opinion, I can live with that as far as the lodging and meals and drinks go, but I want more professionalism in the diving operations and boats, even with the lure of whale sharks.
I realize this is fairly negative in tone I do acknowledge that seeing whale sharks this close up and for such an extended period of time is a unique treat. As I said, that part was a real blast! Would I go again? Maybe. If the fish life improves and if the resort management provides better management. Even better: A liveaboard! Because the whale sharks were the thing!, the general diving cannot compare to other diving in the area (ie Indonesia).
Hope this helps. Let me know if anyone needs any more details.
The publicity from the resort touted the diving in general, as well as the whale sharks. They also indicated feeding of the whale sharks, but the impression I got from that was that the feeding was incidental, and that the sharks were there in general. They did give fair warning that this was a pretty rough resort, only 6 hours of electricity a day, no showers, no hot water, no English spoken by general staff, etc.
The part about the rough resort was true enough (!) - but no problem, that was expected. They are set up for about 6 guests but seem to be expanding.
The part about the excellent diving in general was overstated to say the least, as far as my experience went. The coral was very decent (maybe good bit of bleaching) but the fish life was very disappointing. Especially since they were talking about pristine reefs, untouched by divers etc. Apparently they have stopped the dynamite fishing and overfishing, but it will take time for the stocks to recover. Very disappointing in this regard. Visibility was also poor while I was there, although apparently this is unusual. Someone who had been there the previous month had seen about 200 dolphins on the surface and had better visibility, but was also disappointed in the fish life. Basically mediocre is how I would describe it (the diving in general).
But the whale sharks were the main attraction and that I got. The whale sharks feeding location is about 2+ hours away from Ahe; departure from Ahe to them is at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am! We saw three of them, one about 12-15 feet, the other two about 15-20 feet, I may be a little conservative in my estimates. But be aware that this is a shark feeding operation. They were there because they were being fed, nothing more. They say they believe the sharks are resident year around in the bay. I don't know how much they have researched this, but be that as it may, at the spot we go to see them, they are there for the feeding. In general, I don't have a problem with shark feeding (PROVIDED it is safely done, and the sharks are not fed too much) but I wonder about this for whale sharks which are pretty rare and very poorly studied even by marine biologists.
Anyway, that being said, it was a blast for sure. Very shallow, maximum 30 feet, average 10 feet, so the dive lasted 2 hours! And the sharks were there all the time, swimming in and out of where we were, although it seemed that one of the larger ones may have left for the last half hour. We were within touching distance often, although we were not allowed to touch.
Overall, would I have gone there, if I knew then what I know now? Probably not. But if someone has been diving 15-20 years and just wants to see whale sharks, then sure go ahead. But personally, I would probably prefer to go to the Maldives, Philippines, Seychelles, Belize during the whale shark seasons before getting to that stage of coming here. It's pretty pricey for the basic operation they have.
The real bad part is their operations. The person in charge (Arne) is not a diver (!!!). Nobody else speaks English (or any European language). We had to write out or mime out communication as Arne was off the island a good 50% of the time. The dive guides do the best they can, but they need better leadership. They have a couple of pirahu boats fitted with motors. These are the traditional outrigger boats. They were not in good condition and broke down while we were there. Motor failure as well as outrigger coming off while we were at sea! The resort is very new and has had help setting up their operations and training of their dive guides. Both of the professional outfits that did this (one in Bali and one in the Netherlands) are no longer working with them. Arne is determined to go it alone from what he told me. They used to have a British?Australian? Operations manager who was a diver and had experience in Rajah Ampat but Arne dismissed him in Dec after a couple of months or so. So far the cylinders and compressor are okay, but without good management, who knows what will happen over time. As it is, one of our divers was not regular in checking his cylinder before putting it on the boat and had empty cylinders twice, so had to sit out the dive. They do not carry extra cylinders on the boats.
We come back to shore after every dive. Gear is put onto new cylinders and put back on the boat. We jump into the water with fins and mask, then they hand down the BCD/cylinder combo. Similarly, we hand up the gear before climbing back into the boat. The staff is not used to currents and given the condition of the boats are very leery of even minimally rough waters. The overall impression is that this is an outfit that needs a lot more time and good management/leadership to come up to standard. Right now, their view is This is an eco resort out in Papua, so you get what you get. In my opinion, I can live with that as far as the lodging and meals and drinks go, but I want more professionalism in the diving operations and boats, even with the lure of whale sharks.
I realize this is fairly negative in tone I do acknowledge that seeing whale sharks this close up and for such an extended period of time is a unique treat. As I said, that part was a real blast! Would I go again? Maybe. If the fish life improves and if the resort management provides better management. Even better: A liveaboard! Because the whale sharks were the thing!, the general diving cannot compare to other diving in the area (ie Indonesia).
Hope this helps. Let me know if anyone needs any more details.
