Hello scuba board community! I was on Liveaboard Mari in Raja Ampat between 15 - 26 December. It was supposed to be a South & Central trip but when we were to depart Sorong it was raining a lot and had apparently been for a long time in the Misool area so customers from other liveaboards had been complaining of bad visibility so they decided to go north instead and we did not mind if conditions in south were bad.
When we were heading for the northern dive sites overnight something interesting happened. In the morning we were supposed to have our first dive at "Black Rock" near Kawe Island. But when we arrived there was decent waves and a bit of wind so they decided it would be too much trouble getting back up into the dive boat. Instead they anchored the boat in the bay north of Balabalak sheltered from the south-east wind. They said it was their first time there and none of the diveguides had dived there. The funny thing about this was it ended up being the best dive of the whole trip when I summarized it afterwards. Suddenly while exploring the site I came to a pinnacle on a ridge. And when I got closer to it I spotted 2 mantas! I studied them for a while and they would circle the pinnacle over an over again! I think this is what they call a "cleaning station". They came within meters of me and were not shy at all.
After staying at the site for a long time I realized my dive buddies who were staying a bit deeper then me had not seen the mantas so I went after them to signal my spotting. They were a bit further east below the ridge at maybe 15 m, and I had 8.5 m on my dive watch when I was close to the pinnacle watching the mantas. So I signaled for them to follow me up shallower and when we made our way up the ridge there was 1 more pinnacle east (the directions I give is from watching the map on google, it was the opposite when facing shore) of the first I had seen, but with 3 mantas this time! 1 of the mantas were absolutely gigantic! We stayed there long time and enjoyed the mantas swimming above and around us. The dive guide would keep signaling to me to keep down low close to the ground but I was not too worried of them swimming away because at the first pinnacle there was no such tendency. The others did not know about the first encounter I had so after 15 minutes I signaled to them to follow me again and I took them to the first pinnacle and was rewarded by O from all of them when they spotted the other 2 mantas who were still there. This was my first trip to Raja Ampat and before the trip I had read about other famous manta dive sites such as "Manta ridge" "Manta sandy". Now I have dived both and in my humble opinion they are inferior to the site I discovered at Balabalak. Let me explain why.
"Manta sandy" - very boring dive site, only recommended if you have not seen mantas previously during your time in Raja Ampat. The most interesting thing for me there was a shrimp fixing his house in the sand and 2 fishes standing watch outside the door. There is almost nothing to see except mantas (if lucky) hoovering around a rock pinnacle with almost no coral and fish on or around it. The site is best described with 3 words only, sand + rock + manta. But that is not the worst part, the dive site is made up like a zoo. There is a line with stones along the bottom that you are supposed to watch the mantas from, so forget close encounter. If you are unlucky and there are no mantas then it is like going to the cinema just to watch a black screen because there is just sand. And the visibility can be very bad. Did spot 2 but terrible visibility so spending 60 min dive to see 2 big black shadows is not what I consider fun diving.
"Manta ridge" - both negatives and positives for this site. You will spot many mantas and they they come within touching distance, we had 10 at the site. Better vis. But it is not a relaxing dive. Crowded dive with nasty current. Reef hook is needed or gloves. On our dive getting to the hooking point was easy but getting back up not so relaxing. On the briefing they told us to tell the divemaster when we had 100 bar left it was important for this site. I am not constantly watching the gauge so I had 90 bar left when I signaled him. When he signaled we should head back in the direction we descended I had 70 bar left. We swam against the current and it was strong. Then suddenly the strong current started going down so in the end of the ascent before releasing from the reef I was using my arms more then my legs to stay on the reef drag myself up. It was the same for everyone. The only dive I have ever done where I had to ask myself the following question "What activity did I sign up for? Climbing or diving? After the safety stop I only had 10 bar left. Not one of my proudest moments as a diver. In my opinion you should start ascending that site with 100 bar left for safety. But I got the feeling that the dive guides lets the guests stay too long to please them when the dive is good. I did hear a divemaster at the boat saying he once was dragged down to 60 meters by a down-current at that site. Not so good when I take into consideration my 10 bar.
At Balabalak site there is both nice corall and a lot of other fish at the same time as the mantas and no current. Can it get better? The site can even be snorkeled successfully. At the surface after ascending I was amazed when I looked down by the gigantic manta still swimming gracefully below us.
When we came back to the boat and asked the other dive group what they had seen and they descended quite far east of us and they had also spotted a lot of mantas but no "cleaning stations". My conclusion is that there is a ridge with many cleaning stations that the mantas swim between. We only searched a small area, so the dive site has huge potential. That Island definitely needs more exploration. If any of you go there with your liveaboards please remember that the site is from now on until eternity named after me - "Andres spot". Or we can settle on a compromise, "The Hammer" - for the shape of the Island.
I have searched for this dive site in google without finding a single report from anyone having dived there. Most of the dives you do on your liveaboard are taken from the book "Diving Indonesia's Bird's Head Seascape". There are GPS coordinates to the sites that the authors plotted when they did their explorations of the area. One questions that bugs me it what happened to Balabalak? Did they just forget about it? Even when zooming in from google maps you can see the potential.
I will provide the location we divided at best as I can. So you can go there and report if we were just lucky that day or if the mantas are there all the time.
Balabalak looks like an hammer and we dived the northeastern side, below the part that you hit the nail with. It was opposite the second highest peak from the left as you face north. The pinnacles are at 10 m depth, how far of the shore is hard to estimate. I would guess 100 m, hard to remember now.
If you zoom in on google maps you can clearly through the water that there are many such "pinnacles" starting from "The Hammer" and continuing as you swim left along the shore.
When we were heading for the northern dive sites overnight something interesting happened. In the morning we were supposed to have our first dive at "Black Rock" near Kawe Island. But when we arrived there was decent waves and a bit of wind so they decided it would be too much trouble getting back up into the dive boat. Instead they anchored the boat in the bay north of Balabalak sheltered from the south-east wind. They said it was their first time there and none of the diveguides had dived there. The funny thing about this was it ended up being the best dive of the whole trip when I summarized it afterwards. Suddenly while exploring the site I came to a pinnacle on a ridge. And when I got closer to it I spotted 2 mantas! I studied them for a while and they would circle the pinnacle over an over again! I think this is what they call a "cleaning station". They came within meters of me and were not shy at all.
After staying at the site for a long time I realized my dive buddies who were staying a bit deeper then me had not seen the mantas so I went after them to signal my spotting. They were a bit further east below the ridge at maybe 15 m, and I had 8.5 m on my dive watch when I was close to the pinnacle watching the mantas. So I signaled for them to follow me up shallower and when we made our way up the ridge there was 1 more pinnacle east (the directions I give is from watching the map on google, it was the opposite when facing shore) of the first I had seen, but with 3 mantas this time! 1 of the mantas were absolutely gigantic! We stayed there long time and enjoyed the mantas swimming above and around us. The dive guide would keep signaling to me to keep down low close to the ground but I was not too worried of them swimming away because at the first pinnacle there was no such tendency. The others did not know about the first encounter I had so after 15 minutes I signaled to them to follow me again and I took them to the first pinnacle and was rewarded by O from all of them when they spotted the other 2 mantas who were still there. This was my first trip to Raja Ampat and before the trip I had read about other famous manta dive sites such as "Manta ridge" "Manta sandy". Now I have dived both and in my humble opinion they are inferior to the site I discovered at Balabalak. Let me explain why.
"Manta sandy" - very boring dive site, only recommended if you have not seen mantas previously during your time in Raja Ampat. The most interesting thing for me there was a shrimp fixing his house in the sand and 2 fishes standing watch outside the door. There is almost nothing to see except mantas (if lucky) hoovering around a rock pinnacle with almost no coral and fish on or around it. The site is best described with 3 words only, sand + rock + manta. But that is not the worst part, the dive site is made up like a zoo. There is a line with stones along the bottom that you are supposed to watch the mantas from, so forget close encounter. If you are unlucky and there are no mantas then it is like going to the cinema just to watch a black screen because there is just sand. And the visibility can be very bad. Did spot 2 but terrible visibility so spending 60 min dive to see 2 big black shadows is not what I consider fun diving.
"Manta ridge" - both negatives and positives for this site. You will spot many mantas and they they come within touching distance, we had 10 at the site. Better vis. But it is not a relaxing dive. Crowded dive with nasty current. Reef hook is needed or gloves. On our dive getting to the hooking point was easy but getting back up not so relaxing. On the briefing they told us to tell the divemaster when we had 100 bar left it was important for this site. I am not constantly watching the gauge so I had 90 bar left when I signaled him. When he signaled we should head back in the direction we descended I had 70 bar left. We swam against the current and it was strong. Then suddenly the strong current started going down so in the end of the ascent before releasing from the reef I was using my arms more then my legs to stay on the reef drag myself up. It was the same for everyone. The only dive I have ever done where I had to ask myself the following question "What activity did I sign up for? Climbing or diving? After the safety stop I only had 10 bar left. Not one of my proudest moments as a diver. In my opinion you should start ascending that site with 100 bar left for safety. But I got the feeling that the dive guides lets the guests stay too long to please them when the dive is good. I did hear a divemaster at the boat saying he once was dragged down to 60 meters by a down-current at that site. Not so good when I take into consideration my 10 bar.
At Balabalak site there is both nice corall and a lot of other fish at the same time as the mantas and no current. Can it get better? The site can even be snorkeled successfully. At the surface after ascending I was amazed when I looked down by the gigantic manta still swimming gracefully below us.
When we came back to the boat and asked the other dive group what they had seen and they descended quite far east of us and they had also spotted a lot of mantas but no "cleaning stations". My conclusion is that there is a ridge with many cleaning stations that the mantas swim between. We only searched a small area, so the dive site has huge potential. That Island definitely needs more exploration. If any of you go there with your liveaboards please remember that the site is from now on until eternity named after me - "Andres spot". Or we can settle on a compromise, "The Hammer" - for the shape of the Island.
I have searched for this dive site in google without finding a single report from anyone having dived there. Most of the dives you do on your liveaboard are taken from the book "Diving Indonesia's Bird's Head Seascape". There are GPS coordinates to the sites that the authors plotted when they did their explorations of the area. One questions that bugs me it what happened to Balabalak? Did they just forget about it? Even when zooming in from google maps you can see the potential.
I will provide the location we divided at best as I can. So you can go there and report if we were just lucky that day or if the mantas are there all the time.
Balabalak looks like an hammer and we dived the northeastern side, below the part that you hit the nail with. It was opposite the second highest peak from the left as you face north. The pinnacles are at 10 m depth, how far of the shore is hard to estimate. I would guess 100 m, hard to remember now.
If you zoom in on google maps you can clearly through the water that there are many such "pinnacles" starting from "The Hammer" and continuing as you swim left along the shore.
