Raja Ampat or Komodo?

[Dan]

I do not know Komodo, although I am planning to go there within the year.

If you are interested in manta rays, big fishes, Raja is NOT the place. Raja is very high on my experience list but rather for corals, small critters, huge sea fans but not for pelagic. Either I had no luck or this is not the best place.

For what you want, since I do not know Komodo, I would go to the Maldives or Sipadan

The above smaller (15 footer) reef mantas were seen in Manta Sandy near Arborek, Dampier Strait, Central Raja Ampat in November 2010, May 2016 & December 2015, from top to bottom pictures, respectively.

 

[lamarpaulski]

I saw dozens and dozens of Mantas in September 2015 at Manta Alley, Komodo. Awesome place but I have not yet been to Raj Ampat.

 

[Dan]

Those 2 huge (20 footer) oceanic mantas with white marks at the top side of their bodies were seen in Magic Mountain cleaning, Misool, Raja Ampat in March 2013 and December 2015, respectively.

Reef mantas are normally about 5-foot smaller and have solid black top side of their bodies. You normally see them in Komodo & central Raja Ampat. If you want to see the giant Oceanic mantas with white marking on their topside of their body, you need to go to Misool.

 

[Dan]

The above reef mantas were seen in January 2013 in Taka Makassar, Central Komodo, and in August 2014 in Manta Alley, in South Komodo from top to bottom pictures, respectively.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Quickly stitched 2 video files together, I cut the Audio to make it faster. This is just a taster of the action at Magic mountain. Our best dive we had 18 Mantas. It should be pointed out that this site is only 1 of maybe 6 in the world where both Reef and Oceanic Manta's visit. The researchers believe (still trying to prove) that teh two species are inter breeding. Certainly one of my Misool videos apparently shows an Oceanic Male displaying mating behavior with a reef female. I say apparently,m because I didnt' notice, it was only when I showed my video to the guys at Misool who are doing research that I had a clue, as they were jumping up and down very excited and wanted copies of all my pictures and videos

 

[Cali_diver]

We had dolphins and mantas on Magic mountain in Misool . In Raja you have the walking sharks and wobbegongs, we also had mantas and reef sharks at other sites as well. March is great for Raja. Highly recommend it over the 2 choices.

We saw mantas in the central and the south Komodo(August/Sept 2016). In southern Komodo we had 30 + mantas all at once... but in central Komodo we had way too many divers. Way too many day boats and smaller 3 day liveaboards. We actually watched divers fight under the water at shot gun for a tie in spot at the top where the mantas were sitting. This was my 5th visit to Komodo and was enough to knock Komodo right off my favorites list. I would stick to the south if I went back or go at end or beginning of the season when not so many boats, July, August and September are high times. I did see some bleaching especially with the anemones. Temps were pretty high this year. We just got back from Lembeh and it was 86F /30C.

 

[jbb]

Considering going to Indonesia again in 2017, either March/April or End of August/September. Options would be a Komodo liveaboard and Bali (rather an option for August(September) or Raja Ampat (a budget resort like Bio Diversity or liveaboard in March).
I did some land-based diving around Komodo, but did not even get to see the manta rays. I just heard people raving about Raja Ampat. Now what is better for manta rays, big fish, corals?
How about coral bleaching?
Cheers,
Liberty

Dive Raja Ampat if you have not been. I will go on my second trip in March on the Mermaid 2. I dived Komodo last November on Mermaid 2. Komodo was fun diving and I did see some mantas but the vis was not the best. I also saw mantas on my first trip to Raga just not as close as Komodo. Nothing will beat my last dive in Raja - I got to swim with a school of Bumphead parrot fish - like a herd of underwater blue Bison - tremendous experience, the only thing better would have been to see them mating.

 

[Susanitaj]

I don´t know about Komodo, but I dived last year in Raja Ampat, and we saw the mantas in the cleaning station, 8 at the time!

Manta Sandy cleaning station has mantas from October to April. After that is common to see oceanic mantas in Blue Magic and few other dive sites.

We just covered North Raja Ampat dives sites from a land based resort, and we were satisfied, the dive sites that you get to dive are quite similar to the ones they do from liveaboard.

I hope this helps...

 

[Javieron]

Considering going to Indonesia again in 2017, either March/April or End of August/September. Options would be a Komodo liveaboard and Bali (rather an option for August(September) or Raja Ampat (a budget resort like Bio Diversity or liveaboard in March).
I did some land-based diving around Komodo, but did not even get to see the manta rays. I just heard people raving about Raja Ampat. Now what is better for manta rays, big fish, corals?
How about coral bleaching?
Cheers,
Liberty

Dear Liberty

Lovely to see you are considering staying with us here at Biodiversity Eco Resort. As you can see we offer Shore based diving from affordable and comfortable accommodations located on Gam Island right next to the Dampier straights here in Raja Ampat. We can definitely tell you that the biodiversity of corals and fish species are incredible here. We are very lucky to see many Reef Sharks species on a number of different dive sights and sightings of Devil and eagle rays, Tuna, Barracuda, bump head parrots, Spanish mackerel to name a few of the larger fish species here. Your thoughts of visiting the area around March/April is definitely a better time of year for the big stuff, we should still have Mantas in the area with chances of the Oceanic Mantas passing by. Unfortunately we can not guarantee what will be at each site we visit, nature has a mind of its own. We've had dives at sites where you feel like your in the middle of a national geographic video, and the following day the site have a completely different fish representation.

So far we have been very lucky and the area has only small amounts of coral bleaching, we're noticing that it is just one or two of the same species of coral. Hopefully this won't get worse, we're even growing the stronger coral species on a coral nursery on our house reef now to strengthen the corals we have here, you'd be welcome to come and dive and help us on the nursery. All the best with your decision and if you would like any further details please don't hesitate to contact us and check out our reviews on trip advisor.

All the Best

Biodiversity Eco Resort