Raja Ampat tides

[scubajunky17]

It was during the covid lock downs.

 

[Dan]

It was during the covid lock downs.

That makes sense. My Balinese DM told me that the local wiped out the Bumphead Parrotfish in Tulamben during Covid. It goes to show that our presence help the local economy and reducing the over fishing.

I used to enjoy diving in Tulamben at 5AM to swim with schooling Bumphead Parrotfish and Brown-Marbled Grouper hunting for breakfast. They were not there anymore after Covid.

 

[cetacean]

This is news to me. I've been to Raja Ampat 9 times since 2010. Have never heard such thing happened until now.

There were real pirates operated in Cendrawasih Bay trying to get to our boat back in 2015. The cruise director had to throw a bundle of money in a bag to them to keep them away. Luckily they sailed away after getting the ransom money.

Good thing that IDR has some small denomination bills

 

[cetacean]

How many times have you been?
I hope you are correct.
I'm not suggesting anything, the locals have told me what has happened, sites not close to islands got hit at night time by "pirates" selling the fish on.
The extent of this damage is perhaps debatable, I hope you are right in your observations, time will soon tell.
This is my third time here in the same month so I have a comparison.

Been to the region a handful times, but always either earlier or later in the year (both land based and LOB)

Can you share specifics? If the perceived damage is a reduction in number of "big" fish (larger parrotfish, wrasse, snapper, etc.) that's possible, although we didn't notice a significant drop (although some sites had fewer than expected, while others had significantly more than previously experienced).

There is some hard data that might be useful here - the shark population (primarily blacktip reef sharks) is surveyed every 6 months - from what I heard at Sorido Bay (a sponsor of these surveys) the number of sharks continues to grow (and has been slowly over the last ~8 years). If the larger fish were being significantly fished out you would likely see an overall drop in the shark population over time (the blacktips in R4 prey on injured, sick, etc. as one of top predator in these ecosystems).

Are their specific species you are noticing missing/decreased numbers?

 

[JustinJRL]

We saw reef sharks on every single dive in north RA in Oct 2022 (except manta sandy)

 

[Dan]

Good thing that IDR has some small denomination bills

Hahaha, right!

That was pretty intense moment. Their boat was cruising along our starboard side pretty close to make sure the overthrown sack of money landed in their boat.

 

[scubajunky17]

So sad, I remember schools of 50+ here, haven't seen them yet :-(

That makes sense. My Balinese DM told me that the local wiped out the Bumphead Parrotfish in Tulamben during Covid. It goes to show that our presence help the local economy and reducing the over fishing.

I used to enjoy diving in Tulamben at 5AM to swim with schooling Bumphead Parrotfish and Brown-Marbled Grouper hunting for breakfast. They were not there anymore after Covid.

 

[scubajunky17]

Been to the region a handful times, but always either earlier or later in the year (both land based and LOB)

Can you share specifics? If the perceived damage is a reduction in number of "big" fish (larger parrotfish, wrasse, snapper, etc.) that's possible, although we didn't notice a significant drop (although some sites had fewer than expected, while others had significantly more than previously experienced).

There is some hard data that might be useful here - the shark population (primarily blacktip reef sharks) is surveyed every 6 months - from what I heard at Sorido Bay (a sponsor of these surveys) the number of sharks continues to grow (and has been slowly over the last ~8 years). If the larger fish were being significantly fished out you would likely see an overall drop in the shark population over time (the blacktips in R4 prey on injured, sick, etc. as one of top predator in these ecosystems).

Are their specific species you are noticing missing/decreased numbers?

Haven't seen fish soup yet and haven't seen huge schools of jacks etc yet
But only six dives in so we will see, have seen sharks but not quite as many as usual.
Time will tell.

 

[Indah]

Hahaha, right!

That was pretty intense moment. Their boat was cruising along our starboard side pretty close to make sure the overthrown sack of money landed in their boat.

Was this not a donation to the local population because of the whale sharks?

 

[Dan]

Was this not a donation to the local population because of the whale sharks?

With a gun pointed at you?