Raja Ampat IslandsCoordinates: 0 ° 47'13 .7 "S latitude, 130 ° 33'43 .0" E
The archipelago is a series of four adjacent islands located in the western part of the Bird's Head (Vogelkoop) New Guinea. Administratively, this group is under the Raja Ampat regency, West Papua Province. The islands are now a destination for divers who are interested in the beauty of the underwater scenery. The four islands that are members named by the four largest islands, namely Pulau Waigeo, Misool Island, Salawati Island, and Island Batanta.
The origin of the name of Raja Ampat according to local myth comes from a woman who found seven eggs. Four grains of which hatch into four princes who split up and each one becomes king who ruled in Waigeo, Salawati, Misool Misool East and West. Meanwhile, the other three eggs into a ghost, a woman, and a stone.
In the course of history, Raja Ampat region has long been inhabited by the nobility and implement a custom system Maluku. In this system, the human skumpulan. Each village is headed by a king. Since its establishment five Muslim sultanates in Maluku, Raja Ampat to claim part of the Sultanate of Tidore. After the defeat of the Dutch Tidore Sultanate, the Raja Ampat Islands became part of the Dutch East Indies claim.
The archipelago is generally the community of traditional fishermen who live in small villages are located far apart and different islands. They are a friendly community welcoming guests from outside, especially if we bring a gift for them in the form of nuts or candies. This product is a kind of 'peace pipes indian' in Raja Ampat. Chat event by eating nuts, also called "The-the Pinang" often take turns throwing each other mob, the local term for funny stories.
They are followers of Islam and Christianity, and often within a family or clan members who have embraced one of the two religions. It makes the Raja Ampat continued to get even different beliefs.
The archipelago is a place that has the potential to serve as a tourist attraction, especially diving tourism. The archipelago waters according to various sources, is one of the 10 best waters for diving sites around the world. In fact, it may also be recognized as number one for the completeness of underwater flora and fauna at this time.
Dr John Veron, coral experienced experts from Australia, for example, in a site was revealed, The archipelago is located at the westernmost tip of New Guinea, about 50 miles northwest of Sorong, has the best reefs in Indonesia. Approximately 450 species of coral had been identified during the two weeks of research in the area.
A team of experts from Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and National Institute of Oceanography (LON) Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) had done a quick assessment in 2001 and 2002. The result, they noted in these waters there are more than 540 hard coral species (75% of the total species in the world), more than 1,000 species of reef fish, 700 species of molluscs, and the highest record for gonodactyloid stomatopod crustaceans. This makes 75% of the world's coral species in Raja Ampat. Nowhere in the same area has a number of coral species as much as this.
There are some reefs are still very good condition with the percentage of live coral cover by 90%, which is in Dampier Strait (the strait between Waigeo P. and P. Batanta), Kofiau Islands, Islands and South East Misool Wayag Islands. Types of coral reefs in Raja Ampat is a fringing reef generally to the contours of the steep ramps up. But it also found the type of atoll and the type of burn or taka. In some places like the village Saondarek, when the lowest tides, coral reefs can be seen without the diving and the adaptation itself, the coral is still able to live even in the open air and exposed to direct sunlight. Unique species that can be found at the diving is some kind of dwarf seahorses, wobbegong, Manta and stingrays. There are also endemic fish of Raja Ampat, namely Eviota king, which is a kind of fish gobbie. At the supernal point Manta Arborek Dampier Strait, you can dive with Manta Ray was accompanied by a tail like a tame when you dive in Derawan Islands, East Kalimantan. If you dive at Cape Kri or Chicken Reef, you can be surrounded by thousands of fish. Sometimes a collection of tuna, giant trevallies and snappers. But the tense when we are surrounded by a collection of barracuda fish, even though it is relatively harmless (which is dangerous if we see a solitary barracuda or alone). Reef sharks are also frequently seen, and with luck you can also see the turtle is still eating sponge or swim around you. In some places like in Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo also seen Dugong or sea cow.
Because the area of many islands and narrow straits, then most of the dive at a particular time has a strong current. It is also possible to do a drift dive, dive, following a strong flow of water is very clear with her through the collection of fish.
In the cluster of prehistoric Misool found that is assigned to a hand stamp on the rock wall. Interestingly, labeling these hands are very close to sea level and not in the cave. According to estimates, the age cap is hand-stamped about 50,000 years and became part of the guide track the spread of humans from the western region of the archipelago to Papua and Melanesia.
The rest of the plane wreck from World War II can be found in several places diving, like on the island of Wai.
Visiting these islands is not too difficult although it takes considerable time and cost. We can use the airlines from Jakarta to Sorong via Menado for 6 hours of flight. From Sorong-town big enough and quite complete facilities for exploring the Raja Ampat, there are two options, take a tour by boat or stay at the resort pinisi Papua Diving. Although most tourists who come to the Raja Ampat at this time is divers, the actual location is attractive also for non divers as well as tourists have white sandy beaches are very beautiful group of islands nan stunning karst and endemic flora and fauna unique like paradise red, paradise Wilson, maleo Waigeo, various parrots and parrot, possum Waigeo, as well as various types of orchids.
Wealth of biodiversity in the Raja Ampat has made him have a high level of threat as well. It can be seen from the degradation of coral reefs and forests. Damage to coral reefs is generally due to fishing activities that are not environmentally friendly such as bombs, cyanide and bore the root (a type of fluid from the processed roots of trees to poison fish).
To preserve the underwater Raja Ampat Islands, conservation efforts are urgently needed in this area. There are two international organizations are concerned about the preservation of natural resources Raja Ampat, the CI (Conservation International) and TNC (The Nature Conservancy). The government itself has set Waigeo sea around the South, which includes the small islands such as Gam, Mansuar, Yeben group and trunk group Pele, was endorsed as a Marine Wildlife Reserve. According to Minister of Forestry Decree No. 81/KptsII/1993, this area reached 60,000 hectares.
In addition, several other marine areas have been proposed for a conservation area. Each of these is the Sea Island Wildlife Refuge South Misool, sea island Kofiau, Asia sea island, sea island sea island honey and Ayau.
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