I’m floating motionless amidst brilliantly hued soft corals. Different species, shapes, sizes, and colours as far as the eye can see. I float past a wide toadstool leather coral, a pulsating xenid mesmerises me with its pink tentacles that rhythmically dance in the water column, endless shoals of tiny fish swirl around this fascinating coral garden laden with sponges, sea fans, tunicates, hard corals and crinoids, while a peculiar-looking school of razorfish moves from coral to coral, resembling a grazing herd of cows. In the shallower end of the reef, long mangrove roots extend into the coral garden and high above my head, two eagles are circling. 

Here in Raja Ampat, at the heart of the coral triangle, biodiversity is booming. An incredible 36% of the world’s reef fishes and 76% of the world’s known coral species can be found here. Manta rays, numerous shark species, whales and other megafauna are frequent visitors to the 1,500-island, 4,000km2 archipelago off the coast of Indonesia’s West Papua. A single reef in Raja Ampat is said to contain more species than the entire Caribbean. The reasons for the region’s high biodiversity are complex. Its remoteness has kept development at bay, while its sheltered location within the path of the Indonesian Throughflow, a strong current that flows from the Pacific through to the Indian Ocean, brings nutrients, eggs and larvae to the region. According to research conducted by the non-profit Conservation International, another reason for its biodiversity are temperature fluctuations in the water due to currents. As reefs in Raja Ampat are exposed to a wide variation in temperatures – some reefs experience a 6 to 12 degrees Celsius  variation within 24 hours – they are believed to be better equipped to deal with fluctuating temperatures and climate change. 

Despite this positive outlook, the more time I spend in Raja Ampat, the more signs of human-induced pressures I come across. Brooke Pyke, an underwater photographer, and expedition leader who travelled to Raja Ampat at the beginning of 2023, remembers: “I visited Raja Ampat in both 2019 and 2020. I have vivid memories of the reefs being beautiful and abundant. I went back this year, post-Covid, and I was shocked to see how things had changed. Shallow reef sections at some of the dive sites I visited were showing signs of bleaching and many anemones were completely white. Some of the large sea fans in certain areas had algal growth on them.” On social media and numerous dive blogs, I come across the same story: certain dive sites across Raja Ampat have experienced bleaching events in recent months.