Raja Ampat Divesites
Farondi
|
Farondi Island is located around 12 nautical miles east of Misool Island and offers divers some stunning wall and cavern dives. This is another Raja Ampat dive destination where the quantity and variety of fish will amaze you.
Goa Besar, on the southern side of Farondi is a wall dive with a tunnel at 25 metres that is inhabited by midnight snapper and shy Indonesian sweetlips. The 20 metre long tunnel is framed with sponges and soft corals. Look in black coral bushes for ornate ghost pipefish.
Further along the wall huge gorgonian seafans are home to many pygmy seahorses. There are more than one variety here including Hippocampus Bargibanti which is commonly pink/white and bobbly plus Hippocampus Denise which is slightly smaller and often more orange in colour. These critters are incredibly hard to spot as they are so well camouflaged with the gorgonians but there are more of them at this dive site making the task of finding them a bit easier.
Large schools of fish cover the wall including fusilier and surgeonfish, damsels and anthias.
Verena's Garden, on the southwest tip of Farondi Island, is a wall dive with a long cavern into the centre of the island. 
The reef wall is carpeted with colourful soft corals, gorgonians and sea squirts. Schools of snapper, fusilier and surgeonfish are prolific.
Armies of large humphead parrotfish often storm past. Pairings of butterflyfish and angelfish are numerous. The challenge for photographers is to get both the pair in one shot.
It's worth taking your time to look in all the bush corals for critters like ghost pipefish and on whip corals for whip gobies. Crustaceans and nudibranchs are also numerous.
The cavern entrance at 5-12 metres is guarded by schools of sweepers. Mimic octopus can be found in the tunnel.
