TRITON BAY & BANDA SEA Trip Report 2023
A Bluewater Travel Underwater Photo Workshop in the Heart of the Coral Triangle
Trip report words & Images By Mark Strickland
Located on the western end of the huge island of New Guinea, Indonesia’s Triton Bay is home to an incredible variety and volume of marine life, and boasts some of the world’s healthiest and most colorful reefs. In fact, it is believed to rival even Raja Ampat for the title of the world’s greatest marine biodiversity. Above the waterline, the expanse of verdant green rainforest that borders these waters shows little sign of human habitation, which has much to do with the unusual abundance of fish and general health of the reefs, as there is little impact from humans. Diving here is a rare treat, and for most of us who participated in Bluewater’s recent dive expedition and photo workshop, it was a trip of a lifetime.
Triton Bay is also among the most remote dive locales on the planet. Accordingly, it takes several days of travel to reach this region, typically one day to get to the capital of Jakarta, followed by another full day of domestic flights to reach the isolated town of Kaimana. Some of our group had already spent a week doing land-based diving in Triton Bay, and rendezvoused with the rest of us at Kaimana’s one hotel, where we enjoyed an evening meal and a good night’s sleep before being picked up by the crew of our floating home for the expedition, the Amira.
A gorgeous example of the classic Indonesian Phinisi-style sailing vessels that once plied these waters in the heyday of Spice Islands trading, these vessels have enjoyed a real renaissance in modern times as luxury diving liveaboards. I’ve been aboard a number in recent years, but have never encountered one as spacious and well-thought out as Amira. Being a whopping 170 feet in length with a beam of over 30 feet, there was never a time when we felt crowded, aside from maybe a few peak moments in the camera room when everyone was first setting up their gear.
Stepping aboard for the first time, we were greeted by Amira’s smiling hospitality team and handed a cold welcome drink while cruise directors Kai and Nora gave us a brief tour of the boat and showed us to our respective cabins. Before long we had gotten underway, but with no dive scheduled until the next morning, we had ample time for preparing dive gear and cameras.
As the dawn rose on our first full day onboard, we found ourselves surrounded by the calm waters of Sisir Bay, which would be the site for our initial dives. As Kai explained in the briefing, this would not be a typical checkout dive, in that the bottom would be nowhere in sight, nor would we see any coral. None of us were complaining, though, as we were about to swim with the largest of all fish, whale sharks, which are attracted to one of several floating fishing platforms or bagans, used by locals to catch small fish that are attracted to the lights they display every night. Lacking refrigeration, they keep their catch in the water in holding nets to keep them fresh until they can be offloaded to a collection boat that makes the rounds every few days. Storing their catch in this way results in a steady stream of fish scent entering the water, which tends to attract various predators, notably whale sharks, which show up quite regularly looking for handouts. While there are no guarantees, we were thrilled to hear that 2 whale sharks were indeed in the area, and showed no signs of leaving!
Due to the unusual situation and the fact that we’d be staying very shallow, rather than stick to a set dive schedule, we would be free to dive throughout the entire morning, something that most of us took full advantage of. With multiple tender boats standing by at both Amira and the bagans, all we had to do was say the word to be whisked back to change tanks or delivered back to the bagans for more whale shark action. From the moment we got in the water, we had almost nonstop opportunities with a pair of young male whale sharks, one about 15 feet in length, the other probably 20 or more. Much of the time they were slowly circling the bagans at depths between 5 to 40 feet, regularly angling up to the surface, where they would often hang vertically, mouthing the fish-filled storage nets in hopes of extracting some of the catch. Thanks to a prearrangement made with the crew, the fisherman would periodically offer them a netful of fish, keeping them keenly interested in sticking around. As a result, we had virtually nonstop photo ops with these giant fish, as well as periodic appearances by a pod of bottlenose dolphins, none of which seemed the least bothered by our presence. At one point, one of the guests, Mary, got a bit more attention than she bargained for, as one of the whale sharks apparently mistook her leg for a fish net and clamped down on it! Fortunately for Mary, whale shark teeth are very tiny and the interaction was brief, with no harm done. But does she ever have a big fish story to share!
Looking for other places to dive with whale sharks? Check out our list here.
Having spent the entire morning with the whale sharks, the afternoon was dedicated to travel, as we steamed towards the north end of Pulau Aiduma, which forms the southern entrance of Triton Bay. There, we anchored near a site call Bo’s Rainbow for a night dive. A tiny limestone islet, it made for an easy, shallow dive. Visibility wasn’t great, but the amazing variety of marine life more than made up for it. Night diving in such locales is mostly about small critters, and this site did not disappoint in that regard, with plenty of flatworms, skeleton shrimp, cowries, and the seldom-seen solar-powered nudibranch. A few larger animals were also encountered, including a foot-long Spanish Dancer nudibranch and a wobbegong shark!
There was no need to move the boat before the next morning’s dive, as we had barely had a look at Bo’s Rainbow the night before, and the scenery certainly deserved being seen in the daytime. While the above-water portion of this site is very small, the sloping reef surrounding it provided plenty of space for us to spread out, where we explored among black coral trees and large boulders covered with soft corals, crinoids and tunicates, surrounded by schooling fusiliers and friendly spadefish, as well as colorful reef dwellers like six-band and emperor angelfish. Further reducing any chance of crowding, our group of 18 was divided among 4 different guides, each departing on a staggered timetable, allowing each group to have their section of reef more or less to themselves. As we stair-stepped up to safety-stop depth, many of us enjoyed exploring a large tunnel that bisected the islet, the walls of which are decorated with vibrantly-hued soft corals and crinoids.
So far the conditions had been very easy, with little or no current. This certainly made for effortless diving, but any experienced diver knows that the action picks up when the current starts moving, and many of us were longing for just that. On our next dive, among a couple of detached rocks at Pulau Arus, we got our wish. A brisk current was pulling through the shallow pass between the rocks, so we started on the up-current end, backrolled into the stream, and enjoyed a free ride over the colorful shallow reef, surrounded by big swarms of fusiliers and surgeonfish. Visibility had improved as well, further enhancing the beauty of the scene. Big colonies of orange cup coral, orange and pink soft corals and magenta gorgonians extended their polyps into the flow, as several barramundi cod, bumphead parrotfish and blue-ring angelfish hovered near the reef.
For the afternoon dive, we moved to one of the regions most celebrated sites, known as Little Komodo. A sloping reef surrounding another small islet, it’s actually 3 distinct sites. On the same side of the rock as Little Komodo, a protected bay is known as the Aquarium, while the opposite side is called Pintu Arus. Due to their close proximity, half of us dived the Little Komodo side, the others at Pintu Arus. Splitting up this way and staggering the dinghy departures again avoided any crowding underwater, and we had enjoyable and scenic diving on both sides of the rock, with a wide variety of reef fish including various butterflyfish, wrasses, damsels and surgeonfish, as well as a pair of clown triggerfish that were visiting a cleaning station. Several divers also encountered a broadclub cuttlefish. But the current was once again slack, which made for easy conditions but little schooling action, and the abundant orange cup corals were closed and therefore less than impressive. But it was easy to imagine what it would look like with current! Like many of these small islets, this rock is shaped more or less like a mushroom, making for a cool overhanging ledge under the “mushroom cap” at safety stop depth.
The night dive took place at another nearby islet, Batu Tengah. Easy conditions made for a leisurely exploration of a rubble-covered slope, where we encountered lots of Tozeuma shrimp and other crustaceans, as well as a baby scorpionfish, a Ceratosoma nudibranch, and several squid that were attracted to our lights.
The first dive of the next day was at a favorite site of famous divemaster Larry Smith, called Larry’s Dive Heaven. Here we finally enjoyed very good visibility, and were entertained by passing schools of surgeonfish and fusiliers, as well as a spotted eagle ray. The sloping reef was populated by numerous barrel sponges and pink gorgonian fans, but with almost no current, there wasn’t much going on.
Our next site was another pair of rocky islets, called Batu Jeruk, where most of site consisted of large, smooth rocks that sloped down to a sand bottom where we found a huge field of garden eels. But the highlight were several large boulders that were completely covered in small, pastel pink and orange soft corals, and served as home base for several large angelfish, as well as multiple sweetlips species and a wobbegong shark. Our time there was limited due to depth, but our ascent to the shallows was rewarded in a narrow passage between small rock and main island, where a brisk current made for lively schooling action with fusiliers and jacks, and also prompted large colonies of orange cup coral and soft corals to extend their polyps, making for a colorful finale to a great dive.
For our afternoon dive, we moved once again to a very small limestone islet known as Christmas Rock or Tim Rock, named for the well-known photographer of the same name. It’s a very compact site, but is inhabited by tremendous fish life, including bumphead parrotfish, groupers, sweetlips and regal, emperor, blue-ring and yellow-mask angelfish. Schooling fish were everywhere we looked, including damselfish, surgeonfish, blue-lined snappers, porgies, sweetlips and goatfish. Large, white-polyp black coral trees dominated the deeper reef, replaced by vibrant soft corals and sizable clusters of orange cup corals in the shallows. Many of us never moved more than a few dozen feet from where we started the dive, as there was just so much to see. Before we knew it, we’d been submerged an hour and it was time to ascend, but even at safety-stop depth the scenery was captivating, as we explored among colorful soft corals, crinoids and anemones under the mushroom-cap overhang in the shallows.
For the night dive, we returned to the previous evening’s site, now dubbed Anja’s Dream in honor of one of the guests who was especially intrigued by the critters there. Once again it did not disappoint, producing a nice variety of sleeping fish, various crustaceans and several octopus.
Our fifth diving day began at Batu Jeruk, where we encountered brisk current in shallows, accompanied by lots of fish life, including schooling chromis, anthias and several species of fusiliers. Some nice soft corals were on full display at entry point, but there was too much current to photograph them, so initially we just went with the flow. Descending the gentle slope, we found less current at depth, and spent considerable time at one boulder that was covered with orange soft corals, as was much of the surrounding bottom. Semi-circle and six-band angelfish meandered around the base of the rock, as did ribbon and diagonal-banded sweetlips. Eventually making our way back to the shallows, we finished the dive in the narrow pass between the small rock and the island where the current had now eased considerably, and found a pair of photogenic longfin bannerfish hovering near a yellow crinoid and cluster of orange cup corals.
Our second morning dive had to be cancelled due to rudder problems, but by afternoon the problem had been sorted in time for another beautiful afternoon dive at Christmas / Tim Rock, where we were greeting by a school of yellowtail barracuda. Moving uphill, we explored among huge black coral trees with white polyps, surrounded by a school of blue-lined snappers. Looking closer, we found several longnose hawkfish resting among the branches. But the highlight for me was a particular large boulder that was covered with massive clusters of orange cup coral, accented with soft corals of several colors. Completing the scene were a handful of diagonal-banded sweetlips which seemed happy to pose for photos, being amazingly tolerant of our close approaches. While most of the group swam off to explore the rest of the site, several of us spent the remainder of the dive right there, taking turns to be in the best photo position.
For the night dive, it was back to Anja’s Dream, where we encountered lots of skeleton shrimp, as well as several squid and dozens of Tozeuma shrimp – a species that I had only seen occasionally until this trip!
Diving day 6 found us still around the north end of Pulau Aiduma near the south end of Triton Bay, where we spent all 3 daytime dives alternating between Little Komodo, Pintu Arus and The Aquarium, although one group chose to dive at Batu Tengah for macro. Those who opted for Pintu Arus and Little Komodo were richly rewarded, as the current was pulling just enough to bring in the schooling fish, including a sizable shoal of chevron barracuda. Reef fish like coral trout and lobetail snappers were also out in force, and the soft corals and orange cup corals were open and inflated to their full glory. Even 3 dives did not feel like enough! The night dive was at a site called Batu Kecil, where the rubble bottom revealed a wide range of critters, including several nudibranchs and flatworms, along with a host of small crabs and shrimp.
Our first dive of day 7 was back at Bo’s Rainbow, where several of us hunkered down near some gorgonian fans, waiting for the resident pygmy seahorses to strike a photogenic pose, including a male that was so pregnant it appeared ready to burst. Further down the slope, a forest of large soft coral trees sprouted from the sand, but were wilted due to lack of current. There was no shortage of nice scenery, however, including safety-stop depths, where many of us explored the shallow swim-thru, while others were entertained by the antics of clownfish families as they danced among the tentacles of their host anemones.
Until now, a big swell had precluded visiting any of the open-sea sites to the southwest, but the seas were finally laying down, prompting us to move to an offshore site known as Three Rocks. Here, we dived a ridge off the westernmost rock that’s surrounded by deeper water. Deeper areas featured large black corals and small gorgonian fans, but between the gray skies and limited visibility, there was little color. One highlight, however, was a cluster of crinoids at about 90 feet that was home to an ornate ghost pipefish. Stair-stepping up to shallower depths, we saw a banded sea snake and several squid, as well as a regal angelfish. Fields of healthy staghorn dominated the shallows, but visibility was too limited to do them justice.
For our afternoon dive, we explored a rubble slope at Batu Kecil / Batu Tengah, which turned out to be cephalopod city! Early in the dive we encountered a trio of pygmy cuttlefish that were expertly blending in with the sandy substrate until realizing they’d been discovered, at which point they switched to a striped pattern and jetted off. Next was a netted octopus, then a tiny bobtail squid, but the highlight was a thumb-sized blue-ring octopus that initially displayed a nondescript brown coloration, until finally activating the neon-blue rings that it’s named for, sending us photographers into a near frenzy. When it was all said and done, however, everyone in our group got decent shots of this rarely seen creature. The night dive was at the same site, and revealed a host of creatures that we hadn’t seen on the previous dive: Tiny clumps of sponge hosted numerous decorator crabs, porcelain crabs and juvenile filefish, while several crinoids played host to squat lobsters and a black and orange ornate ghost pipefish. We also watched in amazement as a sea star sprinted across the bottom at about a foot per minute!
Originally, we had planned this trip to spend roughly equal amounts of time in Triton Bay and the Eastern Banda Sea, following an “A to B” itinerary and disembarking at the port of Suamlaki. And that’s what we did, except that heavy weather in the Banda Sea dictated that we spend a few extra days in Triton Bay. Given the outstanding quality of diving that we enjoyed there, the delay actually worked out just fine, but by the morning of day 8, most of us were ready for a change of scenery. Before getting underway, however, we had time for one more dive at Christmas / Tim Rock. Finally, we had perfect conditions – steady, moderate current, decent visibility (40 ft), and soft corals and Tubastraea in full bloom! The resident reef fish were also out in force, making it a perfect farewell dive for our time in Triton Bay. Having over a hundred miles to cover to our next dive site, we did no further diving this day, but thoroughly enjoyed our time onboard, catching up on photo editing attending another session of the photo workshop, or just plain relaxing. As sunset approached, we also enjoyed a lively jam session on the top deck, complete with refreshments and highly entertaining musical performances by our multi-talented crew, which included plenty of singing and dancing by the entire group… a good time was had by all!
The next morning we awoke among the Kai Islands, at a site called Taman Tanimbar. Once again we had a lot of distance to cover before the next morning, so it would be a 2 dive day, covering different sections of the same hard coral reef. From the moment we did our first back-roll, it was obvious that something was very different from Triton Bay – the water was a startling shade of blue, with visibility approaching 100 feet! Starting at roughly 15 ft, we followed the sloping reef down to roughly 60 ft. where the terrain turned into a gently sloping rubble bottom. Almost immediately we found a handsome white-mouth moray, along with several longfin bannerfish and regal angelfish. Although I was equipped with a wide angle lens, I couldn’t resist poking around a bit in the rubble, where I encountered a pair of robust ghost pipefish. Most of the time, however, I concentrated on the slope and shallow reef, where we found a wide variety of healthy hard and leather corals, along with occasional gorgonian fans and a large olive sea snake.
For the second dive, we got to revisit the same sloping reef, so I decided to do a bit of exploring, swimming across the rubble field toward deeper water, where I found another steep drop-off from than ranged from 90-130 ft. Here I found lots of healthy fans, distinctive “Dali” sponges and some soft corals, as well as 2 hawksbill turtles. Meanwhile, those who returned to the rubble field relocated the same ghost pipefish we’d seen on dive 1, while Bryan found a large broadclub cuttlefish and David found a juvenile pinnate batfish!
Getting underway again amidst blue skies and calm seas, we enjoyed a delicious lunch in the open air of the shaded foredeck, where most of our meals were served. Thanks to our talented chef and his team, every meal was outstanding, and always featured a variety of meats and seafood, fresh veggies and fruits, with a variety of vegetarian options as well. On this day, lunch included delicious grilled chicken on lemongrass skewers, fresh tuna, sauteed mixed veggies and veggie quiche… yum! And, to top it off, just after lunch we had a surprise visit by a pod of melon-headed whales, which briefly kept pace with the boat, frolicking on the surface like dolphins. That evening, several of us took advantage of the clear skies, making our way to the top deck, where we were treated to a spectacular view of the Milky Way, as well as the Southern Cross, a sight that most of us seldom have a chance to see without the influence of city lights.
Our next day in the Banda Sea included 3 dives, each at a different section of sloping hard coral reef at a small island called Pulau Kalbur. Our first dive was on the east side, where we again enjoyed good visibility, and were surrounded at times by big schools of lobetail snapper and redtooth triggerfish. We also saw a young Napoleon wrasse, marble grouper, pairs of bluehead tilefish, and several banded sea snakes. For the second dive, we moved around to the island’s west side to a site known as Excalibur, where we explored a steep slope that started at 30 feet and bottomed out around 130. The current was mild at first, but picked up to moderately strong towards the end of the dive. Seeming to appreciate the current, masses of schooling fish gathered in mid-water, including fusiliers, white pyramid butterflies, and red-tooth triggerfish, along with occasional squadrons of bluefin trevally. 5 Napolean wrasse of various sizes swam parallel with us for some time, and we also encountered several olive and banded sea snakes as well as a great barracuda, the first I’d seen on this trip. Unlike Triton Bay, we did see evidence of fishing here, including lots of old fishing lines and some rubble from blast fishing, but overall the reef looked quite healthy, including large table corals and fields of different colored staghorn, and the fish life was outstanding. Our third dive was on a different section of Exlalibur, where we once again enjoyed lively current and great schooling action, as we watched waves of fusiliers, surgeonfish, pyramid butterflies and chevron barracuda pass by. Reef fish were also well represented, with many squarespot anthias, magnificent and decorated dartfish, and several blue-girdle angelfish, a species we had not encountered earlier in the trip. Both banded and olive sea snakes also made appearances, as did a reef octopus that put on quite a display by squirting ink before jetting off.
Having steamed another 80 miles or so overnight towards Suamlaki, our last diving day took place at the island of Pulau Nuisnitu, where we spent the first dive exploring a submerged ridge that turned into large plateau at depths of 40 – 90 feet. Arriving at the bottom, we found ourselves among large gorgonian fans, orange and barrel sponges, and schools of fusiliers and some sizable snappers. There were also numerous blue girdle angelfish and several squaretail groupers. For our second dive of the day and last one of the trip, we moved to a nearby site called The Boulders, which consisted of sloping hard coral reef, populated by healthy fan corals, many large sponges, and some beautiful hard corals in the shallows. Throughout the dive, we were entertained by a near constant parade of fish life, including schooling lobetail snappers, bumphead parrotfish, young Napoleon wrasse, giant sweetlips, and a 3 foot Malabar grouper, topped off by a pair of hawksbill turtles that appeared at the end of the dive, as if to bid us farewell.
Late that afternoon, the crew covered the salon windows to limit the sunlight streaming in, and we all settled in to view a “best of” slide show, video review and photo contest, which served as a culmination of the photo workshop that had been going on throughout the trip. Not only was it a great chance to relive some of our favorite underwater moments, but it also showed how much everyone’s results had improved over the course of the trip – I think everyone ended up with at least a few shots that they were proud to share. As we moved out to the main deck for dinner that evening, we all marveled at the impressive spread that had been prepared for our last full meal onboard – it was obvious that no effort had been spared. Actually, that attitude was prevalent throughout the trip, as we enjoyed what I believe was one of the most dedicated, hard-working crews I’ve encountered in many years of liveaboard diving. Between the outstanding service, beautiful boat and remarkable marine life in a remote, beautiful and seldom-visited corner of the world, it had been an exceptional adventure that will live on in our collective memories for years to come.
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