Cenderawasih Bay -West Papua
Whale Shark Cruise

We first visited Cenderawasih Bay in 2014. We were blown away by the shipwrecks, reefs and whale shark encounters in this huge bay in West Papua.
This area has become THE destination to dive and photograph Whale Sharks. It also has beautiful remote coral reefs and some great World War II wrecks.
Join us for a trip to Cenderawasih Bay. We have chartered a 32 meter long Phinisi live-aboard dive vessel for this trip of a lifetime for 8 days/7nights.
We fly from Bali to Manokwari in West Papua. Here we board our live-aboard dive vessel in Manokwari Harbour and begin our dives on a World War II Japanese wreck close to Manokwari.
We then head south, deep into Cenderawasih Bay, diving on reefs, atolls and wrecks along the way. We get to spend 7 days diving the reefs and WWII wrecks in this huge bay, with 2 days (that's 6x 60 minute dives) devoted just to diving with the Whale Sharks in the southern area of Cenderawasih Bay.
Contact us for a price guide, dates and more information.

The adventure of the unexpected is one of the great draw cards of this trip. But the things that we will try our utmost to do are:
  • Dive on remote reefs, WWII wrecks and with whale sharks (up close & personal).
  • No-one rushed to finish  their dives.
  • No-one watching you still have 50bar when you board the dive boat.
  • Free help with improving your underwater photography.
  • Free help with editing your photos with Adobe Lightroom.
  • You won't be treated like a beginner, as we only invite experienced divers.
  • These trips are all about fun, underwater photography, plain relaxing, diving and cruising around the picturesque seascapes of Cenderawasih Bay.
Cenderawasih Bay Whale Shark Cruise 2014
Fishing Bagan in Cendrawasih Bay
Whale Shark Cenderawasih Bay
Photographing Whale Sharks in Close-Up
Cendrawasih Bay Live Aboard Trip
Map of Indonesia, showing Cendrawasih Bay and our flight route - click to enlarge.
Cenderawasih Bay Island
One of the tiny atolls we dived in Cenderawasih Bay
Shipwreck Manokwari Bay West Papua
Japanese WWII Shipwreck near Manokwari
Cenderawasih Bay ("Bird of Paradise Bay" in English), is located at the western end of Papua Island (see map above), this huge bay (1.4 million hectares) has some very unique coral reefs that have evolved in seperation from other reefs surrounding West Papua, due to isolation over millions of years. This has allowed some corals and fish species to be unique to Cenderawasih Bay. The bay's western shoreline has been protected as Marine National Park since 2002.
The star attraction of this bay are the Whale Sharks that have been attracted by fishermen. The fishermen catch small baitfish at night in nets lowered from fishing vessels known as "Bagans", this has over a period of time attracted Whale Sharks that come to feed on the baitfish that spill from the nets at the surface.
There are also the remains of World War II shipwrecks and the wreck of a Japanese Zero aircraft in the bay.
Watch the video (left) that we shot
during our trip in August 2014

Picture




World War II shipwreck in cenderawasih Bay, West Papua
This World War II shipwreck lays in shallow water and has nice wide angle photo opportunities
Picture
Whale Sharks feeding at a fishing Platorm (Bagan).
Cenderawasih Bay Coral Reefs
Some of the reefs in Cenderawasih Bay are cloaked in soft corals.
To view more photos from our Cenderawasih Bay trips click on any of the images below to visit our Flickr site: