Raja Ampat Dive Sites

Fabiacet

Fabiacet is really a breath of fresh air for all of us that wish we could always dive on reefs with fish life as prolific as nature intended. If you're a tired and burnt out crusty old diver, then this one out. Bring your nitrox certification because this exceptional Raja Ampat island is one site where you'll be wanting to stay down for as long as your air will last.

The surrounding waters around these pinnacles and islands are very deep and clear. Here you'll find some of the best visibility in Raja Ampat - up of 40 metres - and the fish life is truly excellent, so bring your wide-angle camera lenses. Great hammerhead sharks can be found here, as the adjacent water is deep and they sometimes come up to shallower water to check out what the noisy, yellow and black rubber-clad, bubble-blowing creatures are doing in the water.

The outerwall shallows are dominated with cream, beige and brown leather corals and sponges. Neon fusiliers shimmer past and schooling pale-lipped surgeonfish dive into deeper water as you swim past. Green turtles can be seen munching on the sponges, and black and white striped angelfish are common here.

In the deeper sections are masses of large pink, lilac and purple gorgonian fans and sea fans. Six-banded angelfish and blue-girdled angelfish weave amongst the branches whilst orange-spotted trevally stalk past, intent upon their prey of slender fusiliers which move seemingly as one body in an attempt to thwart the hunters advances. Redtooth triggerfish and schooling bannerfish school off the reef in their hundreds.

The first narrow island is roughly 75 metres in length with a submerged pinnacle lying off its northwestern tip. Swim down to 24 metres and across the channel to gain the pinnacle. The channel is full of red gorgonians. Napoleonfish, pretty rare now in most places around the world, are seemingly everywhere and very approachable in Raja Ampat. Midnight snappers and whitefin surgeonfish occupy the channel, and thousands of small yellow and green sea cucumbers crawl across the limestone surface of the pinnacle.

The second island is approximately 200 metres in length, surrounded by steep bankings and walls, and separated from the first island by about 60 metres of water. When the current is running the channel between these two islands is a terrific place to watch the fish action. It's about 20 metres deep, so just find a suitable spot to hold on amongst the tightly packed fans, green branching cup corals and sheet corals, and watch the fish world go by. Surgeonfish, sleek unicornfish, and many species of snapper - humpback, red, black and white and one-spot - all aggregate in large numbers here, as well as resident pale-tail chromis. Big groupers and great barracuda circle in the outer regions or overhead.

The third and fourth islets are known as Warna Ember, which means Many Colours in Indonesian, and this is a pretty reflective name. The distance between the two is about 300 metres and makes for a fantastic Raja Ampat dive. Near the third islet at 25 metres deep is a sandy plateau section with a few large table corals. This area acts as a large feeding bowl and attracts massive congregations of fish. Yellowmask surgeonfish, humpback snapper and Napoleon wrasse mill around the area, whilst yellowtail barracuda and mackerel chase after double-lined and blue and yellow fusiliers in explosive bursts of speed.

Leaving the plateau, you will make your way up the uneven coral terrain towards the fourth islet. Here the hunting is non-stop with giant fusiliers, slender fusiliers and schools of Batuna's damsels darting around the large green and gold sea fans, followed by bigeye trevally. The shallows have large porites corals with orange fairy basslets, the spectacular palette surgeonfish, and bumphead parrotfish grazing endlessly.

This small series of four islets lie in a short chain, about 25km southeast of Misool Island, and are a must on any Raja Ampat liveaboard cruise. The larger two islets to the northwest are large enough for a few trees, the smaller two barely break the water's surface.

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Fabiacet Reef Basics: Walls and pinnacles
Depth: 5 - >40m
Visibility: 15 - 35m
Currents: Can be strong
Surface Conditions: Calm
Water Temperature: 28 - 30°C
Experience Level: Beginner - advanced
Number of dive sites: 6
Diving Season: All year round
Distance: ~230 km west south west of Sorong (14 hours)
Access: Raja Ampat liveaboards from Irian Jaya or West Timor

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