Dive Review of Mermaid II in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat

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Mermaid II: "Amazing diving in Raja Ampat", Jan, 2024, by David Jackson, CA, US ( 2 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12870.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This trip was actually done in December, 2022. After waiting so long to report it, I can no longer select that month. This was my fourth trip on the Mermaid II over an 11-year period, but my first in Raja Ampat. My other three trips with Mermaid II were to the Komodo Islands. The crew changes with each trip, but Mermaid remains a well-run operation. The crew are friendly and helpful. The boat is a mid-range dive boat. It's not luxurious, but it is comfortable and well maintained. I stayed in one of their budget cabins, which are located in the lower level of the boat. These rooms are similar to the regular rooms I have stayed in previously, but with the following differences: they are located in the lowest level, they have no windows, and the bathroom is shared with four guests instead of two. I was happy with the room and the 500 Euro savings. I was really impressed with the diving in Raja Ampat. We saw beautiful, healthy coral and a wide variety of fish life on almost every dive. It was rainy or cloudy on the majority of the dives, which limited the visibility somewhat. Many of the dives had strong to medium current, which was somewhat challenging. But, the high-current dives generally had tons of fish life. Two dives really stood out. On a shallow night dive at Sapokreng we saw amazing small stuff everywhere we looked, including seven seahorses, a few crabs, a tiny little boxfish, a snake eel, a couple of small cowfish, and two small cuttlefish, including a flamboyant cuttlefish. At Magic Mountain we swam against a strong current and then used our reef hooks to anchor in place while a huge manta ray swam nearby for about 15 minutes. Other fish life highlights included wobbegong sharks, a bamboo shark, several whitetip reef sharks, a flatworm, a few humphead parrotfish, several barramundi, numerous seahorses including a pygmy seahorse, several nudibranchs, a pair of blue dragons, an orangutan crab, a squid, a trumpetfish, a jawfish, some very large clams, and a few large and colorful mantis shrimp. The one small negative from the trip was that I developed a bad ear infection that required medical treatment and about two weeks of recovery. Perhaps this was due to a couple of the dive sites being very close to villages that pipe raw sewage into the ocean. If I go back I will bring alcohol ear drops for use after dives. Overall, this was a terrific dive trip. I will probably do it again sometime in the future.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Monterey, Maui, Cozumel, Utila, Similan Islands, Puerto Galera, Komodo Islands.
Closest Airport	Sorong	Getting There	I had to fly three different airlines: San Francisco to Singapore on United, Singapore to Jakarta on Garuda, Jakarta to Sorong on Batik Air. I spent 1-3 nights in Singapore in both directions, which broke up the trip nicely. I didn't miss any connections, but had to sprint through the Jakarta airport at midnight to make make one flight.
Dive Conditions
Weather	rainy, cloudy	Seas	currents
Water Temp	29-°C / 84-°F	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	10-25 M / 33-82 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Make sure to end the dive with 50 bar. Stay close to the dive leader.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Mermaid II in Indonesia/Raja Ampat

Mermaid II: "Amazing diving in Raja Ampat", Jan, 2024,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Mermaid II in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat