In September 2005, Roger Munns and Matt Oldfield traveled to Biak, West Papua, Indonesia, to join the Citra Pelangi on an exploratory cruise in some of the less-well known areas of West Papua.  The boat, operated by Swanido International, was part of a new operation based out of Biak that is trying to reinvigorate the diving tourism in the area.  Scubazoo were there to shoot stills and HiDef footage that would be used for promotional material in the hope of attracting tourists from around the world to this prime diving destination.

The first few days were spent in Biak itself, diving some of the local sites such as a remarkably intact Catalina flying plane and night diving in the harbour itself.  However the real diving was further afield.  The plan was to sail south east to the Padaido Islands, then head south to Yapen and beyond into the huge Cendrawasih Bay.  This area had a reputation in the early 1990's for some truly world-class diving, before being effectively closed to tourists because of fighting between the Indonesian government and the Free Papua Movement.  From Cendrawasih, we would head north to Manokwari, then on into the Pacific Ocean to visit another fabled site, Mapia Atoll.  The trip was to be a real expedition, checking some well-known sites as well as looking for new and exciting locations.

The whole of Biak and the surrounding area saw a great deal of fighting during World War II, and so it was not surprising that much of the diving centred around wrecks.  The first, close to Rasi in the Padaido Islands, was soon christened the Uupside Down Wreck' for obvious reasons.  Other sites at Pakriki and Mansurbabo offered bizarre sausage-like sponges growing from steep overhangs and small schools of barracuda and blacktip sharks.  Further south in Yapen a trip looking for birds of paradise was rained off, but dives on Aibai and at Pom village revealed some interesting macro including a beautiful weedy scorpionfish, Rhinopias frondosa.

Exploratory trips don't often go to plan - in this case the Citra Pelangi hit a tree sailing at night and damaged her prop, meaning we would have to leave the exploration of much of the Cendrawasih Bay for another trip.  Instead we dived the pristine Tydeman reefs before limping to Manokwari harbour hoping to get another prop fitted on the boat.

Manokwari was one of the main Japanese staging posts during WWII and so the surrounding area has more than its fair share of wrecks.  Matt and Roger made the most of their time whilst waiting for repairs and dived the 'Shinwa Maru', the 'Cross Wreck', the 'Squirrelfish Wreck' and 'Sweeper Wreck' near Pasirido as well as diving on an unusual biplane near the harbour entrance.  And unfortunately for Matt, he discovered exactly how effective the venom of a Inimicus  scorpionfish really is after impaling his hand on one whilst diving on the biplane!  Night dives around Pasirputih and on the 'Cross Wreck' revealed once again, the diversity of macro-life in this part of world.

With the prop finally repaired, the boat sailed out into a stormy Pacific Ocean to Mapia Atoll.  Situated at the southern edge of the West Caroline Basin, old reports of diving on Mapia described it as offering some of the most exciting diving in the world.  However, the weather god's were not smiling and Roger and Matt where only able to dive a couple of times outside the reef - the passage through the single channel leading out from the lagoon was just too rough for the Citra Pelangi's small tenders.  The single dive at the mouth of the channel did show off some of Mapia's potential however, with huge schools of Jackfish, big rays and some stunning corals, all in crystal clear water.

The return trip to Biak saw some exciting diving around Rani, Rurbas, Mios Befondi and Wunvi with huge schools of batfish, rainbow runners and surgeonfish, a blue hole cave system and beautiful sponge gardens.  Finally back in Biak, Roger and Matt visited the Japanese Cave, the site of a former Japanese bunker system and now a memorial site for the thousands of soldiers that were killed inside after the americans invaded Biak.  All in all, the trip onboard the Citra Pelangi was a true exploratory trip - whilst some of the plans did not come to fruition, the crew discovered some interesting areas, showing the potential of this huge area for future dive tourism.

Take a look at the complete Biak gallery here.