Turtles & a manta on Sauwandarek Jetty dive in Raja Ampat

This was the first time I'd ever seen a turtle resting in such an exposed place; he was on top of a large coral bommie but still somewhat camouflaged since some divers didn't see him

According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat area is the highest recorded on earth

This manta ray was just passing by; I even saw giant oceanic mantas from our dive boat and they grow to 23 ft across and can weigh 6600 lbs!

I like to think that I can spot fish pretty well but I swam over this tasselled wobbegong and then when the divemaster pointed him out I still didn't see him

Brown-marbled grouper; this species is a protogynous hermaphrodite, which means the female can evolve to male during its life

Turtles love to eat jellyfish and they were doing an awesome job since I didn't see a single jellyfish during my dive trip!; on the other hand, they eat plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish and the bags are not yet banned here

Golden batfish; this species can reach 26 in in length and was not at all shy; maybe they felt safer with us than swimming with the barracuda

Ribbon and Oriental sweetlips were some of the most plentiful fish we saw; the fact that they often schooled together made them stand out even more

Giant clam; these are the largest living bivalve mollusks and can weigh more than 440 lb, measure as much as 47 in across and have an average lifespan in the wild of more than 100 years

We saw several green sea turtles on this dive; we were all given dive computers to wear which I'm sure would have pleased my diving friends back home (they did help gauge where to do safety stops)

People around this area live in a small colony of tribes distributed among small villages with fishing the primary occupation; the population is majority Muslim but there are Christians and Hindus as well