MORE species of fish and coral inhabit the reefs surrounding this remote archipelago than any place on earth. Located off the northwest tip of Bird’s Head Peninsula in Indonesia’s Papua province, Raja Ampat comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays and shoals surrounding the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo.

Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, is the most easterly province of Indonesia and takes up the whole western