Raja Ampat Islands
Raja Ampat, or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula, Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals around the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and the smaller island of Kofiau.
The Raja Ampat archipelago is just south of the equator and forms part of the Coral Triangle, an area of Southeast Asian seas containing the richest marine biodiversity on earth. The Coral Triangle itself is an approximate area west-southwest of the Philippines, east-northeast and southeast of the island of Borneo, and north, east, and west of the island of New Guinea, including the seas in between. Thousands of species of marine organisms, from the tiniest cleaner shrimp and camouflaged pygmy seahorses to the majestic cetaceans and whale sharks, thrive in these waters.
Administratively, the archipelago is part of the province of Southwest Papua. Most of the islands constitute the Raja Ampat Regency, which was separated from Sorong Regency in 2004. The regency encompasses around of land and sea, of which 8,034.44 km2 constitutes the land area and has a population of 64,141 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 66,839. This excludes the southern half of Salawati Island, which is not part of this regency but instead constitutes the Salawati Selatan and Salawati Tengah Districts of Sorong Regency.
History
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Raja Ampat Islands were first visited by humans over 50,000 years ago. At this time, Misool and Salawati were connected to New Guinea, while Waigeo and Batanta formed an island called Waitanta. At the Mololo Cave site, excavations show that early people were processing tree resins and hunting native animals. Pottery-making communities moved into Raja Ampat about 3500–3000 years ago and may have brought Austronesian languages to the area.The name of Raja Ampat comes from local mythology that told of a woman who found seven eggs; in one version, this woman was Boki Tabai, daughter of Al-Mansur of Tidore and wife to Gurabesi. Three of the seven hatched and became kings who occupied the Raja Ampat Islands, the fourth hatched and settled in Waigama but later migrated to Kalimuri. In another version, the fifth egg hatched into a woman who later washed away to Biak, married Manar Makeri, and later gave birth to Gurabesi. The sixth egg hatched into a spirit, while the seventh egg did not hatch and turned to stone and worshipped as a king in Kali Raja. Historically the 'four' kingdoms were Waigeo, Salawati, Sailolof, Misool, and Waigama. Locally Waigama is not considered one of the Raja Ampat, while Sailolof is not considered one of the Raja Ampat by Tidore.
The first recorded sighting and landing by Europeans of the Raja Ampat Islands was by the Portuguese navigator Jorge de Menezes and his crew in 1526, en route from Biak, the Bird's Head Peninsula, and Waigeo, to Halmahera.
Islam first arrived in the Raja Ampat Islands in the 15th century due to political and economic contacts with the Bacan Sultanate. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Maluku-based Sultanate of Tidore had close economic and political ties with the islands, especially with Gurabesi. During this period, Islam became firmly established, and local chiefs began adopting Islam.
As a consequence of these ties, Raja Ampat was considered a part of the Sultanate of Tidore. After the Dutch invaded Maluku, it was claimed by the Netherlands.
The English explorer William Dampier gave his name to Dampier Strait, which separates Batanta Island from Waigeo Island. To the east, there is a strait that separates Batanta from Salawati. In 1759, Captain William Wilson, sailing in the East Indiaman Pitt navigated these waters and named a strait the 'Pitt Strait', after his vessel; this was probably the channel between Batanta and Salawati.
Climate
The islands have a tropical climate, with temperatures ranging from.Water temperature in North Raja Ampat ranges from, while in the South in Misool, it ranges from .
Ecology
In 2025, the islands were designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.Terrestrial
The islands are part of the Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests ecoregion. The rainforests that cover the islands are the natural habitat of many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects. Two species of bird-of-paradise, the red bird-of-paradise and Wilson's bird-of-paradise, are endemic to the islands of Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta.The recently discovered palm tree Wallaceodoxa raja-ampat is endemic to the Raja Ampat Islands.
Marine
Raja Ampat is considered the global epicentre of tropical marine biodiversity and is referred to as "The Crown Jewel" of the Bird's Head Seascape, which also includes Cenderawasih Bay and Triton Bay. The region contains more than 600 species of hard corals, constituting about 75% of the world's known species, and more than 1,700 species of reef fish – including on both shallow and mesophotic reefs. Compared to similarly-sized ecosystems elsewhere in the world, Raja Ampat's biodiversity is arguably the richest in the world. Endangered and rare marine mammals, such as dugongs, whales, dolphins, and even orcas occur here. Endangered whale sharks, the largest extant fish species on earth, also thrive in this region.In the northeast region of Waigeo Island, local villagers have been involved in turtle conservation initiatives by protecting nests or relocating eggs of leatherback, olive ridley, and hawksbill turtles. Their works are supported by the local government and NGOs.
Raja Ampat Marine Recreation Park was designated in 2009. It is composed of four marine areas – the waters around northern Salawati, Batanta, and southwestern Waigeo, Mayalibit Bay in central Waigeo, the waters southeast of Misool, and waters around the Sembilan Islands north of Misool and west of Salawati.
The oceanic natural resources around Raja Ampat give the area significant potential as a tourist area, drawing divers, researchers, and others with an interest in the marine life there.
According to Konservasi Indonesia, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat area is the highest recorded on Earth. Diversity is considerably greater than in any other area sampled in the Coral Triangle, composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and East Timor. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity, making Raja Ampat quite possibly the richest coral reef ecosystem in the world.
The area's massive coral colonies, along with relatively high sea surface temperatures, also suggest that its reefs may be relatively resistant to threats like coral bleaching and coral disease, which now jeopardize the survival of other coral ecosystems around the world. The Raja Ampat islands are remote and relatively undisturbed by humans.
The crown-of-thorns starfish eats Raja Ampat's corals, and the destruction this causes among reefs has posed a threat to tourism. The crown-of-thorns starfish, which "can grow around as big as a trash-can lid" and is covered in sharp, stinging spines, has proliferated due to increasing nitrogen in the water from human waste, which in turn causes a spike in phytoplankton on which the starfish feed. In 2019, local divers began the task of reducing starfish populations by injecting the starfish with a 10% vinegar solution; the dead starfish can then be eaten by local fish.
The high marine diversity in Raja Ampat is strongly influenced by its position between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as coral and fish larvae are more easily shared between the two oceans. Raja Ampat's coral diversity, resilience, and role as a source for larval dispersal make it a global priority for marine protection. Its location results in it being a biogeographic crossroads between Indonesia, Micronesia and the Arafura Sea.
1,508 fish species, 537 coral species, and 699 mollusk species, the variety of marine life is staggering. Raja Ampat is identified as the epicenter of restricted-range reef fishes, in the Coral Triangle with over 100 species of endemic reef fishes, and also an extremely high diversity of reef coral species.
The Raja Ampat Islands have at least three ponds containing harmless jellyfish, all in the Misool area.
The submarine world around the islands was the subject of the documentary film Edies Paradies 3, which has been broadcast by the Swiss television network Schweizer Fernsehen.
In March 2017, the cruise ship Caledonian Sky owned by British tour operator Noble Caledonia got caught in a low tide and ran aground on the reef. An evaluation team estimated that of the reef was destroyed, which will likely result in a compensation claim of $1.28 million – $1.92 million. A team of environmentalists and academics estimated much more substantial damage, with potential losses to Indonesia estimated at $18.6 million and a recovery time for the reef spanning decades.
A zebra shark breeding and release initiative started in 2022, aiming to release 500 sharks by 2032. The wild population was formerly abundant, but a fishing industry that ballooned starting in the 1990s reduced the population to perhaps just 20 individuals.