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Quick answers
Which local rescue or training agency should I check first?
Use the local lens: coastguard/federation norms and the shop briefing for that bay — not a blog visibility claim.
What is the PIN?
The official visitor entry ticket / marine-park fee. Boats check it. It is not a dive certification.
What is Cape Kri famous for?
A Dampier Strait site where Gerry Allen recorded 374 fish species on a single 2001 dive, a figure still used as a biodiversity headline.
Manta Sandy vs Blue Magic?
Manta Sandy is a cleaning-station snorkel/scuba with distance rules. Blue Magic is a current-swept seamount / pinnacle, typically advanced scuba.
Is Melissa's Garden a beginner site?
A famous soft-coral garden near Fam, often kinder than a Dampier current point, still a buoyancy exam. Not a standing studio.
Do people need a liveaboard?
Many visitors use liveaboards. Homestays around Arborek and the Dampier Strait also run day boats. Misool is farther.
Harm clusters on Dampier current, blue-water pickups, and the simple fact that clinics are in Sorong, not on a karst islet. This is not medical advice.
A cancelled seamount is a safety decision.
Hazards
- Point and seamount current — Cape Kri, Sardine, Blue Magic.
- Boat traffic in the strait — A working waterway.
- Remote DCI / trauma timelines — Sorong is the hospital sentence.
- Sun and dehydration — Equatorial decks.
- Night jetty coral — Beautiful and shallow.
- Equalisation on sudden walls — Misool drops.
Rules
- PIN and village brief — Always.
- SMB before pickup — Blue water.
- Manta distance — Written, not optional.
- No untrained night add-on after a current day — Fatigue is a condition.
- Buddy closer in current — Than at the jetty.
Red flags
- A boat that shrugs at the PIN — A culture problem and a safety one (insurance, radio).
- Someone herding a manta — The station is already failed.
- Silt or panic at Blue Magic — Turn, SMB, boat.
- Chest pain a night from Sorong — Emergency path, not a wait for the next site.
First response
- Boat oxygen and the Sorong pathway — Not a DCI protocol page.
- Coral cuts — Clean water, then clinical care when possible.
- Not medical advice — Remote care is a plan the operator should already have.
Raja Ampat safety is a current call and a hospital distance. The fish count can wait a day.