Freediving over Coral Reef

I like swimming and snorkeling as well as freediving. My main objective when doing freediving is to take pictures of fish and other marine creatures in coral reef area. To do freediving, I wear swim fins, snorkeling mask and snorkel. My usual camera is Fujifilm XQ2 which I put inside its waterproof case. Sometimes I use Nikon Coolpix AW130. 

To take pictures underwater, I always try to immerse my body so that I could be on the same eye level with the fish, coral reef or Christmas Tree Worm that I want to shoot. 

There are a lot of coral reef sites in West Papua. I freedive in Manokwari, coastal area of Tambrauw, Sorong and Raja Ampat. For me, the best place for marine environment is Raja Ampat. The marine life is abundant and the coral reef is in pristine condition.

Coral reef is the tropical rainforest of the ocean. It is the natural habitat of thousands of species of marine animals and plants. It absorbs oxygen, and slows down the speed of waves.
All of us need to preserve our coral reef by reducing our dependence on plastics. Fish, turtles, whales sharks die after eating platics which they thought as food. If we can stop using plastics, a lot of marine animals could be saved.

Marine Life in Raja Ampat	Birding in Raja Ampat	Fish in Raja Ampat Reef

The main gate to Raja Ampat is Sorong city. Visitors need to take international flights from their countries to one of the major cities in Indonesia such as Denpasar Bali, Jakarta or Makassar. After that they need to continue their trip by taking domestic flight to Sorong city. Most tourists, due to long flights, take one night rest in the city before continuing their adventure to Raja Ampat on the next day. A lot of hotels can be found in Sorong city. The famous ones are Fave Hotel, Kyriad M, Belagri Hotel, Mamberamo, and Swissbel Hotel. - written by Charles Roring