Dive Review of MSY Seahorse in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat

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MSY Seahorse, Dec, 2011, by Lisa Evans, CO, US ( Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 6435.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This boat experience was a mixture of some really great things and a few not-so-great things. Overall: Great: Cruise director's general attitude, helpfulness, cheerfulness, dive competence and responsiveness. Divemaster competence and helpfulness. Not-so-great: Had some problems with nitrox. Crew worked hard to fix it - cleaning lines, cleaning tanks, etc, but it persisted for a day and a half before being mostly resolved. Three of the 16 passengers had no ethics in the water... we were all required to sign a paper saying that if we touched the reef, we got one warning and then would be asked not to dive. Everyone understands accidental touching, or photographers balancing themselves with sticks or a finger on dead coral. But these three totally disregarded any admonitions to stop touching (and in the case of the pre-teen, hitting, harassing, etc) coral and other animals, and were allowed to continue diving. It made the rest of us sick at heart (and angry) to see them in the water, dive after dive, fins hitting coral, the kid whacking at things with his stick etc. Boat/routine: Nice set-up. Nice common area. Coffee, bread, peanut butter, fruit available at 6:30 am (first dive briefing at 7am). Would have preferred this a bit earlier.. but okay. Full breakfast after first dive, lunch after second dive. Third dive about 3pm and night dive at 5-6pm. Dinner after night dive. Meals generally good - occasionally great. Beer was expensive and we were allowed to go on shore the first day and buy some and bring it back. This was very nice. Cabins were comfortable. Not-so-great: there were 2 instances where we had fumes in our cabin - i think from the nitrox compressor. The AC didn't filter, so things stayed pretty damp in all cabins, which doesn't do much for fresh-smelling living quarters! No water pressure in the shower, and hard to regulate the temperature sometimes. Also - we generally traveled to new dive sites in the morning instead of at night, which meant that the engine woke you up about 5am, and several times we arrived to find boats already there and had to schedule our dives around their schedules. Not a big deal, except that visibility was hugely better in the morning, so the later in the day you dove, the soupier it was (plankton.) Diving: Incredible. Huge diversity of species. Dive guides very helpful in finding things. Strategies for diving to find the best at each site. Excellent flexibility for dive profiles (at most sites) and bottom time. Saw 5 mantas at one time (no category above between 1-2 and "squadrons", occasional sharks (lots of wobbegongs in certain places), nudis galore, huge schools of jacks, trevallys, fusiliers, etc. Healthy coral and sea life (some broken coral - careless divers, I think.) Large schools of bait fish. Lots of octos. Without the aforementioned glitches, this would definitely have been a 5 for Money's Worth - it was less expensive than several others and we got a ton of diving in. Crew was friendly and helpful. Lots done to make our trip enjoyable. Very helpful in reaching our early-morning flight and scooting us through the airport at Sorong.
Websites	MSY Seahorse
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel, Roatan, Bonaire, BVI, Belize, Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, Philippines
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	80-84°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Start with the group; dive own profile; no real maximum time - did ask that you not go over 80 minutes or so.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Dedicated rinse tanks. Shelves and supplies were in a room off the deck, near the compressors and kitchen. We were told that most photographers leave their cameras on the table on the dive deck, but that did not seem like a good idea due to weather, boat movement, and general activity in that area. Lots of outlets, power strips, plug adaptors etc in the camera room, as well as an air tank and towels.

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Dive Review of MSY Seahorse in Indonesia/Raja Ampat

MSY Seahorse, Dec, 2011,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of MSY Seahorse in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat