Cape Mansuar
0.5699°S 130.6585°E · wall
Cape Mansuar is a wall dive with drift characteristics off the tip of Mansuar Island in Raja Ampat, West Papua. PADI explicitly recommends Advanced OWD + Drift Diver certification. Depth reaches 40 meters (131ft per PADI). The site transitions from wall to drift slope. Rated Advanced.
Overview
The wall begins shallow at the cape tip and drops to beyond recreational limits, with the most productive diving concentrated between 10 and 25 metres. The wall face is draped in soft corals and sea fans, with orange and yellow sponges filling the spaces between them. Wobbegong sharks — the ornate, carpet-like ambush predators of the western Pacific — rest on ledges and beneath coral overhangs along the wall, sometimes piled two or three deep in favoured spots.
Napoleon wrasse are a dependable presence, patrolling the wall face in pairs or singly at depths of 15–20 metres. Schools of batfish hover mid-water off the wall edge, drifting with the current. Grey reef sharks and whitetip reef sharks circle below. The cape tip itself is a cleaning station area, where large fish queue for attention from wrasse and cleaner fish.
Currents run around the cape and can be moderate to strong on peak tidal flow, sweeping divers along the wall in a relaxed drift. Visibility averages 15–25 metres. Water temperature holds between 27–30°C.
Marine Life
Sources confirmed at this specific site (padi.com, rajaampatbiodiversity.com, divetip.com, originaldiving.com): large sea fans, mobula rays, reef sharks, sea turtles, schooling barracuda, and sweetlips. The wall features wobbegong sharks on ledges and Napoleon wrasse.
Practical Information
- Depth range: 5–40 m (PADI confirms 131ft / 40m)
- Difficulty: Advanced — PADI recommends Advanced OWD + Drift Diver
- Visibility: 15–25 m
- Current: Moderate to strong (tidal drift)
- Best time: October–April
- Water temperature: 27–30°C
- Entry: Boat
Sources: PADI, Raja Ampat Biodiversity, DiveTip, Original Diving. Last updated 2026-06-27.
Sea-surface temperature and wave height from Open-Meteo Marine (ERA5 reanalysis, monthly averages).
276 verified species observations (117 species) logged within ~11 km of this site between 1995 and 2025, from the Ocean Biodiversity Information System.
- Acanthurus lineatus
- Ctenochaetus striatus
- Hippocampus bargibanti
- Hippocampus denise
- Hippocampus pontohi
- Pseudamia hayashii · Hayashi's Cardinalfish
- Pseudochromis fuscus · Brown Dottyback
- Cypho
- Chrysiptera
- Trimma xanthum · Yellow-red Pygmygoby
- Asterropteryx
- Hemiscyllium
Scientific survey records skew toward sampled taxa (molluscs, corals) and do not reflect what you are guaranteed to see on a dive.
Source: OBIS (obis.org), aggregated Darwin Core occurrence records.
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