Indonesia’s scuba diving hotspot Raja Ampat welcomes first electric boats

Demianus, a manager at Maha Raja Eco Dive Lodge, driving the first electric boat in Raja Ampat. "He is trusted and followed by other Papuans. This makes the adoption of e-boats easier," says the resort’s founder Mahasti Motazedi. Image: Maha Raja Eco Dive Lodge Competition is healthy among the eco resorts of Indonesia’s most famous dive destination, Raja Ampat. And MahaRaja Eco Dive Lodge , which only opened 8 months ago, has just scored an important claim to fame. The small luxury resort is the first in Raja Ampat—and possibly the first in Indonesia—to electrify its dive boats. MahaRaja Eco Dive Lodge from above. MahaRaja has fitted two traditional Papuan long boats with electric engines, beating rival sustainability-minded dive resorts such as Kri Eco Resort , which also has plans to build e-boats, to launch vessels that don’t pollute. “We are the first [resort] to launch e-boats, and we sincerely hope the others will follow,” MahaRaja’s founder Mahasti Motazedi, a French former aeronautics engineer and Microsoft sales executive, tells Eco-Business. With tourism growing rapidly Raja Ampat—although remote and expensive, visitor numbers have grown by 1,300 per cent in under a decade—the region’s reefs, the world’s most biodiverse, will hope […]

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