Coral Reef in Dorey bay of Manokwari

Coral reef in the Dorey bay is now facing more pressures than ever before from human activities due to the increase of human population in Manokwari city. In recent years, housings for city dwellers, buildings for markets and offices are being constructed along the coastal areas. Such development directly deteriorates water quality in Dorey bay. More sediments and plastic wastes are now formed in the bay which was once a pristine marine environment in the bird's head region of West Papua. Whales and dolphins used to live in the bay but now they are gone. The construction of office buildings, including the drainage tunnel to the beach, in Arfai hills for the Provincial Government of West Papua is now underway.

In recent years, liveaboard diving operators from Bali and the nearby Sorong town make Dorey bay as their port of embarkation for tourists who want to see shipwrecks in the bay or watch whale sharks in Cendrawasih bay. Underwater pictures of the shipwrecks and coral reef in the Dorey bay made by the tourists greatly help us tell the city dwellers and the local government of West Papua about how important the Dorey bay is for maintaining the fish stock of Manokwari. The Dorey bay is also one of the few coastal areas in the northern New Guinea that has got mangrove forest. Most of the mangrove ecosystems in this tropical island can be found in its southern coast.