Cenderawasih Bay ( id, Teluk Cenderawasih, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay ( id, Teluk Sarera) and formerly Geelvink Bay ( nl, Geelvinkbaai), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Geography

''Cenderawasih Bay'' is a large bay to the northwest of the Indonesian province of Papua, north of the province of Central Papua, and east of the province of West Papua, between the

Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...

and the mouth of the Mamberamo River. The bay is more than 300 kilometers wide. The coastline from Manokwari, in the northwest of the bay, to Cape d'Urville at the mouth of the

Mamberamo The Mamberamo (''Indonesian: Sungai Mamberamo'') is the second longest river on the island of New Guinea, after Sepik River (1,146 km) and third largest in Oceania by discharge (5,500 m3/s) volume after Fly River (7,500 m3/s) and Sepik (7,000 m3/ ...

is more than 700 kilometers long. To the south, the

Wandammen peninsula The Wondiboy Peninsula, also known as the Wondiwoi, Wandammen (spelled locally Wandamen), Wondama, or in old sources Mandamy is a mountainous peninsula in Wondama Bay Regency, Western New Guinea. It extends northwards from the Bird's Neck Isthmu ...

heads north into the bay. Important places along the coast are Manokwari, Ransiki,

Wasior , nickname = , motto = , settlement_type = village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , ...

and Nabire. The Wamma River, Tabai River, Warenai River, and

Wapoga River The Wapoga River is a river in northern New Guinea, Indonesia. It is a tributary of the Warenai River. The Wapoga River basin and surrounding mountains were surveyed by a team of scientists organized by Conservation International in 1998. The ra ...

empty into the Bay.

History

UB Utrecht - Nova Guinea Vol 4 - Karte 2 - Karte des Geelvink-Busens

The Dutch name of the bay was after the frigate ''De Geelvink'' with which

Jacob Weyland Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jac ...

sailed through the bay in 1705. The Dutch frigate was named after Geelvinck family. The Tidore Sultanate had tributary ties with the region. Seafarers from the area used to regularly pay homage to the sultan.Slama, Martin (2015),
Papua as an Islamic Frontier: Preaching in 'the Jungle' and the Multiplicity of Spatio-Temporal Hierarchisations", ''From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities, Mobilities and Religiosities''
ANU Press, pp. 243–270,

Marine National park

Teluk Cenderawasih National Park is located in the Teluk Cenderawasih. In the Cenderawasih Bay extensive

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

exists. Parts of the area have been declared a protected marine reserve of 1.5 million hectares, the largest natural park in Southeast Asia. The western part of the bay was declared a marine national park in 2002. The Wondiwoi/Wandammen Natural Reserve of 730 km2 protects the great biodiversity of the Wandammen Peninsula.

Islands

In the bay is the archipelago known as the

Schouten Islands The Schouten Islands ( id, Kepulauan Biak, also Biak Islands or Geelvink Islands) are an island group of Papua province, eastern Indonesia in the Cenderawasih Bay (or Geelvink Bay) 50 km off the north-western coast of the island of New ...

(also called the Biak Islands, or Geelvink Islands), comprising

Biak Biak is an island located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak is the largest island in its small archipelago, and has many atolls, reefs, and corals. The large ...

, the Padaido Islands, Supiori and Numfor (Numfoor). Further south in the bay is the 140 kilometer long island of Yapen (Japen). Smaller islands in the bay are Mios Num (''Pulau Num''), Rumberpon, Waar (or Meoswaar), Roon and Kurudu. The

Mapia Islands Mapia Atoll (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Mapia''), historically known as the Freewill Islands or San David, is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is located in Papua (province), Papua province of Indonesia, approximately 290 ki ...

lie to the north, and south of

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Ca ...

West Papua Province

* Auri Islands archipelago (''Kepulauan Auri'') *

Meos Waar Meo or Meos may refer to: * MenuetOS, or MeOS, an operating system *Microsomal ethanol oxidizing system, an alternate ethanol metabolic pathway * mEos, a variant of the photoactivatable fluorescent protein Eos * Mati Meos Mati Meos (born 5 Octobe ...

* Rumberpon * Roon Island * Meos Angra

Papua Province

* Biak Islands (aka

): **

** Padaido Islands (''Kepulauan Padaido'') ** Numfor ** Supiori * Yapen Islands ** Yapen ** Mios Num ** Kurudu **

Ambai Islands The Ambai Islands chain (''Kepulauan Ambai'') form an archipelago of small islands off the southern coast of Yapen Island, in Cenderawasih Bay and Papua Province in Western New Guinea, northeastern Indonesia. Islands The archipelago has five mai ...

(''Kepulauan Ambai'') ** Kuran Islands (''Kepulauan Kuran'')

Central Papua Province

* Moora Islands archipelago (''Kepulauan Moora'') *

Anggrameos Island Anggrameos is an island (class T - Hypsographic) in Nabire Regency, part of the Indonesian province of Central Papua Central Papua, officially the Central Papua Province ( id, Provinsi Papua Tengah) is an Indonesian province located in the centra ...

References

{{Authority control Bays of Indonesia Landforms of Western New Guinea Landforms of Papua (province) Landforms of West Papua (province)