Indonesian Phinisi yacht charter specialists Silolona Sojourns have announced an exciting partnership with luxury adventure travel company Cookson Adventures.
Together, they have crafted a once-in-a-lifetime Lost Sharks of Raja Ampat itinerary launching in Spring 2027, led by two esteemed conservation experts: Executive Director, Dr Mark Erdmann and Program Manager, Nesha Ichida from ReShark, an Indonesian collective dedicated to the scalable rewilding of sharks and rays.
Available exclusively through Cookson Adventures, the expedition will include leopard shark tagging and tracking, which will all be filmed by the Cookson Productions team. Guests will receive a professional short documentary as a keepsake of their trip, with the film also being released publicly to raise awareness of the reintroduction effort.
With the goal of turning Silolona and Cookson clients into true ambassadors of the ocean and spotlighting the important work of local Indonesian conservationists, the expedition will give guests the opportunity to experience hands-on conservation efforts, with a focus on the critically endangered leopard sharks of Raja Ampat.
Guided by Dr. Erdmann and Nesha Ichida, adventurers will help to track the small number of this majestic shark species, who have been nearly hunted to extinction for their fins, using an innovative satellite tagging technology first trialled by ReShark this year.
Tracking these rare creatures in real time, expeditions shift rapidly into active fieldwork, including diving to locate the juvenile sharks in the wild. Guests will also visit the nurseries at Kri Island and Misool to learn about one of the world’s most ambitious shark rewilding programs and participate in the tagging process.
Taking place from 25th March – 4th April 2027, on a tandem charter aboard the handcrafted luxury phinisi yachts Silolona and Si Datu Bua, the itinerary will be tailored to guest preferences and designed in collaboration with them, shaped around their interests, wildlife encounters, and scientific opportunity.
The expert teams at Silolona and Cookson Adventures have combined their passion for yachting and marine conservation to strike a balance between a daily engagement with monitoring activities, evening discussions with scientific experts and hands-on conservation work, while ensuring conservation experiences are interwoven with relaxed diving, snorkelling, kayaking, trekking, and cultural exploration.
During the 10-day trip, guests will visit two nurseries to participate in the very special process of releasing shark pups, both in Misool at Kri.
The team will then spend a few days at each site attempting to re-find the pups in the wild, interspersed with excellent diving and soaking up these breathtaking landscapes. Between the nursery sites, guests will experience the absolute best and most exciting regions within Raja Ampat, including the Fam Islands, Balbulol and Wagmab islands, and Mesempta.
While the focus will be on the shark pups, each of these destinations are renowned for second-to-none diving, marine wildlife, and land activities such as hikes and cave exploration.
The Silolona and Si Datu Bua crew will be on hand at all times to create unforgettable experiences for guests, with outstanding food throughout, water sports and adventures, and opportunities to rest and relax onboard these beautiful traditional sailboats.
In addition, guests onboard this trip will be part of their very own short impact documentary. Joining them onboard will be a film crew so guests will also experience the trip through a cinematic lens.
The captured footage will then be transformed into a short wildlife documentary by the Cookson Productions team for public release.
Guests will have the opportunity to fund, co-create and even feature in the documentary if they wish.
Not only will it preserve the memories of this extraordinary trip for years to come, but the guests will also make a meaningful impact in highlighting how the number of leopard sharks are slowly recovering in Raja Ampat through the work of ReShark, after only 20 were thought to be left in 2020.
Of the partnership, Silolona Sojourns Director Sarah Seery said, “It has always been a core goal of our company to create ambassadors of the ocean via our guests and guest experiences, and we are thrilled to be working exclusively with longtime partners and friends Cookson Adventures to launch this very special trip. We have worked with Dr. Erdmann, Nesha Ichida and the whole ReShark team for over two decades, so partnering with them on this project and participating in their work felt natural. This expedition represents a very rare opportunity to be hosted by both of them, and actively contribute to conservation efforts, while gaining insight into their decades of experience playing a pivotal role in these efforts across Indonesia and beyond.”
Nick Davies, Managing Director at Cookson Adventures, said: “This itinerary is a natural evolution of our long-standing partnership with Silolona, a brand our clients genuinely love. As leaders in expedition yachting to remote destinations, we’re proud to curate an itinerary where guests can make a meaningful impact to leopard shark conservation, in a way where the experiences will be unique, fun and engaging, whilst being able to have an incredible adventure on one of the world’s most celebrated phinisi yachts with world class diving and snorkelling in Raja Ampat. At its heart, this expedition is driven by a shared commitment to marine conservation, and our Cookson Productions team is looking forward to telling that story for a global audience. I think this itinerary will prove very popular with families who want to engage in a very special and meaningful conservation experience that will really make a difference on the expedition and through the storytelling in the short documentary. It’s also a lot of fun to be able to follow the progress of the sharks you have tagged after the trip!”
Dr. Mark Erdmann commented “This is a rare opportunity to participate in an active and ongoing marine conservation project, and we are so grateful to Silolona and Cookson Adventures for the opportunity to work with clients who want to make a positive impact to help us fund and therefore prolong this important work. It’s not every day that non-scientists can make a real difference in the live evolution of wildlife projects, and we’re very proud to be hosting guests onboard to share our passion for Raja Ampat’s marine life with them.”
HOW: Cookson Adventures can offer this adventure from £368,000 / $485,000 for a 10-night trip from 25th March – 4th April 2027 for a group of up to 14 guests onboard Silolona and Si Datu Bua. This will include a conservation donation to Re-Shark to adopt two leopard shark pups*. This also includes a media team to capture your trip and to produce a short documentary to raise awareness of the re-introduction of leopard sharks in Raja Ampat. A Cookson Adventures expedition leader and the conservationist Dr. Mark Erdmann will lead the trip alongside Nesha Ichida.
* The funding covers egg shipping, pup rearing in the nursery and satellite/acoustic tags. Guests are able to name their pups and receive regular photo and video updates tracking their growth for up to six months before the expedition until release.
About Silolona Sojourns
Silolona Sojourns was founded by Patti Seery in 2002, with a mission to put Indonesia on the map for Western travellers. Now, Silolona Sojourns operates two vessels, Silolona and Si Datu Bua, offering luxury private charters to some of the most remote islands in South East Asia. The vessels are designed as traditional Phinisi ships, and operate in locations including Raja Ampat, Komodo, Banda, Flores, and Sumba. Silolona Sojourns is sustainable at heart, with internal team members having been appointed Green Practice by international brokers association CYBA, and Silolona appointed Green in safety and environment by Abercrombie and Kent. Each itinerary ensures to educate guests about history, local communities and preservation of the wildlife and landscape, to make them ambassadors of the environment, combining this with five-star service and luxury levels of comfort onboard.
About Cookson Adventures
Since 2007, Cookson Adventures has been redefining what it means to explore the world. As pioneers of the “world-first” in luxury adventure travel, they’ve taken bold steps into the unknown — from orchestrating the first private submersible dive in Antarctica to leading hands-on conservation projects across Africa and the Galápagos Islands.
The Founder and Chairman is Henry Cookson, a dedicated adventurer and Guinness World Record holder for reaching the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, the most remote point on the Antarctic continent. Guided by his spirit of discovery, Cookson’s expert team designs journeys that blend the thrill of exploration, without ever compromising on comfort or safety.
Each expedition is crafted from the ground up, fusing explorer yachts, helicopters, submersibles, opulent celebrations, and bespoke camps set in some of the planet’s most untouched corners. Supported by a global network of scientists, marine biologists, conservationists, and award-winning photographers, each adventure invites guests to venture deeper, see further, and experience the extraordinary.
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