Candy Store

Overview

Candy Store is a dive site in the Daram islands of south-east Misool. Bird's Head Seascape places it at two rock islets north-west of Daram Island and gives its GPS position as S 02 06.270 E 130 52.361, which is the point used here. It describes a T-shaped reef with submerged pinnacles on the east and west sides of the northern rock, and a long ridge that connects the northern rock to the southern one and continues further south. The southern rock holds a shallow swim-through.

The dive

Bird's Head Seascape calls the site highly decorated and says that with a bit of current it is swarming with fish; it explains the name with the choice on offer, like a kid in a candy store. Dive Happy describes wall, slope and swim-through sections draped in red and green soft coral with ribbons of glassfish, and gives a different reason for the name: a swim-through at two metres surrounded by soft corals. On its December 2025 trip it found very friendly batfish there; on its June 2023 trip the site was quieter for fish than nearby Andiamo, with good reef and schooling snappers.

Conditions and level

Raja Ampat Aggressor's log of April 2026 used Candy Store as the check-out dive of the trip in glassy water, in the shelter of the small islands, and gives the visibility that day as 18 to 21 metres (60 to 70 feet), which it calls the normal range for the Daram islands. That is one dated observation, not a site range. The sources give no depth, water temperature, season, difficulty rating or minimum certification for the site.