Tag Archive

Paper Parks?

The text message came in about 9 AM a few Sundays ago. It was too early in the day to receive bad news, and just early enough to ruin my day.  Essentially it was a call for help issued by one of the day boat operators in Komodo National Park.  It seems that despite the area's status as a national park (and a World Heritage Site), nearly two decades of conservation work were being challenged by  fishermen who had cast nets on two of Komodo's most prolific reefs. Where were the authorities, where were the patrol boats that were supposed to stop illegal fishing within park boundaries? No one seemed to know. A little background on Komodo and how it came to be one of the world's premier dive destinations:   I believe Valerie and Ron Taylor had already dived Komodo, but few other western photojournalists had been there when we went on our  first exploratory dive trip  in 1992.   Back then Komodo was hard to access and the facilities were far below basic. The main reason we endured the first trip (and eagerly came back for more) was that Komodo  is one of the few places in the world where divers can experience two very different marine environments. The northern part of the park borders the Pacific with it's clear, warm waters and lush reefs. Southern Komodo abuts the Indian Ocean.  The water is cooler, richer, and so packed with invertebrates and fish life it still amazes us even after more than 1000 dives in south Komodo. During our initial survey we wanted to photograph the difference between the two habitats, and so we motored toward the southern border of the park. The wind was raging in the channel between Komodo and Rinca, the park's two largest islands, but the current was with... More »