Tag Archive
Stormy Weather
The weather has been in the news lately. Between earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, fires, tornadoes and so forth, everyone has been affected by the unpredictable nature of the planet's weather. I can't remember whether it is supposed to be a La Niña or El Niño year, but out here in Indonesia the weather has been very erratic, except in its unwavering atrociousness. The water along the southern coast of the archipelago has been so unseasonably cold that several boats just blew off diving some of the better critter spots near Pantar Island. In Papua, it has rained steadily throughout the "dry" season. Visibility was off everywhere due to surge, waves, and storms. In early April we were supposed to meet our liveaboard in Ambon, and then cross the Banda Sea to Raja Ampat. But things were so bad out there that we had to reroute and only dive in Raja Ampat, which has decent protection in just about any weather. When you hear about waves several meters high and winds blowing a gale, you don't second guess the captain. You just go with his judgment even if it means that you'll disappoint a few clients, miss a few dives. There are things we can do something about, and there are things that we can't fix. Weather, water temperature, and visibility come to mind. We weren't the only people trying to cross the Banda Sea a few weeks ago. There was a small boat with just six guests that was trying to move southeast between Banda and Alor. Even though the captain was instructed not to leave harbor, the guests raised such a fuss about not being able to dive where they had planned, that the crew chanced it. This boat ended up drifting far from its intended arrival port and finally had to... More »
No Contest
We have taken a long break from blogging because we're putting together an updated version of the Raja Ampat dive guide we produced for Conservation International. The new book will encompass all the of the Bird's Head Seascape, so it's larger and more time consuming to write and illustrate. But we were interested to read the lead article in the latest Undercurrent, the one about Raja Ampat, which must have provoked lots of discussion about the best place to dive. The article and Dave Eagleray's comments certainly provoked some discussion around our house, so we decided to comment. This blog is not about defending Raja Ampat or even where our favorite place to dive might be. This is about the fact that wherever you like to dive is the best place. Our best friend Vickie (she introduced me and Burt so we have a very long term friendship) has been diving about as long as we have. Whenever she takes time away from her busy career, she goes diving. She has the means to travel wherever she wants, and she has known us for over 30 years so she has heard about most of the world's best dive spots. She could have dived with us in Sipadan, Komodo, the Solomons, wherever, but Vickie always goes to the same place: Cozumel. Why? Because she likes it! To her Cozumel is relaxing, easy to get to, and offers plenty of diving, but not enough to get in the way of spending a few evenings partying in town. We don't argue with her about her choice of destination, and we've stopped trying to get her to join us in some faraway, exotic place. We're just happy she's diving and loving it. Another good friend recently gave up diving. He also has the means to travel... More »
The Pleasure is All Ours: Thoughts on Touching Wild Animals
We experienced a very interesting incident a few weeks back during our survey of Cenderawasih National Park. We were there to explore sites for a new dive guide to the Bird's Head Seascape, which will include Cenderawasih, Raja Ampat and Triton Bay. Fifteen thousand-square kilometer Cenderawasih is Indonesia's largest marine park and, for the moment, the biggest attraction is its resident whale shark population. Yes, resident. According to fishermen in Kwatisore, a smaller bay within Cenderawasih, the whale sharks are there all year long. It seems that the fishermen believe whale sharks bring good luck, so they feed them small, anchovy-like fish called ikan puri. The sharks show up just before dawn, circling their boats for hours, almost like pets waiting for a handout. But the largest fish in the ocean is not a pet. In fact, whale sharks are endangered and have been on the CITES Appendix II list for nearly a decade. I was quickly reminded of this when a crew member grabbed one of the Cenderawasih shark's dorsal fin and began stroking it while the shark slurped the fish being tossed overboard. Titus, the park ranger traveling with us, went ballistic. I didn't catch all of the conversation (my Bahasa Indonesia is still limited), but the gist of it was, "Are you crazy? You aren't supposed to touch the wildlife!" Who knew that a desire to feed and touch wildlife transcended cultural boundaries? I thought it was only something that privileged, bored westerners wanted to do. Apparently not, but I still do not understand what is it about getting close to a wild, albeit gentle, animal that makes humans from all walks of life try to physically interact with it. What ever happened to gazing in distant wonderment? I realize that for decades this discussion has taken up many... More »
Some Good News: Raja Ampat Big-Fish Now Thriving
I heard from a few people who thought that my blog about illegal fishing Komodo National Park was depressing. I agree. If we can't protect marine life in one of the world's most iconic parks, is there any hope? Burt and I have been thinking about this problem for a long time, especially for the two years we have been living in Indonesia consulting with Conservation International. Our primary focus has been exploring new sites and photographing marine life in Raja Ampat, which has, in case you haven't read a dive publication in the last 5 years, more species of fish and coral than any other tropical reef system on the planet (up to 1352 fish species and still counting!). We've been back a few weeks from our last R4 trip of the season ("ampat" means "four" in Bahasa Indonesia), a place where there are still new reefs to discover, new thrills to experience. Even though we wrote the guide to diving in R4, on this latest trip we dived several new (to us) sites. We concentrated mostly of on the Dampier Strait, perhaps the first area in R4 to be dived by tourists who began arriving and staying in primitive scuba camps about 15 years ago. The most amazing thing about these new sites was the fish. It's hard to imagine what Raja's reef were like about 10 years ago when the first tourist divers saw them, but believe it or not, there's a lot of evidence that fish counts have risen steadily during this time. [caption id="attachment_704" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Schools of bigger fish now thriving in Raja Ampat"][/caption] Now I'm not talking just your usual (for R4) masses of fusiliers and surgeonfish. I'm talking a reef where hundreds of tuna flashed around making "fish thunder" (cavitation) as they were chased by meter-long Spanish... More »
Sinking in a Sea of Luxury?
Notes From the Back of Beyond For the past year we’ve been based in Indonesia working as consultants for Conservation International’s Indonesia Marine Programs, specifically in diving’s newest hotspot, Raja Ampat. We’re out here to produce a dive guide for R4 (Raja means “king” and Ampat means “four” in Bahasa Indonesia). Imagine someone saying to you, “How about spending months diving the best reefs in the world with unlimited photographic opportunities and we’ll pay you while you’re at it?” No way were we going to refuse first prize in the career lottery! Actually we’re well suited for the job, having discovered some of Indonesia’s best dive sites and shepherded many liveaboards into becoming world-class operations. Our experience stems from the late 1980s when we were the first managers of the Bilikiki in the Solomons. Back when Bilikiki began cruising it was one of the first boats to have ensuite rooms. It was a big deal and an almost unheard of luxury. After leaving the Solomons, we went on our first Indonesian liveaboard. The diving was spectacular, but the outdoor shower and bucket-flushed toilet were a bit of a come down. Today Indonesia has one of the largest liveaboard fleets in the world. We’re not up on exact numbers in other countries, but probably only the Red Sea and perhaps Australia match or exceed the number of boats cruising this vast archipelago. Obviously more boats mean stiffer competition for revenue. Lately we’ve noted a thought-provoking trend: Liveaboard owners are upping the ante on amenities in order to compete in a crowded market. We’re interested in the long-term survival of not only the Indonesian liveaboard industry, but also the worldwide market, so we’d like some reader feedback on the issue of liveaboard facilities. Do amenities equal service? How much is enough? And, what’s the limit... More »
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