8 - 25 February In 1526, Jorge de Menses, the first Portuguese governor to the Moluccan "spice islands" was swept ashore by a storm to the Bird's Head Peninsula (West Papua) even before he reached his post. He named the country Ilhas dos Papuas (Islands of the Papuans) derived from the Malay term "orang papuwah" meaning the [...]
8 - 23 February 2010 Manta Sandy Manta Slope How do you describe the feeling of utter happiness you have to pinch yourself underwater to remind yourself it's happening? Our artist friend Robert Strachan sees me as a hobbit about to be engulfed by a ringwraith . . . There are [...]
16- 30 January 2010 MER Full moon night scene of this wonderful resort in Batbitim Island. See the milky way on the right sky? Loads of divers dream of owning a resort in an island paradise in the tropics surrounded by pristine coral reefs and lots of fish. When out at sea, palm [...]
25 January 2010 Yellu Island What originally started as a 200 square kilometer no-take zone has now been increased to 425 sq. km. Misool Eco Resort MER take their conservation work very seriously. They have set up a UK charity called the Misool Conservation Centre to raise funds for the all important work of taking care of these waters. [...]
19 - 20 January 2010 Sometime early November last year, we got an email from Dr. Lida Pet-Soede, WWF Coral Triangle Programme Leader to discuss an idea of having a photo exhibition of our expedition in Manila during the first WWF Coral Triangle Business Summit in January 2010. We knew this was going to be [...]
22 January 2010 Fiabacet Misool Eco Resort When Yogi starts singing, I have all reason to stop and listen to his song as he seldom does this. Whereas I break into a song at a drop of a hat, even if I don't know the lyrics. Well, Yogi repeatedly sang “Life Forms” - original sung [...]
11 - 16 January 2010 Almost TOTALLY built from salvaged wood, not a single tree was cut to construct this enchanting resort situated at the best diving sites of south Raja Ampat It feels like such a great reward to be here in Misool Eco Resort, after our tuna adventure during the Christmas holidays. [...]
16 January 2010 After the busy Copenhagen Conference last year and the holiday season break, our friends in WWF International On-line & Communications Department have now the time to add new things into our blog and have put it in the main Panda.org homepage! Whoopy! Thanks guys for pushing more readers to check out the amazing Coral [...]
December 27 With hardly any sleep for both of us, by 5:30am with still very faint light in the horizon, our boat crew caught a yellowfin tuna. I woke Yogi who by this time was an angry bear. We had been waiting for this - for our boat crew to catch a big tuna. So [...]
December 26 Four out of six outrigger boats already in the fishing grounds when we arrived The crew on our ship went fishing by 9:30am. As in all of them! We just got here! They tethered our boat to the rakit and the other smaller outrigger pump boats already in the area tied [...]
