My Coral Adventures

Tonga Holiday Part 2!

2011-11-01T10:31:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. After spending most of the day at the beach, we decided to go check out the famous Tongan blowholes!We left the beach and took a scenic route to get to the blowholes. On the way we stopped at this spot with these funky trees.Got out of the car and looked over the edge. The drop off was basically straight down and looked scary. This spot is famous because of huge amounts of

Tonga Holiday Part 1!

2011-10-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. So once in a while there would be a public holiday in Tonga. These days are very special as whole families get to get out and enjoy the surroundings. Either it be going to an island for a "roast a pig" picnic or just hanging around the local beach. For much of the weekdays, everyone is busy either working or "gathering" (going to the bush as they say) or fishing. Saturday is

Tongan Clams!

2011-09-17T20:40:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. Today, I would like to talk about one of everyone's favorite inverts for the reef aquarium - the giant clams of Tridacna!Before I left Tonga, the government officials with conjunction with the AusAID guys were going on a field mission to bring back brood stock clams from one of the other major Tongan islands - Haapai. This island group is relatively shallow and boasts huge

Tonga fish market!

2011-09-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. It has been a long time since I have posted, I apologize. Lots of things have happened in my personal life that have greatly impacted my ambitions and goals. Earlier this year, my elderly Aunt/Mother that raised me since I was 7 had a stroke. My plans of going overseas and working had to be put on hold. These days I am busy taking care of her as she has not recovered.

LFS Jakarta Part 1!

2010-11-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. My Coral Adventures shifts back to Indonesia, where on Sundays, me and my friend like going to the local fish stores. My business partner/friend (name is Gili) has a 240 gallon plexiglass tank that I gave him while back. It is set up as a fish only tank and Gili does weekly water changes. Sundays are perfect for driving around Jakarta. You don't want to know about Jakarta

Tonga - Day 12 Part 2 Final

2010-10-25T04:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. So I was at the edge of the reef looking for the intake pipe. The waves were crashing onto the corals. It made me think of how the corals are actually very strong. I decided to walk back to shore.A shallow water acropora growing on a large coral rubble. Although the body was brown, it had nice purple tips!A couple of blue damsels in a shallow pool!The biggest corals in this

Tonga - Day 12 Part 1

2010-10-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. After spending time sorting corals at the fisheries, I decided to take a walk out to the beach at low tide behind the pump house. I wanted to see if I could locate the water intake pipe.And just for your info, my friend has set up a fan page on Facebook for me. Come on and join me, I would like to see how many people are following my posts. My friend also changed the layout of

Tonga - Day 11!

2010-10-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. So let's continue on to day 11 of my "Tonga adventures".Computer work and such kept me in the "office" for most of the day. I got to the fisheries facility a little later in the afternoon. These two cool dudes are from AusAid, an Australian government agency that helps developing countries worldwide. In Tonga, AusAid provides funding and consultation to the Fisheries department

Tonga - Day 10!

2010-09-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. The shipment went off without problems (weather and plane mechanical problems are common in this business). It was time to clean up and prepare for the next shipment. But first, I had to get some breakfast!I stopped by Friend's cafe and had this great breakfast. Three egg omelette, toast, and bacon with "flat white" coffee. Most of dairy products come from New Zealand, so you

Tonga - Day 9!

2010-09-23T18:36:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. Today is day nine, and we are packing!After running around town doing errands, like getting money and paying cargo, I stopped at this cafe to get something to eat.Pretty nice inside. Back five years ago me and my business partner used to have a breakfast meeting here every morning.I ordered this pasta with clams and garlic bread. Simple egg breakfast was not going to keep me

Tonga Videos!

2010-09-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I will be leaving for Bali tonight. But before I go, I have uploaded all of my videos from Tonga. There are fifteen of them and the links are below, enjoy! - Eddie.Tonga video 1Tonga video 2Tonga video 3Tonga video 4Tonga video 5Tonga video 6Tonga video 7Tonga video 8Tonga video 9Tonga video 10Tonga video 11Tonga video 12Tonga video 13Tonga video 14Tonga video 15

Tonga - Day 8

2010-09-16T02:21:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone. After a week of collecting corals, we took a day off to prep the corals for export.I used to prep the corals for export in these two fiberglass tanks back five years ago. The rope is for the shade cloth, so the cloth can sit flatly over the tanks.This time around, we got allocated to the concrete tanks.An assortment of beautiful montiporas sitting on a plastic crate.And here are

Tonga - Day 7

2010-09-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Sorry I'm falling behind the posts. Between internet problems and sending out shipments, updating my blog has been difficult.Today was another beautiful day. Here is a view of the docks as we were leaving for the open ocean.A local dive operation, who also fills up scuba tanks for us for a fee.On the way out, we decided to stop by the fish market to pick up bait for fishing.

Tonga - Day 6

2010-09-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I'm still having internet problems. For today, instead of going out with my guys to collect corals, I decided to stay back and catch up on some paperwork. I spent the day at a cafe that provides free internet for their customers. This place is great. Very friendly and they all speak English pretty well. They know me by name and calls me "Erik", can't seem to say "Eddie".

Tonga - Day 5!

2010-08-31T23:24:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. My worse nightmare came true! A small storm came in and internet cut out. Now I am a day or so behind posting!Today started out as a beautiful day. I decided to try out trolling on the way out to the collecting grounds. The ocean was like a lake, really calm and nice.We slowed down around this sand bar to get to the reefs.The water was crystal clear, seemed like much more

Tonga - Day 4!

2010-08-30T01:06:00.003-07:00

Hi everyone. Today is exceptionally exciting - we are going coral collecting!On the way to the wharf, we stopped at this bread store to buy uh "bread". We will eat the bread and canned mackerel for lunch. We also picked up some pastries for breakfast.Two loaves of bread, some drinks, and two cans of mackerel for lunch. I discovered five years ago that canned mackerel and bread is the perfect

Tonga - Day 4!

2010-08-30T01:06:00.001-07:00

Tonga - Day 4!

2010-08-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

Tonga - Day 3!

2010-08-28T23:58:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone. Today is Sunday and pretty much the whole island shuts down. On Sundays, no work is allowed and all businesses are closed (except for bread shops that open in the evening). If the locals are caught working (even walking around in water is a crime), they can go to jail. The town becomes like a ghost town.Lucky for me, I was able to get my suitcase late last night. This means I am

Tonga - Day 2!

2010-08-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. It seems the day goes so fast here that it has already been 24 hours since the last post. But as promised I am going to try to post everyday. My luggage is still lost and should have it soon. I need my wet suit and stuff so I can go out and look for corals.I got up today around 9 am and headed down to the hotel lobby. I went into the dining room and spent $10 US on a

Tonga! - Day 1

2010-08-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I am in Tonga right now. I'm due to go back to Indonesia next month, but had some little time to spare, so I came to Tonga to send out some shipments. For the past year, people have been hounding me to come back here to Tonga and start something up. For those of you that don't know, I have been screwed out of lots of money and time from two different crooks here in Tonga. I

Island Coral Trip!

2010-08-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. First, I would like to apologize for not updating for so long. Many things have happened in the past months that really changed my outlook in life. First, my father/uncle passed away last month. Dimentia is a horrible disease that robs people of memory. My father died complications from pneumonia which was caused by dimentia. It was really sad and the worse day of my life.

Coral Database 2010!

2010-03-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. The last time I wrote, I was heading out island hopping in search of corals. That was about a month ago and I'm still island hopping. Found some incredible corals on my journey and I will post pictures of those later.I have updated my coral database and have posted pictures below. For my customers, please bookmark this page for reference. I have painstakingly built a

Crabbing on the Pacifica Pier!

2010-02-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. First let me say 'thank you" to all of you who have emailed me and posted support for me and my family. Your kind words really do mean a lot to me. I don't know who all of you guys are, but I consider you my friends - thank you!So for today, besides playing with corals, I would like to talk about something I REALLY like to do on my spare time. When ever I get the chance, I

Horrible Disease!

2010-02-27T03:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I'm back in Indonesia. Sorry I haven't posted in a while, been busy with a family crisis. For today's topic I would like to talk about two very important people in my life, my aunt and uncle. But first, we need to back up and tell you the story of how I ended up in the US with the name Eddie Hanson. I currently live with my aunt and uncle in the US, when I'm not in Indo. They