S0 33.344 E130 41.075 – Sorido Bay Resort

A panoramic view of one of the most comfortable and elegant lounge and dining areas we've been to here in Indonesia! High end Papuan art of tapa bark cloths, woven Papuan bags and intricate highland wood carvings tastefully decorate this place giving off a feeling of a comfortable gallery of Oceanic art

All too soon, it was time to say our farewells to everyone from this lovely resort. We spent quality working time here often leaving the resort at eight in the morning and coming back, still dripping wet, at seven in the evening when everybody had started with their dinner.

Pioneering flying Dutchman Max Ammer. Boy, did he have stories to tell us about wild wild Papua! We couldn't have enough of it

Yogi met the legendary Max Ammer for the first time in the Duesseldorf dive show BOOT in January 2009. As serendipity would have it, Max saw Yogi loitering around the show one early evening, eyeballed Yogi’s name tag, grabbed him and talked about Papua Diving’s Raja Ampat. His opening line was “I saw 10 mantas upon leaving the jetty to start my long journey to come here!” When Yogi explained our WWF Coral Triangle photo expedition to him, Max said to come during the low season and to stay at least two weeks!

It was an absolute surprise to find out Max is also a pilot with a pretty yellow toy plane! We thought "this man is going to be our new best friend!"

Our 3 week stay in Sorido Bay Resort culminated our whooping 8 month activity in Indonesia for this expedition. What a way to say goodbye to Indonesia!

Both Claudia and Leon HAVE been bitten by sharks in the Bahamas - hence their professional name!

We were well cared for by the energetic Leon Joubert and Claudia Pellarini-Joubert. Too well in fact as we’ve gained so much weight and seriously have to stop eating.

Absolutely fresh & delicious food prepared everyday to perfection by Sorido's local Indonesian chefs

Claudia and Leon manage the resort, simultaneously operating the only full service Underwater Imaging center in the Raja Ampat, using their professional expertise in underwater imaging to educate and inspire their dive guests. If they have the time to spare, they also do international marketing trips to encourage divers to come to Raja Ampat.

The cottages are hidden in thick pandanus and tropical trees by the white beach of Cape Kri

It is a great challenge to run a remote luxury dive resort. Dive guests come and go but what they don’t seem to realize is what great difficulties lie behind having an efficient, well oiled machinery that services a descerning dive industry in a far flung area. Electricity have to be powered and water has to be made. Local people are trained from scratch in housekeeping all the way to diving. English lessons to the Papuan staff were even ongoing while we were there!

Who can beat this smile??? We were met with fresh watermelon juice after our first morning dive . . .

And our rooms were massive with a dedicated table for underwater camera equipment! I could rollerskate in here . . .

And of course, the diving. That was after all why we all come here. The dive sites around the resort went on and on, we were spoilt for choice. We had two superb dive guides – Otto and Dolvinus.  Otto is a man of few words. One time, Yogi asked him if there would be a wobbegong shark in Pulau Lima. His cryptic answer was “wobbegong is not a giant clam”. Oh we rolled in laughter! Serves Yogi right for asking silly questions.

Otto in the dark . . .

And then there was light . . .

Dolvinus, Solomon & Victor, our Papuan dive guides in silhouette. And where do you find big fan corals like this shallow, not twenty minutes away from the resort???

And finally, this resort loved our WWF flag. Here we had the most use of this adorable WWF logo in every way possible.

Two local staff help me prepare the flag for the aerial shoot

Up, down and up the Panda went. And I pose with the lovely local staff . . .

Resort staff came out in the searing noon sun saying "panas" hot, but still laying down for the shot

And one more before we hit the road. The Freund Factory with Claudia, Max and Leon. Until we meet again dear friends . . .

And our next destination??? Apo Reef, Philippines.

Indonesia! So long & thanks for all the fish!

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Related posts:

1. Mantas of North Raja Ampat
2. Remote Expedition to West Papua, Indonesia
3. Diving with Tauch Terminal, Tulamben – North Bali

S0 33.344 E130 41.075 – Sorido Bay Resort
S0 25.645 E130 33.704 – The Passage between Gam & Waigeo
S0 30.920 E130 27.736 – Yambraimuk blue water mangroves

While we were in North Raja Ampat, we were incredibly fortunate to have professional photographers and videographers Claudia & Leon Joubert document our stay and experience in what is arguably the epicenter of marine biodiversity. Claudia Pellarini-Joubert and Leon Joubert of the Bittenbysharks.com fame work with Max Ammer to manage and market Sorido Bay Resort.

Click and watch their video here of “Yogi and Stella in Raja Ampat“.

From the big picture all the way zooming in to the small critter, Raja Ampat keeps one riveted and awestruck

Not a single day were we not blown away by the varied sceneries here in Raja Ampat. We were so greedy in seeing everything that even if three weeks with Papua Diving may seem like a lot of time, it was seriously not enough. The dinner table story telling by Max made Yogi rub his goatee thinking, hmmm, when can we come back here again?

West Papua is such a massive area – a place with more secrets to tell and more wonders to be discovered – one of the last remaining frontiers still with remote unchartered territories. Sounds adventurous? You cannot begin to imagine!

Showing two worlds with one picture, massive schooling silversides darken the waters around Friwenbonda Island underwater with the karst limestone outcrop and verdant trees framing the topside

Narrow base holding small island outcrops like this seem to defy gravity. What we're not showing is the wider side view

The Passage holds a magical cavern photographers love - an underwater cave with topside illumination!

The sun illuminating the topside foliage shows off this massive gorgonian fan in the shallows in a different light

When not diving, much of our activities were spent snorkelling in shallow waters. The blue water mangroves were our favorite hangout place for many many days – blue water mangroves with coral reefs fighting for space in amongst the mangrove roots! It was like if we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did! Here are some samples of shallow (less than a meter) wonders:

This bright red dendronephthya soft coral is attached to a mangrove root and the water around us was indeed BLUE! Not your usual murky mangrove environment!

Unbelievable corals of many different species grew in"coral tips touching the surface" depths right beside the mangroves. Corals are very busy procreating here!

Rain or shine we were out there photographing. Here, on an extremely low tide, corals grow till the water surface

Much like freshwater arowanas, these archerfish stay in the water surface, gulps in water to spit on unknowing insects perched on a leaf or branch of mangroves

And these half beaks roam along the surface with the archerfishes

And in 10 meter depths in the mangrove area, we found this massive porites hard coral that may be several centuries old!!! These are very slow growing corals perhaps around 9mm/year, scientists say

On the subject of rising water levels, I asked our boat guides if they remember how it was when they were young, living in the nearby village. Was the beach farther than it is now? They thought for a while and tried to remember. And their answer is yes – this beach was about 10 meters away.

The whole beach full of these coconut trees with half their roots exposed

If you want to keep updated with our new expedition blog entries, please sign up to our RSS feed by clicking here or clicking on the “Subscribe to this blog!” link at the top right of this page.

And to look up past entries, go all the way down and click into << older posts.  Or go to the Archives on the upper right column of this page.

Related posts:

1. Misool Eco Resort, South Raja Ampat
2. Marine Life of North Raja Ampat
3. Diving the Famed Misool, Raja Ampat!

After days of grumbling about the weather, Yogi finally found his smile again. Max Ammer was bringing him along as co-pilot to his truly photogenic yellow aircraft.

Yogi finally smiling from ear to ear. Finally sunny after overcast days with heavy rain

Conservation International needed to do regular surveys to Raja Ampat by land, sea and air. They were fortunate enough to have Max Ammer firmly situated in the area and is a trained pilot but with no aircraft. They asked Max what was best to do aerial surveys with and like a good soldier, he researched and found them this aircraft. He was given this yellow bird in exchange for airtime within the areas of the Four Kings. Three major conservation organizations share the all important conservation work in West Papua. The Nature Conservancy has project sites in Misool, South Raja Ampat, Conservation International has project sites in North Raja Ampat and the World Wide Fund for Nature has project sites in mainland Bird’s Head Peninsula.

Max fully concentrated in his responsibility as a pilot

Max explains the basic responsibilities of Yogi being the front seat passenger of this float plane. Since all controls were in front, Yogi had to read the wind speed, rpm, and work the flaps when landing. Oh and he had to take pictures too!

Beautiful ultra-light float plane ready for take off. Aviator flying caps, check. Goggles, check. Fuel, check. Camera, check. The dynamic duo are set to fly the royal kingdom of the 4 kings!

Up, up and away. They remind me of Dick Dastardly & Muttly in their flying machines! And I sing, "Stop that pigeon, stop that pigeon ..."

Watch this classic Dick Dastardly & Muttly in Their Flying Machines

We have been diving and snorkeling these northern waters of Raja Ampat with Papua Diving for 3 weeks now, rain or shine. Legs and fins can only take you so far to see marine animals and their habitats. Up in the air, with a speed of about 50 to 65 knots, Yogi & Max saw everything. They saw a mother and calf dugong swimming in the blue and of course, the manta rays. They flew above the nearby divesites and islands in the periphery of where the resort boats took us during our day trips. It was a large area and still there were much more they couldn’t reach because of fuel limitations. But here are some amazing photographs of this magnificent kingdom of Raja Ampat.

The world famous Cape Kri where Dr. Gerry Allen found the most number of fish species in one dive area from in and out of the Sorido Bay Resort lagoon

Manta haven where they feed and get cleaned. Max has seen up to 50 to 70 mantas here at times

From the air, you see the most amazing reef formations . . .

There is only one entrance and exit to this meandering waterways called The Hidden Bay. The more you go into the bay, the greener the water got

A local Papuan village with blue coastal waters . . .

A local Papuan village with very clear signs of coastal run offs and siltation

These unique landscapes are the jewels treasured by these Kings

And very quickly it was all over. It was time to land after an hour and a half flying time. I could hear Yogi sigh . . .

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Related posts:

1. Marine Life of North Raja Ampat
2. Misool Eco Resort, South Raja Ampat
3. Edi Frommenwiler, Pindito and Raja Ampat

If I may, I would like to lift a few bits and paragraphs written by Dr. Mark V. Erdmann, Senior Advisor Conservation International Indonesia Marine Program in his introduction of a new fantastic coffeetable book The Raja Ampat.  “Reefs on Steroids”, “The Kingdom of Coral”, “Heart of the Coral Triangle”, “The World’s Richest Reefs” . . . the “King of Kings” has a startling diversity of habitats to explore.  Each of these from the stark wave-pounded slopes that drop away beneath the karst cliffs of Wayag and Uranie to the deep, nutrient-rich bays of Mayalibit, Kabui and Aljui Gam to the plankton-rich upwelling areas of Misool and the Dampier Strait – is home to unique assemblages of species that, when taken together, add to produce the most impressive species lists ever compiled for a coral reef system of this size. To date, some 1,320 species of coral reef fish have been recorded in Raja Ampat by renowned Ichthyologist Gerald Allen, with new species being uncovered on every trip he makes to the region. Over 540 species of hard coral have been confirmed from Raja Ampat, with coral scientists estimating there are likely over 550 species existing here (which equates to a mind-blowing 70% of all known coral species on the planet!)” (Erdmann 2009).

Five bottlenose dolphins frolicked around us on a flat calm day in Raja Ampat

We have been diving in the northern part of Raja Ampat for 3 weeks now with Sorido Bay Resort of Papua Diving. We have amassed a nice selection of images that we hope could illustrate Dr. Mark Erdmann introduction to this fabulous place. Here are some of Yogi images:

A mass of silversides covered the entire reef with skipjack tunas attacking from the periphery. There so much food in the water for all marine life

A Thecacera picta otherwise fondly known as "pikachu" nudibranch so tiny it's a wonder how Otto, our dive guide found this!

Another tiny beauty is this dark pygmy seahorse Hippocampus Pontohi surrounded by brilliantly colored tunicates. Pygmy is about 4mm high

Zillions of glassy sweepers cover this coral bommie and in them hides the sweetlips!

One of our favorite dive site Otdima has a huge school of sweetlips that do not leave!

This is how close we got without the sweetlips leaving. I could have kissed them and still they wouldn't leave!

Wobbegong sharks are only found here in Raja Ampat and in Australia. Here, it is out of its hole and sits on top of the coral

Active at night, this walking epaulette shark is a Raja Ampat species. They are found in shallow mangroves and in the seagrass beds

If you want to keep updated with our new expedition blog entries, please sign up to our RSS feed by clicking here or clicking on the “Subscribe to this blog!” link at the top right of this page.

Related posts:

1. Misool Eco Resort, South Raja Ampat
2. Mantas of North Raja Ampat
3. North Raja Ampat with Mantas!

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 man with frizzy hair (Souter 1963; Langdon 1971).

And true enough, all Papuans we’ve met all throughout our travels indeed had frizzy hair!

Victor our boat driver expertly shows off his diving skills

When they jumped into the water, they come out with instant dry hair after one vigorous head shake.

Their kinky hair just does not seem to retain water, its amazing!

Raja Ampat literally means four kings referring to the 4 western islands away from the mainland – from north to south, the islands are Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati and Misool. We stayed in Sorido Bay Resort which is nestled in a tiny little island called Kri, found between Waigeo and Batanta. For three weeks, we dived and dived. We were brought to some famous dive spots where there are what we call “pockets of spectacular”. More on that later, but for now here are some fisherfolks we have encountered along the way – in between dive surface intervals and going to and fro the many islands from the resort.

Dark clouds in the horizon causes this fisherman to quickly make his way home

Another dark cloud in the horizon that will momentarily drench a fisherman like this one while he continues fishing

Mainly using hook & line and spear fishing, the local fishermen have fishing grounds that can be the envy of all fishermen throughout the world. One local fisherman with eye glasses catches and supplies Spanish mackerel to Sorido Bay Resort and Kri Eco Resort. When we were getting ready to leaving Sorido one day, he asked us in English “Going diving today?”

Spearfishing in the reef near the mangroves, this Papuan has a quaint houseboat with thatched roof behind him

Husband and wife paddle through the thick mangrove area of Raja Ampat

The marine environment here has a healthy stock of commercial fish species like skipjack tuna, mackerel, bluefin trevally, barracuda, snapper, grouper, emperor, fusilier . . . and I’m not mentioning any of the critters yet.

Several signs like this "Sasi Gereja" are prominent in the sandy areas where the mantas are abundant

There is the traditional way of fisheries management that works here – sasi. The leaders of the village that own the waters open and close a season for catching certain marine species like snails or fish.

This Papuan man had been inside the mangrove forest cutting trees for building material

A very photogenic point of view of an outrigger canoe from underwater!

Starting young, these Papuan kids go fishing everyday from the jetty

Massive canoe silhouetted in the sunset

If you want to keep updated with our expedition updates, please sign up to our RSS feed by clicking here or clicking on the “Subscribe to this blog!” link at the top right of this page.

Related posts:

1. Marine Life of North Raja Ampat
2. Seeing Magnificent Raja Ampat from the Air
3. Mantas of North Raja Ampat

S0 34.808 E130 32.494 Manta Sandy
S0 33.681 E130 32.471 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 very few places we know where you can find, almost guaranteed, mantas in a cleaning station. There are many cleaning stations known, yes, but few guaranteed! Depending on the number of divers underwater, i.e. if you were sharing the site with a liveaboard or not, we have been graced with a manta show of the most spectacular nature – from one manta the whole dive with 20 odd divers, or eight mantas with just three divers – ourselves and our dive guide. Yesterday was such a day, we were the only ones in the water!

Eight mantas came in like a fighter plane squadron. Here are four clearly seen and some more behind them in Manta Sandy

The minute we reached the cleaning station, eight mantas were busy getting their skins, gills and mouths cleaned by wrasses and butterflyfishes. They came so close they touched Yogi’s camera many times!

A brilliant photo of Yogi at work by Claudia Pellarini-Joubert, Sorido Bay Resort's dynamic manager and photographer extraordinaire

We are wonderfully hosted by Papua Diving’s Sorido Bay Resort – the first Raja Ampat dive resort situated on Kri Island. The resort’s pioneering owner Max Ammer is a passionate conservationist, a committed and religious man who started Papua Diving 18 years ago. He is a great story teller. He tells the story of how the manta cleaning stations were discovered five years ago.

Like a stealth bomber, this black manta flies low accompanied by a her wingman

Mantas must be so healthy with all this cleaning . . .

One day Max was flipping through a marine book where there was a picture of a manta on the page. One of his staff was changing a bulb behind him and said there were lots of mantas in the Arborek Island area near Mansoear where the fishermen go. After 13 years of operating in this area, mantas could be seen now and then but never a guaranteed site as finding a cleaning station. When Max investigated, it was like hitting a goldmine, two sites were found – Manta Sandy and Manta Slope. Both with incredibly hard working wrasses eager to nip off anything alien from a manta’s body.

Total grace in motion, three mantas fly above us

On flat calm seas, you can even see manta wingtips come out of the water! We snorkelled with about three and the water was full of crustacean! So much food in these waters for marine life

Snorkelling in a soup of plankton with a feeding manta

They constantly fly towards Yogi for a portrait. They can't seem to have enough flashing from the camera strobes!

And they glide past an extremely busy cleaning station jampacked with fish of all kinds!

If you want to keep updated with our expedition updates, sign up to our RSS feed by clicking here or clicking on the “Subscribe to this blog!” link at the top right of this page.

Related posts:

1. North Raja Ampat with Mantas!
2. Marine Life of North Raja Ampat
3. Landscapes and Seascapes of Raja Ampat

S2 14.666 E130 33.401 – 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 trees and sunshine seem to make our brains go funny and think within the lines of “what if I buy an island and live on it and dive all day long? And while I‘m at it, protect the body of water I’m in so I can benefit from it the rest of my life?” Sounds mad and an escape from reality? But the fact is, dreams do come true. And when you put your mind, soul and body into it, Misool Eco Resort is what comes out of dreams.

MER founders represented here by Andy and Marit Miners row to work every morning

And off to the office they go

In 2006 an energized gang of dreamers had visions of a resort sitting right smack at the best dive sites of south Raja Ampat – or one of the best diving areas in the world. Misool is the site and Batbitim is the Robinson Crusoe Island. With their own money and with a great deal of fund raising, they went through blood, sweat and possibly a few tears to get a world class resort built and running by October 2008. They have a great blog in their “MER news” section that give more behind the scenes stories of the making of an Eco Resort built entirely from salvaged wood. It’s a great read.

Healthy coral reef reaching almost up to the surface of Kalig Wall

But why is Raja Ampat so famous? It’s in every diver’s wish list and after diving it many times now, I think I can somewhat tell you why. The water is warm, the reefs are lush and the fish life is abundant. Biodiversity is at its peak here. The human population is low and the islands are so remote from the nearest city, which in this case is Sorong. The Papuan villagers from Yellu own the waters around here and they practice the tradition of Sasi which means the traditional right of opening a season for catching a particular marine species and closing the season when enough marine life has been caught. With MER buying the 25 year lease to 425 sq km of Misool waters and turning it into a no-take zone, fish life is at a state as it should be. Healthy. The islands and reefs are close to each other and the waters flow through in between reefs creating current fed massive healthy corals like gorgonian fans, soft corals and of course, hard corals. But it’s the brilliant colors of the octocorals that makes this place unique.

Andy Miners showing us why Fiabacet Pinnacle is one of his favorite dive sites

Vibrant soft corals right under the house reef jetty

Batbitim Island where the resort sits used to be an old shark finning camp. The energies have now been reversed with this eco resort and sharks are slowly coming back like these baby black tip sharks patrolling the shallows

Marit Miners in a beautiful yoga pose in Daram Island

We just have to make our presence felt don't we?

Our next stop – Cape Kri, North Raja Ampat with Papua Diving.

Related posts:

1. Misool Eco Resort, South Raja Ampat
2. Misool Rangers At Work
3. Diving the Famed Misool, Raja Ampat!

S2 03.462 E130 24.747 – 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.  They have leased the area around their resort from the nearby Yellu traditional village owners for the next 25 years and they have active rangers in their ranger boats patrolling every week since 2006. Being guardians of these waters, the strict no-take rule is enforced and quite some fishermen (like commercial tuna fishing vessels, shark finning fishermen and the odd artisanal fisherman here and there) have been kindly asked to leave the no-take zone during the past four years they have been lease holders. Bravo to the hard working rangers and bravo to the founders of MER.

Ranger Rajak patrols the pristine Misool waters

Ranger Rajak who is from the Yellu village launched his own initiated project – the Misool floating library while we were there. Lucky for us to be part of the library’s maiden voyage. First we traveled from MER to Yellu village for an hour in the ranger boat with Rangers Rajak and Safar and one of MER’s founders Marit Miners. A visit to the school was Rajak’s first order of the day. The Rangers and Marit gave a video showing of MER’s video which showed most of the marine animals and unique critters living in Misool waters.

This small macbook kept the children glued to it for half an hour

The children were rapt. Yogi clicking away taking their photos didn't once make the kids clown around for the camera

They were seeing animals that belonged right under their waters and they hardly blinked for fear of missing a scene. They oohed and aahed and it was such a privilege to witness the children’s awe.

Leadership qualities shine through Ranger Rajak as he talks to the school children of Yellu

This village own the very waters we have been diving in these past weeks and with the help of computer technology, Ranger Rajak explained why bolehs or foreigners like us come from far away, go day after day – sucking air from bottles and dive underwater for an hour, to see what is in their amazing waters.

After the video showing, we brought out our WWF flag. But of course! Here is shy Marit beside Yogi

Then it was off to the pier for all of us for the main event. The Misool floating library. We looked at the mob of kids surrounding Rajak and thought, “he is never going to see these books again!” But lo and behold, ye of little faith . . . Rajak made the kids read there and then. For about half an hour, these kids had books to read and pretty pictures to see.

Ranger Rajak's mobile library in a styrofoam cooler box!

The donated books were in Bahasa Indonesia and the kids noses were on the books! What a happy sight!

Learning happens when you have a book in your hands . . .

Drawings of fish like this coral grouper keep three active boys still for the moment

So begins Rajak’s project. There will be more school visits and there will be more learning and there will be more awareness that could all lead to the kids caring for their environment. This is our hope for the future. Well done Rajak.

Related posts:

1. Misool Eco Resort
2. Misool Eco Resort, South Raja Ampat
3. Rangers and Crown-of-Thorns Starfish

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 a feat as we were in the thick of our journeys and going to distant lands with hardly any mobile signal, let alone internet. But we said yes. We’ll do it.

Knowing it was going to be tight, we recommended our warrior team – Alya Honasan to edit the photo captions and Felix Mago Miguel to do the design. It was a bonus that they live in the Philippines! But my biggest worry was how to make Yogi do a selection. Lida suggested 50 images and having to choose from thousands, this was not going to be easy. The expedition was in itself full-on and we were going to leatherback feeding and hunting territories! So much to do and so little time.

I made an early selection and sent it by snail mail to Felix from Ambon by late November. Yogi vetoed my selection and this made me force him to make one as December was fast approaching and pretty soon, the Christmas holidays. It was like pulling teeth. So while in remote Kei Islands, Moluccas, for eight days, Yogi sat diligently every afternoon in a boiling hot house of our home-stay to make a selection from scratch. Mornings were spent looking for leatherback turtles and afternoons were picture selection time. He was dripping from sweat and the electricity conked out every other hour or so. There was a fan in the room but it was blowing hot air to an already hot room. The afternoon sun was on our side of the room and the brick walls served like an oven absorbing all the sun’s heat. Yogi was like a polar bear in the tropics, roaring madly and sweating like a faucet. Sorry, no pictures to prove how hot it was.

But the result was amazing. We have done so much during these nine months of the expedition. The selection was exploding with stories. By second week of December we FedEx two DVDs to Felix from Ambon and these very DVDs of the Yogi’s selection got to Felix ahead of my earlier snail mail “disapproved” selection! Then it was up to Alya and Felix in the Philippines to weave their magic. At this stage, we were depressed from witnessing leatherback turtle hunting.

So eventually, on the eleventh hour, I managed to secure a great sponsorship for printing the exhibition from an old friend Ariel Tresvalles of YKL Color Fuji in Manila all by email! Many thanks Ariel. You’re really a star!

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cuts the ribbon to open our photo exhibition. L-R Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, WWF Coral Triangle Program Leader Dr. Lida Pet-Soede, PGMA, WWF Philippines Chairman Vince Perez & Environment Secretary Eleazar Quinto. Shame we weren't there . . .

Here is the weblink and summary of how the CT Business Summit went. With Lida beside her, the Philippine President Gloria Arroyo cut the ribbon and opened the exhibit event!

Lida had goose pimples seeing the Philippine President spend quality time looking, reading, admiring and asking questions about the images!

More reading our captions by PGMA and Vince Perez.

PGMA recalls a diving experience inspired by the photographs of our expedition

The summit & exhibition were big successes but we were not there to see it we were still in the thick of our expedition (10 months and counting) diving Raja Ampat from Misool Eco Resort

The wheels are turning with the WWF Coral Triangle team starting to fund raise to help us make a book out of this great expedition. From the photo exhibition, eleven pictures were sold. An online auction also went up on eBay. We heard from the WWF grapevine that the exhibition will be traveling to Singapore and Kota Kinabalu sometime soon. Hope we get to see it at some point.

The panel on life reef fish trade. The groupers are very red aren't they?

I still have to figure out how to get the full exhibition into this blog as the pdf file is quite big. Bear with me, maybe I’ll just post some 10 panels and not all 70 panels.

Related posts:

1. Singapore Slideshow!
2. Coral Triangle Expedition Cover Stories
3. Marine Life of North Raja Ampat

S2 12.917 E130 33.574 – Fiabacet

S2 14.666 E130 33.401 – 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 by Data after getting his emotion chip implanted in the old Star Trek movie “Generations” with Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard of the Enterprise. Yogi sang the entire stanza!!! Oh what joy! It was even in tune.

“Life forms . . . You tiny little life forms . . . You precious little life forms . . . Where are you?”

(Watch the video here)

Straight out of an animal horror movie, these skeleton shrimps seem to fight each other for space and food

We encounter life forms everywhere. Truly everywhere on land and underwater.

Pitcher plants cover some of the karst limestone walls in Sunmalelen waiting patiently for fallen or crawling ants (pardon the topside photo, but I did say land . . .)

In Misool Raja Ampat, gorgonian fans abound and in them, in tiny little life forms, we saw amazing living creatures – skeleton shrimps, pygmy sea horses, brittle stars . . .

Current flowing through the many islands and reefs in this protected Misool area make perfect growing fields for gorgonian fans

Damselfish eggs on a branch or two of a fan coral. They look like tiny jewels don't they?

Hundreds of brittlestars find a home in this fan coral same as H.denise the pygmy seahorse. I just love echinoderms. And since my name is Stella, I just have to look for my fellow stars underwater!

An odd colored Raja Ampat seahorse, not in its usual red and white outfit

A pygmy seahorse will always be found in the same fan but this one seems to have had a fight with his partner which sits on the nearby fan. This cutie is called a Hippocampus denise

I get awestruck with nature’s habitats.

There are many sea fans out there that is home to loads of these tiny beauties of many varieties. Raja Ampat is pygmy seahorse haven. And the varieties are staggering.

A starfish studded with comb jellies

Comb jellyfish makes its home on a sea star and this too is just spectacular.

Two thin gossamer comb-shaped fibres come out of this pink dots on white background, very likely to catch plankton to eat

This bright yellow crinoid shrimp is almost invisible as it blends in seamlessly with its home

Funny face clingfish inside a featherstar's cirri or "legs". They look very odd when swim out of their home looking like a big bugger floating towards you!

Crinoids or featherstars of all colors are everywhere in the reef. Clingfish, shrimps and crabs live in commensal relationships with crinoids. They are living in a relationship where the “intruder” gets his food or other benefits like safe shelter from the crinoid without hurting or helping it.

One of our most favourite dive sites is the house reef of Misool Eco Resort. It is the very location of the recent David Attenborough BBC “LIFE” series where famous cameraman Peter Scoones filmed a clownfish caring for its eggs.

Celebrity clownfish who modeled for the BBC LIFE documentary!

And with eggs! Oh what luck. Here are two picking and fanning away, caring for their own

And the eggs have eyes. Oh the wonders of nature!

This house reef has so much to offer. We did not go very far in any of our dives. There was no need for us to do kilometer long finning sessions. We concentrated in a few square meters here and there and the reef unfolded right before our eyes. Life forms appeared like magic. The reefs in Misool are so saturated with colors it was hard to find critters. But stop and keep still and the living jewels reveal themselves. Each of our house reef dives averaged 80 minutes or until Yogi ran low on air and grabbed on to my octopus to continue shooting. When he was almost out of air, I always had 100 bars left. I think he married me to have his spare air close by.

Related posts:

1. Marine Life of North Raja Ampat
2. Misool Eco Resort, South Raja Ampat
3. Misool Eco Resort