2 March 2010: Saving Daram - tripling the size of our No-Take Zone with help from The Seven Seas
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By Marit Miners |
Hi there Friends,
greetings from the most beautiful place on earth.
It occurred to me last week that I must do a better job remembering how lucky I am to be precisely here, exactly where I am, right now.
That means that in between all the grim spreadsheets, business plans, and revenue projections I need to find a few minutes of each day to sneak away from the office and enjoy a frosty sunset beer or an afternoon dive.
That is, after all, the reason I'm here.
So when I got a last minute invitation last week to jump onboard The Seven Seas and head out to Daram for a few days of diving, it was impossible for me to decline the offer.
The invitation arrived late at night as the boat was moored in front of Misool Eco Resort.
I packed up my dive gear, a bikini, and a toothbrush and left a note for the office staff saying I'd be back in a few days.
Terribly irresponsible of me... but those of you who know me will recognise this inability to resist adventure as a classic tidbit of Maritness, one with which I was very happy to be reacquainted. |
We sailed out to Daram, a group of islands about 40 km to the east, arriving early the following morning.
The spreadsheets and urgent emails of the day before just fell away as we dropped in on one of my favourite dive sites, Candy Store.
Andrew and I first dived this site last year with Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock while they were researching their guidebook for diving Raja Ampat.
I was happy to be diving it again in Burt and Maurine's company, but of course missing my usual dive buddy,
Andrew.
Sadly, he had the misfortune of being stuck in Sorong for meetings.
The dive site was more gorgeous than I remembered
- full of luscious soft corals, elephant ear sponges, clouds of fusiliers heading into the current, and a picturesque hole in the islands just below the surface of the water.
*WOW*
These reefs are spectacular, pulsating with life in all shapes, sizes, colours. This is indeed the most beautiful place on earth. |
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| We journeyed south that afternoon towards one of the bigger islands of Daram, one with three beaches called Mustenge.
Andrew and I visited this island last month together with Stella and Jürgen Freund, who are on an 18-month photographic expedition documenting the Coral Triangle for WWF.
(You must read their fascinating blog here - it's not to be missed, especially if you suffer from wanderlust or simply divelust. Scroll down for their coverage of Misool Eco Resort and some very goofy photos of yours truly). |
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On our previous visit, Andrew, Stella and Jürgen and I met some shark finners who had set up camp there on the island.
I was curious to see if they were still around, so I set off in a kayak and paddled towards the island.
The water was clear and luminous, with a shallow reef protecting 3 powdery white sand beaches.
I wish I were a good enough writer to make you understand just how beautiful these islands are... Luckily Jürgen Freund's photos tell the story where words fail. (Have you been to his website yet? If not, go there right after you finish reading this update!)
There were no boats on the beach, but I could see that the camp was still there, surrounded by skittish chickens, scummy old nets, drying sea cucumbers, and a rice sack full of dried shark fins.
I could also see that there were two men sleeping in their tent, so I milled around for a bit hoping that the sound of a breaking twig or alarmed chicken would wake them up.
These fishermen must have been very exhausted, as nothing short of shouting 'SELAMAT PAGI' roused them from their nap.
If they were miffed about having their slumber disturbed by some insatiably curious vagrant white girl, they were well-mannered enough not to reveal it.
They kindly indulged me and answered about a thousand questions about the particulars of their livelihood.
I promised to come back the next day with Douglas Seifert, who was also onboard The Seven Seas.
I'll let Douglas tell you about what we discovered there - his article will be published in Dive magazine shortly.
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Although the shark finners were not inside Misool Eco Resort's No-Take Zone, they were fishing inside the South East Misool Marine Protected Area, which is illegal.
Furthermore, we've been told by the head of the Raja Ampat Fisheries Department that no new shark finning licenses have been granted for 2010. But the long and the short of it was that these fisherman are working illegally,
working far from home, and just barely eeking out a hard-scrabble living
on the exploitation of an ever-diminishing resource.
I'm pretty sure that given they chance, they'd switch jobs in a heartbeat.
I mulled all this over as I pulled the kayak down the beach and back into the sea.
At that moment, I stepped on a glass bottle in the sand.
I picked it up and saw that it was a bomb - an old ketchup bottle stuffed with explosives, a rubber stopper made from an old flip flop, and tied up with a discarded plastic bag and some monofilament .
It was completely intact, not even a trace of algae.
This bomb was brand new, and by some stroke of luck did not detonate on Daram's stunning reefs.
I was crestfallen, but I wish I could say that I was suprised.
I brought the bomb back to the boat as sobering reminder of how urgent it is that we protect Daram.
If we hope to keep Daram's beauty intact, we need to act NOW.
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a bombed reef |
a healthy reef |
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Many of you know that in 2006 we established a 425 sq km No-Take Zone around Misool Eco Resort, and our Rangers regularly patrol against all fishing, shark finning, long lining, collecting of turtle eggs, etc.
This is an area the size of the Caribbean nation of Barbados that has experienced a marked increase in the fish stocks in the past few years.
Additionally, it has provided a livelihood decoupled from an extractive economy for many local villagers and their families, empowering them to reclaim their own birthright.
Following on from the success of this project, we now propose to expand our No-Take Zone to include Daram, increasing the coverage to over 1200 sq km (468 sq mi).
That's more than twice the size of Singapore! You can click here to open a map of the area. |
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To kick off the Daram Project, we're auctioning off a 14-night combination trip with The Seven Seas, journeying through Misool and Daram.
This is an exclusive full-charter trip for a group of up to 14 people,
joined by Conservation International marine scientists Drs Mark Erdmann and Gerry Allen.
The trip starts onboard The Seven Seas on 4 February, 2011, sailing for one week before arriving at Misool Eco Resort on 11 February.
Guests will explore the Misool area until the 18th of February.
The starting bid for this journey of a lifetime is 96,500 USD, and all the profits will go towards protecting Daram. You can read more about it here.
Auction closes on 31 May, 2010.
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The local people have a story that their ancestors arrived here from mainland Papua, near Fak Fak.
Many many generations ago, when they uprooted their lives in Fak Fak and set out for Raja Ampat, they towed the massive islands of Daram behind their convoy of dug-out canoes.
One can only assume that these islands were so dear to them, so magnificently appointed with natural treasures, that they couldn't bear to leave them behind.
Now is our chance to help them preserve their ancestral birthright for generations to come.
Please tell everyone you know, anyone who has ever voiced dismay over the wholesale destruction of some of our last remaining pristine reefs. This is our chance to turn the tide and protect Daram, at the very centre of marine biodiversity. |
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