November 13, 2002

Pindito anchored at Kofiau (01° 13' 05" S, 129° 55' 07" E)

The terrestrial and socioeconomic teams left at 06:30 as the marine team had an enormous area to cover and needed to get underway. The sea was mirror smooth and nothing stirred to break the perfect reflections of towering fair-weather cumulus clouds. Then suddenly a group of at least 150 spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) powered into view, leaping, somersaulting and spinning. A small group of more adventurous dolphins peeled off to frolic under the bows of the Pindito, challenging us to capture them on camera.

On the beaches opposite Deer (pronounced Der) Island, the vegetation team found some very rich beachfront committees. These included the dominant trees Thespesia populnea, Hibiscus tiliaceus, and one enormous Terminalia catappa which had fallen towards the sea, and from which many new trees sprouted upwards. This tree was already there when the first families arrived from Biak in the mid 1900's, and could be several hundred years old. Beach-front communities are amongst those most heavily impacted by human activities, and have high conservation value.

Behind the beach were patches of swamp forest, rich in sago palm (Metroxylon sagu.) where the villagers extract sago starch as a staple food. One tree can feed one family for a month, and the extracted starch can be stored in water-pits for as long as three years. The team climbed Gunung Deer to confirm that beyond this fringe lowland rainforest covers most of the rest of the island, with some extensive stands of mangroves on the southern peninsulas. The lowland forest here is rich in commercial timber species (Intsia, Pometia, and some small Diospyros sp.), but the villagers have had bad experiences with logging companies, and hope to identify a responsible company before selling timber rights.

As the terrestrial and marine teams rendezvoused on Pindito, just north of Deer Island, we became a part of the most spectacular sunset of the trip so far. Gold and rose-tinted clouds were suspended from a deep blue sky, and the colors spilled onto us, and onto the whole landscape around us. The whole crew lined the rails in awe, and even the fishermen in their dug-outs seemed to lose concentration on the fishing.