November 11, 2002

Waigama 01° 47' 45" S, 129° 46' 95" E

This morning the Social-economy team held a meeting with some members of the Waigama community. A The community were very impressed by information on the biodiversity of the Raja Ampat islands, and particularly proud of Misool's contribution. It was clear that there is tension within the village over fish bombing and cyanide; many said the culprits were outsiders, but clearly some locals are involved. Holding pens on nearby islands have small to medium wrasse, which are difficult to catch on hook and line, and younger members know how to obtain and use potash (cyanide). Some said that they joined fishing groups to gather information, but that it was difficult for villagers to do anything against the armed bomb-fishers in their fast boats. The police themselves have little capacity - there is only one policeman in the village, and he has neither boat nor fuel allowance.

Today the divers took a day off, to catch up on data entry - a schedule of three dives a day doesn't leave much time for more mundane work.

Some of the divers joined the vegetation team on a trip up the Kasim river, and a trek across a small divide into the interior. Here the team sampled an unusual habitat, an open melaleuca savanna, which is possibly at the western limit of its range. The canopy was dominated by Melaleuca leucodendron s.l., and Eucalyptus papuana, with an unidentified Araliaceae, possible Polyscias or Gastonia. The grassland was dominated by Ischaenum cylindrica, with a sugar-cane relative Saccharum sp.. Amongst the other plants was a lovely pitcher-plant (Nepenthes ?mirabilis). This savanna is limited in extent on the Raja Ampat islands, and may be the most important habitat surveyed so far.

Gerry returned to the Kasim river after 3 years, and managed to find the same guide - Pak Frederick, whose village moved from the interior 40 years ago. In a tributary of the Kasim, the Waytama river, Gerry netted some rainbow-fish, a gudgeon, and probably a new species of eel-tailed catfish (can only be confirmed after x-ray analysis of the backbone).

The evening discussion focussed on news from the turtle survey. Tetha explained that the main nesting season has just finished (August to October) but that there are still many turtle signs about. To date, seventeen beaches have been surveyed. On the east coast of Misool there is sign of between 2-7 hawksbill nests per beach, with predation by humans and monitor lizards. The difference is easy to see - monitor lizards eat the eggs on the spot, and the shells are left lying around; humans take the eggs away, and the shells are seen lying around campfires instead! The southeastern Misool beaches are on islands, and generally smaller, there are more hawksbill turtles and fewer greens nesting. However, monitor lizard predation is very high - up to 100%. On the south coast the mainland beaches are disturbed by pigs (remember all the pig tracks the vegetation team saw?), but there are offshore beaches, and human disturbance is not great. On the 4 western beaches surveyed, on islands off Waigama, there was sign of both hawksbill and green turtles.

Turtles face a dark future - besides predation of eggs from the nests, adults are also hunted for local consumption and for sale. In 1997 a Balinese boat was caught at Misool with 160 turtles on board. The current state of the turtle trade is unclear, but as another open-access resource, they will continue to be harvested by all and sundry. Turtles like the leatherback, which nest in large numbers on specific beaches (like Jamursba-Medi on the Papuan mainland), may be easier to conserve than the hawksbill, which nests in small numbers on almost all beaches in the region.