November 16, 2002

Pindito anchored at Wayag (00° 10' 189" N, 130° 01' 35" E)

This morning our anchor site was in a deep lagoon, surrounded on three sides by giant limestone slabs, standing out of the sea like a dog's teeth. Not satisfied with his swim the night before, Rod grabbed a mask and leapt overboard at 06.00 when a manta ray swam by.

Joe took a fast boat ride down to the infirmary at Aljui for treatment to an infected wound, he was back shortly after lunch. Many team members have had infections in small cuts, and antibiotics are in great demand.

Yesterday, two fishing groups from Salio were at Sayang; today they had also moved to Wayag, and discussed their activities with the team. They had set out for a two week collecting trip (trochus, bêche-de-mêre, clam) with overheads of only Rp 350,000 per trip. With a Rp 4,500,000 compressor as capital, they could each earn Rp 500,000 per week, far more than they could earn by working at, say, a pearl farm. Salio and Sel Pele communities are part of the same Kawai clan.

The groups had captured a large green turtle from beach at Ai. There were 7 others at the camp, and Julianus managed to persuade the people to release two of the smaller ones. Villagers are aware that there are fewer turtles now than previously (30 rather than 300 nest in a night), and blame the reduction on rising human population. Their need is for food, but there is also a commercial trade in turtles : a month beforehand a boat from Bali had passed by with more than 20 turtles on the deck alone. This area is also visited by Philippine tuna-fishermen, who are on good terms with the locals, supplying them with foodstuffs and alcohol.

The vegetation team was horrified to discover that there is almost no soil on Wayag, just knife-edged karst limestone! Nor was lush tropical greenery very evident, instead there was crackling tropical brownery - this island was amongst the worst affected by the 6 month drought. However, the botanising did make up for the wear on shoes and feet, with several endemic species on the ridge crests, where small-leaved montane taxa predominate.

Water temperatures were up again here, to 29ºC from a chilly 26ºC at Kofiau. There were many interesting sites both within the sheltered lagoon and outside on the more exposed reefs.

At the evening briefing, Emre gave a summary of the coral study to date. The team has identified 442 species of hard coral, with another 42 species to be identified; amongst these perhaps 10 are potentially new species. The total species list for Raja Ampat is now over 600 species, or more two thirds of the world's total coral species !

The richest location for corals to date has been Kofiau, where more than 150 species were recorded on every dive. The reefs of east Misool have the best range of habitats, and also have high biodiversity.

Bombing is still evident, as is cyanide fishing, over-fishing may prove to be a more severe threat to the Raja Ampat coral reefs : the removal of reef grazers allows algae to grow unchecked, and can lead to smothering of the reef.

To close this magnificent day, Edi took everyone for a moonlight speedboat ride around the lagoon - zooming through this limestone maze in the subdued moonlight was a truly amazing experience.