November 17, 2002

Pindito anchored at Pulau Wajak (000° 10' 183" N, 130° 01' 858" E)

Today the vegetation team had an astounding day on the island of Kawe, climbing a ridge on red, granulated, ultrabasic soil. The whole flora was unusual and, as a whole, unrecorded. They also rediscovered a species of pitcher plant (Nepenthes sp. nov.) which had previously been recorded but is undescribed, as the original specimen was too damaged to develop a description. They found several very unusual species of trees whose status is unknown, one with red glossy leaves in a candelabra architecture. Johanes found two potentially new species of palms - a Livistona sp. and Ganophyllum sp. The scenery here had incredible views across the island, and across the seas to the Pindito anchored in the northern hemisphere.

Today has been a marathon day for the divers - they did 4 dives along the island chain from Wayag to Quoy, to Bag, to Uranie. Wayag and Quoy were diverse, but had extensive patches of dead coral - its unclear whether this is due to disease, bombing, or climate related bleaching. At Quoy (pronounced Coy), named after the famous French naturalist who made the first collection of coral-reef fishes and corals in the area. On Quoy island the team met a group collecting coconut-crabs, a protected species. The exceptional feature of this island was the number of bomb craters in the coral - fortunately M.Quoy is not around to see the damage.

Bag is a small island, it has no coral-reefs, but has rocky platforms, ledges, and valleys, with rocks covered by soft-corals. There were large schools of pelagic fish, including a school containing three species of barracuda.

Uranie was named after M. Quoy's ship. Two sites were dived - one in an enormous cave, which opened 100 meters into the cliffs, and was shot with turquoise light from rents in the walls. At the mouth of the cave, at 45 meters depth, two dive-instructors from Pindito saw two large sharks sleeping on the sand, with some small sharks apparently fighting near them. On the eastern dive, a coral was discovered which has so far defied conclusive identification even to genus level - a new species ?

Coming back to join the Pindito, the vegetation team re-crossed the equator, and saw two large groups of dolphin. They also met with two barracuda, but the end of lines trolling lures!