Charting New Waters

Asian Diver

Burt Jones & Maurine Shimlock - August/September 2002

The unknown always arouses our curiosity, tinting life with dramatic possibilities.It was as willing victims of this mystique that we embarked on the inaugural expedition of Kararu's " Diving adventure of a Lifetime " through the Raja Empat Islands, northwest of Irian Jaya's Bird Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea.

We arrived in sorong, a small, provincial city that acts as the hub for travel in northern Irian Jaya (Papua Barat), in the late afternoon. as we walked from the air terminal across a wooden jetty to board the ship, a host of exotic sights and smells distinct to Irian Jaya hit us full-force -these were the mingled scents of smoke, sweat, and cloves that emanated from the conglomeration of native Irians and transplanted Indonesians squatting along the jetty, selling everything from beetle nut to bamboo shoots. The encounter was not one-sided, however small children were apparently so overcome with joy and our arrival that they somersaulted off the jetty and splashed loudly into the sea.

just after dawn the following day we sat on Kararu's top deck sipping tea, csanning the horizon for signs of the reefs we had travelled so far to explore. All around us tiny islands rose up from the smooth turquoise water.As Kararu's captain, pak Yan , directed the crew to drop anchor, we realised that we were at the edge of a board fringing reef and all of us, eager divers, bent over the rail and stared longingly into the blue depths below.

One Small step for Mankid
As the boat swung around into the wind, her bobbing anchor chain sent ripples that disturbed the ocean's calm surface and turned our clear view of the reef top into the windly patterned mosaic. the crest was covered with hard reef-building corals, and even from six metres above the water we could see the masses of shimmering fish moving in and out of the coral like iridescent waves

Eons of geologic activity, the rise and fall of sea levels, and the tireless colonisingof marine animals have created a unique habitat for usto explore: above water it looked like the earth spat out a ring of islands no bigger than chocolate drops; while beneath the sea the down into the depths.

Everyone was anxious to dive the wall , but like good explorers we sent a search team out first. Sascha and Tony blasted part the ship in one of the speedboats to quickly survey the reefs outer walls. Ther returned in about 30 minutes with exciting news: if we were willing to dive in a current we would be surrounded by frenzield schools of fish and drift over a reefscape with a profusion of soft corals and sea fans.

we split into two groups. Half the divers entered far upcurrent from the point, to comb the nooks and crannies for small creatures like cleaning shrimp and nudibranchs; the rest of the divers headed toward the tip of the reef hoping to run into something big.

As we expected, the reef was teeming with fish, and there were so many different coral covering the limestone walls that it was difficult to comprehend the diversity. Then I remembered we were smack in the midle of an area surveyed just a few years earlier by our friends, scientist Gerry Allen and Charlie Veron. Gerry, one of the world's foremost ichthyogogists, counted over 283 species of fish. Charlie, a renowned authority on corals, surveyed over 400 species of coral all living and multiplying within one small area of Irian's Raja Empat Islands.Rounding the point, five of us came face with a wall of fish: surgeons, jacks, and barracuda.Tunas dashed through the swirling mass, and blue and yellow fusiliers streamed through the scene. Here theb reef crest was swept clean; only a few hard corals and low growing filter feeders like tunicates and sponges carpeted the wall. The schools of fish in the current and mixed with each others, but kept their distance from us. The clear water tempted us to fight the current, but away from the reef, the swirling water sent our bubbles back over our heads in streaming curlicues, and one by one we were forced back to the boat.

as the Kararu team hauled our tanks and cameras on the deck, Tony asked, " so what did you see?" everyone answered in unison : " Fish and more fish;pygmy cuttlefish; huge anemones and soft corals!" To our utter dismay he replied " Great " smiled and uttered the four words photographers who have encountered a great spot hate to hear: " We'd better move on ." After all, We were here to chart new reefs, and Tony knew that if he were to give in now to the photographers, we would be stuck in the same spot for days.

Swimming the Equator
The ship headed northwest and anchored behind a cluster of island joined by a narrow stretch of a shallow coral. When the divemasters finally left the wheelhouse and camer down to the dive deck, they sported mischievous grins. We would not dive the reef closest to the boat, but rather another island, kawe straddles the equator, meaning we would have the opportunity to swim back and forth across the globe's great circle, the line that divides the world into northern and southern hemispheres.

In unison our dive group rolled backward beneath an undercut of limestone, and into a pulsing mass of baitfish. Everyone scattered just as a school of humphead parrotfish swam by, showering us with excreted sand. some of us followed our guide Lisa down the invertebrate-covered wall and toward a large, indistinct shadow.

About 20m east of Kawe we discovered a totally submerged seamount. Black corals and sea fans grew perpendicular to the steep sides of this undersea pinnacle and crinoids, smothered in anthias and damsefish, attached themselves to every available surface. Circumnavigating the seamount we ascended to within 15m of the surface and had plenty of time to explore its level top. We each picked a patch of reef and began hunting for bottom dwelling animals not normally found on the vertical walls we had been diving.

The roving eyes of a crocodilefish tipped us to its hidding place; while nearby, a leaf scorpionfish so thin it was almost transparent undulated in the current. Burt stopped to photograph a solar powered nudibranch grazing among the leather corals that grew on the crest of the seamount. Lisa hovered over a patch of Halimeda, a calcareous reef-building algae with thin, green water-like leaves that harboured many small marine animals. We swam over to investigate but could not see what had captured her attention. Yet when she prodded the algae whith her finger, a small clump of algae was actually a wondrous crab, no bigger than a thumbnail, whose body shape had evolved to mimic the green wafers of algae. To complete its disguise the crab had attached living bits of Halimeda to its rostrum.

Carefully we finned away from the seamount, back across the equator and toward the main island. As we crossed yhe sandy channel connecting the pinnacle to Kawe, flying shadows darkened the sea foor. We looked up and saw a small squadron of manta rays gliding overhead, sweeping plankton into their wide stretched mouths. There must be something special about Irian's creatures great and small rendezvous around the abundant oasis of life created beneath these scattered island.

A Night to Remember
It was late afternoon when we returned to the ship. On board we charged film and chatted about the reef. Graham, Kararu's head divemaster, wanted to know what we thought about the night diving potential around Kawe, when Sascha came over and reminded us that the chef had arranged a beach barbecue on a nearby island. The group settled on exploring the reef closest to the boat on a dusk dive instead.

Not much of a night diving aficionado, I had to be eccouraged to put on my wet dive suit again; but once the speedboat driver passed my camera over the side after I plunged into the darkening water, the otherworldly scene of the reef at dusk made my skin prickle with energy. Like colourful flying saucers, fire urchins complete with coleman's shrimp and zebra crabs whooshed over the mucky bottom. strange pipefish and exotic nudibranchs meandered beneath a fallen tree, which had been submergrd long enough to sprout soft corals whose branches were fully extended to catch the evening's bounty of plankton.

Spiralling our way upward and back to Kararu we were greeted by twilight's first stars glowing in the darkening sky. Then a dusky moving cloud swooped low and close to the ship. Bats! There were thousands of them leaving their daylight perches and flying away to forage on neighbouring islands. within a few minutes all the divers and crew had gathered on the foredeck to watch the bats and waited for the short ride over to the beach.

The glow from a huge bonfire lighted our way to the island, As soon as our feet touched the still warm, damp sand, Lisa led us down a path away from the bonfire light and cooking smells. Slowly our eyes adjust to the darkeness and we saw that the trees were overflowing with twinkling pinpoints of light. Lisa leaned over and whispered in my ear, " Kunang kunang - fireflies. " Sitting close together it seemed as if we were breathing in unison with the pulsing lights, as if each one of us was literally plugged into the planet. Heads tilted back we silently counted glimmering fireflies and reflected on this perfect day beneath Irian's rich seas.

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