WWF Coral Triangle Photo Expedition

A School in North Sulawesi

By Stella Chiu-Freund | Published: October 29, 2009

24 October 2009

We spent a most interesting day with Simone Gerritsen and her kids from her school Kehidupan Anda or “Your Life.” The goal of Project “Kehidupan Anda” is to improve the education of the children in the village Tongkeina and the surrounding villages.

3 year old Kehidupan Anda school's colorful facade

Three year old school Kehidupan Anda's colorful facade

We visited the school, which is a stone’s throw away from Thalassa Dive Center. We couldn’t believe our ears when Simone said the entire student body reached almost 400 kids from kinder to high school!

Kindergarten kids sing and dance for us

Simone Gerritsen with a high school class learning how to dive. Now where do you find a school in the village with diving as a required course???

Simone Gerritsen with a high school class taking a dive course. Now where do you find a school in a rural coastal village with diving as an elective???

School portrait with our big Panda flag. With a few hundred kids, our flag doesn't seem so big after all!

With Simone’s passion and pit bull ability to make mountains move, college scholarships have been found for three graduating students. Amazing. Now if we can help get the word out there that the school needs a language learning kit with headphones and the works! Anyone out there want to make a difference in a child’s life by helping them learn English? Please visit their Kehidupan Anda website and donate a language kit!

We went diving with six of the students and did a reef check in Bunaken Island. They had perfect bouyancy and were very good divers! I was very very impressed!

Simone explaining the color chart to determine coral health to Dince, one of the scholars going to college!

Excellent divers, these students perform reef check to a 20 meter transect in Bunaken reefs

A group photo with a beautiful jellyfish joining the pictorial

Our dive buddies and reef checkers posing with us and our little flag!

Lest we forget Thalassa Dive Center and all the staff and dive crew that run this top operation, here’s a group photo as well with our Panda flag, which is getting dirtier with every use. I don’t dare wash this amazing flag as the black parts of the Panda are embroidered to the white parts. I’d rather it get dirty than “hole-y.”

Simone's Thalassa staff and dive crew with the Freund Factory

We would like to thank our gracious Dutch hosts Ineke and Jan of The 4 Fish Guesthouse for our stay. It was a lovely visit, albeit too short.

Jan and Ineke rebuilt this lovely guesthouse from scratch

Posted in Coral Triangle, Coral reefs, Ecotourism, Indonesia, Marine conservation, North Sulawesi, Scuba Diving | Leave a comment

Funae Fishing Skipjack Tuna

By Stella Chiu-Freund | Published: October 29, 2009

23 October 2009

N1 45.136 E124 31.782 – Rakit

This day was a walk down memory lane. Eight years ago, when we were finalizing our shoot for our book Sulu Sulawesi Seas for WWF, we spent five midnights to mornings with the funae fishermen of Bunaken Island.

Their hard work started when they bought live anchovies in Tanawango in mainland Manado at midnight. When there were no anchovies to buy, they would catch their own live bait. The funae boat has a huge aquarium inside the boat’s main belly to keep the live bait. Later on this belly would be the holding area for their day’s catch.

: Ikan dili or anchovies will be thrown into the water boiling with tuna activity

Then, before sunrise, they would steam two to three hours to a rakit – a 2 x 2 meter floating pontoon manned by one person, which is a fish attracting devise or FAD, 40 to 60 kilometers away from the mainland in the open ocean. Some rakit would be farther still, you could hardly see Manado Tua on the horizon!

: Anchored 1.5 kilometers to the ocean floor, this Rakit has a lonely operator with nothing but the deep blue and a radio to keep him company

: This man’s job is to light 4 kerosene pump lamps at sunset and make sure it is lit until sunrise.

Out at sea with nothing but the lamps light to illuminate the water, skipjacks gather around the palm fronds at 16 meters.

: Quite freaky to dive the abyss. Lucky us the current was not pumping!

And before sunrise, the funae fishermen will be hard at work fishing!

: Not quite sunrise, these funae fishermen are on their way to another fishing ground

: Funae fishermen in full action after finding skipjack tuna near Manado Tua

: Care for a fresh tuna straight from the hook? Where’s our wasabi and Kikkoman when we need it?

: When all the bait is gone, the funae fishermen stop fishing and get their fish ready for selling to buyers from Manado auction market

Posted in Coral Triangle, Fisheries, Indonesia, North Sulawesi, Tuna | Leave a comment

Diving Bunaken and Mucking Around Manado

By Stella Chiu-Freund | Published: October 29, 2009

20 – 24 October 2009

N1 35.560 E124 46.199 – Bunaken Island

N1 34.532 E124 48.592 – Thalassa Dive Center

Off we went with the tireless Simone Gerritsen of Thalassa Dive Center in Manado to explore Bunaken and the surrounding islands as well as the under-appreciated mainland Manado. We knew to expect the steep wall dives of Bunaken National Park and the beautiful coral cover of Bunaken’s shallow reefs. Manado Tua beside Bunaken was equally grand.

Bunaken National Park's steep drop off to 1000 meters deep!

Manado Tua and the reef below the volcano

Our new Dutch friends Brigitte and Wil investigating a resting Green turtle in Bunaken

What we didn’t expect was how incredible the muck diving was in mainland Manado. A dive site called Popoo made us forget time again and wished we had more air. Two dives here were just not enough! It was too good! But the best part was, we didn’t expect it to be like Lembeh, or even be jokingly called “Bethlehem” – Better Than Lembeh!

Harlequin shrimps on a blue starfish

Shaggy, not quite hairy frogfish in hunting position

Our guide Bob was going berserk in our second Popoo dive when he found a mimic octopus. We spent quality time with the octopus, and when it was swimming away from us in flounder position, the unthinkable happened! Another mimic octopus came out of its hole and grabbed what we now think was the female. She tried to get away but the new ardent lover wouldn’t have any of that, and stayed on top of her for a good 10 minutes or more. It was UNBELIEVABLE!

Mating! Yes MATING mimic octopus!!!!!

Posted in Coral Triangle, Coral reefs, Ecotourism, Indonesia, Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Marine conservation, North Sulawesi, Scuba Diving | Leave a comment

The Batuna Family

By Stella Chiu-Freund | Published: October 29, 2009

18 October 2009

N1 27.604 E124 45.671 – Murex Dve Resort

About 15 years ago, Yogi dove and dove and dove for two straight months with Murex Dive Resort and Liveaboard in North Sulawesi. During this period, he contracted dengue fever and got a special visit from Murex’s very owner, the gentle, soft-spoken Dr. Batuna. His verdict was, “You’ll live.” So when Yogi indeed survived the ordeal, and he went diving again!

Dr. Hanny Batuna, the pioneer in diving North Sulawesi

Murex was founded in 1987 by Dr. Hanny Batuna and Mrs. Batuna. Dr. Hanny was a keen recreational diver and one of the first conservationists in the area. Their daughter, Angelique Batuna, followed in her father’s footsteps and worked as a Project Manager for WWF Indonesia on the Bunaken National Park Project.

Here are the second and third generation Batunas enjoying a day out on their doorstep, diving and swimming Bunaken National Park. Angelique and husband Danny Charlton have three beautiful children, Alexandra and twins Samantha and Andrew.

To continue with the family tradition, Danny and Angelique are the hardworking operators of Lembeh Divers in Lembeh Resort and the pioneering explorers of Buyat Bay.

Angelique with her children Samantha, Alexandra & Andrew

Angelique with the third generation Batuna/Carlton water babies

Mommy Angelique with eldest daughter 6 year old Lexa on her 4th dive!

Mommy Angelique with eldest daughter 8 year old Lexy on her 4th dive!

Posted in Coral Triangle, Coral reefs, Ecotourism, Indonesia, Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Marine conservation, North Sulawesi, Scuba Diving | 1 Comment

The Coral Reefs of Buyat Bay

By Stella Chiu-Freund | Published: October 29, 2009

15 – 17 October 2009

N0 50.831 E124 42.464

A relatively unknown dive destination not far from Lembeh is slowly getting its share of the limelight. Buyat Bay is about five hours from Manado located south of Lembeh. It used to be a gold mining operation that shut down recently. Now the mining facility’s skeleton staff are seeing a different face – the face of divers vs. that of miners.

Danny Charlton of Lembeh Divers insisted we include Buyat Bay in our North Sulawesi itinerary, and now we understand why he didn’t take no for an answer. It was a coral reef revelation!

Here are several images to show how different it was from Lembeh’s muck.