11 October 2009: Mantas, new transport vessel, awards, and more mantas...
By Marit Miners
Hi there folks! We've just reopened for our new season after the South Monsoon. We closed the resort in mid-June and spent several months renovating and improving the resort. It's so nice to have guests again! We've been open just one week, and already there are so many exciting things to tell you... where to start? Manta rays, new transport boat, awards, hunting mobulas...
If you've been following us on Twitter or Facebook, you've already heard a bit about the action on our House Reef last month. I arrived back on Batbitim in mid-September, and on the 19th, all the staff, save one mechanic and our office-angel Ina, went back to their villages to celebrate Idul Fitri. I was enjoying the solitude, having stationed myself on the new terrace next to the restaurant Thorben had built over the summer with only my iPod for company. I was planting pots full of mint and lavender whilst belting out Beach Boys songs when I looked north towards Fiabacet and noticed a disturbance in the water just in front of the House Reef, not more than 50 metres from Water Cottage 5. At first I thought the small dark fins were some unusual sort of dolphins passing by. But when I looked up again about 10 minutes later, the fins were still there.... My curiosity piqued, I grabbed my snorkel gear and plunged into the water. The top few meters of water was thick with clouds of tiny, pulsating orange jellyfish, and visibility was no more than 5 metres. I approached the mystery-fins with a little twinge of trepidation, raising my head above the water to keep track of where they were... and then suddenly they became visible under water. Three GIANT MANTA rays, feeding on the tiny jellyfish on the surface!
I approached them cautiously, not wanting to scare them off. But they paid me no mind, as they were so busy gorging themselves on the salp-soup. They maintained a steady formation, circling on the surface with the largest individual in front. She was easily 3.5 metre across, and followed closely by a much smaller tail-less one, no more than 1.5 m across. The big one's mouth was so massive that I could have easily fit inside, had I curled myself into the fetal position. The third one was medium sized, and frequently meandered away from the pair. Once my initial shock had worn off a bit, I invited them to play. As the first of the group approached me headfirst on the surface, I dove down below her. She responded by diving down as well, deeper, faster and infinitely more elegant than I. I repeated the same movements on her next fly-by, and this time she dove down and then performed the most elegant barrel roll. That's when my brain started piping in 'Ride of the Valkyries...' We repeated the interaction over and over, and neither one of us got bored of the other. After an hour and a half, night was falling and I was too cold to keep swimming. This encounter was so thrilling, and I felt very lucky indeed to have had the mantas all to myself. I later realised that the only other time I've had the island so nearly to myself was Idul Fitri in 2006, when it was just Andrew and me, alone in a construction site. That was the day we got engaged, with just piles of rebar and sacks of cement and some passing hornbills for company...
Pak Din		The following afternoon, Pak Din hooted from the end of the pier, followed by a bellowing 'Falaya!' which is the Misool language word for MANTA! We grabbed our gear and jumped in. This time, the water was full of the usual suspects, the tiny stingless orange jellyfish. They were accompanied by what looked like krill detritus. Din and I were visited by 4 medium sized mantas, and at least two of the individuals were ones I hadn't seen the day before. Much to my amusement, Din stuck to me like glue, always just over my right shoulder and never more than a meter or two behind. He told me later he was very scared - he had never been so near a manta before. I found this especially endearing, because Din is one of the most fearless people I know. I've witnessed him wielding a 90 cm chainsaw in bare feet, navigating a skittery dugout canoe through the roiling South Monsoon waves. He also spent several years diving (sans BCD, dive computer, or any semblance of safety training) for sea cucumbers in northern Raja Ampat, and thanks to some coursework with our instructor Sangut, he is now a very competent diver. Just like the day before, the mantas stayed on the surface, cruising back and forth for upwards of an hour before gliding away.
In total, I snorkeled with the mantas on our House Reef 5 times in one week. When the staff returned from their holiday, I asked them if they had seen any other mantas. They reported that they had spotted several mantas in the channel at the end of the pier, at least 5 or 6 times since August! The mantas seem to have moved on - this morning Sangut and our divers spotted 5 of them at Eagles Nest! Our first guests of the new season have also been treated to some incredibly fishy diving. Swarms of mobula rays have been seen on several dive sites, all hunting huge shoals of baitfish. Of course, bigger pelagics have been eager to get in on the action as well - giant travelly, schools of bonito, great barracuda, black tip and grey reef sharks....
And for a bit of non-diving related news...we've been shortlisted for the Virgin Holidays Responsible Travel Awards! These awards are the most prestigious and competitive of their kind in the world. It's a collaboration between on-line travel directory www.responsibletravel.com, UK media partners The Daily Telegraph and Geographical Magazine, and the World Travel Market. Hundreds of operators were nominated, and 140 were long-listed in August. We entered a long questionnaire and provided several recommendations. The shortlist is now down to 35 competitors, and the winners will be announced on World Responsible Tourism Day on November 11 in London. We're so thrilled to be recognised for our efforts, and bolstered by the knowledge that there are lots of similar-minded people out, enough to warrant a high-profile competition. Keep your fingers crossed for us on November 11! (You can download the press release here.)
In other great news, we've finally found a fantastic solution to our transport woes. As many of you will recall, we've had some serious trials and tribulations with Lumba-Lumba, our jet boat. Last season, we were forced to hire some far-from-ideal speed boats to transport our guests to and from Sorong, as Lumba-Lumba resisted our best efforts at rehabilitation. Last month, we hosted the Bupati of Raja Ampat, who is a bit like the governor of Raja Ampat, and Pak Yusdi, the head of Raja Ampat's Tourism Department. They and their entourage were very excited to finally see Misool Eco Resort with their own eyes. And of course, we and our staff felt very honoured to host them!
	After some lengthy discussions about how they could help promote tourism in Raja Ampat, they very kindly offered us the use of their brand new speed boat, Marandan. She's a 14 meter long beauty, built in Jakarta earlier this year. She's equipped with 20 comfy seats in an air-conditioned cabin, a proper toilet, 3x250 horsepower engines on the back (the quiet ones!), and all the safety equipment you could hope for. And perhaps best of all, she can make the journey in just over four hours. Terima kasih banyak Kabupatan Raja Ampat dan Raja Ampat Dinas Pariwisata! Some of you may recall that last December, we hosted Peter Scoones, the Emmy Award-winning underwater videographer famous for his work on iconic documentaries such as 'The Blue Planet' and 'Planet Earth.' Peter and his wife Georgette joined us for a few sweet weeks while were filming on our House Reef to capture the spawning cycle of the anenome fish for the new BBC series 'Life.' After four years in the making, the 10-part series hosted by David Attenborough will finally debut in the UK on Monday, October 12th at 21:00. The portion filmed on our House Reef will air on Monday November 2nd, complete with obliging shoals of jacks cruising around in the background. The House Reef makes a second appearance on the Marine Invertebrates section, which airs on 30th November. Big thanks also to Daniel Brinckmann, whose 10-page article about Raja Ampat and Misool Eco Resort appears in this month's Unterwasser magazine. Click here to view a PDF of the article in German.
And last but not least, if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to have a look at our new promotional video. Shawn Heinrichs has, yet again, captured some incredible footage on the reefs around Misool Eco Resort. Click here to go the the Media page.