By Marit Miners

I know you're all dying for news, but I'll have to keep this brief. I promise to make it up to you with plenty of drool-worthy new photos!

We've had some spectacular dives in the past few weeks with multiple manta rays, unidentified nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish, sargassum frog fish, mandarin fish on the house reef, and up to six walking epaulette sharks on one night dive. Visibility has been variable, but all the plankton in the water has boded well for sighting bigger stuff.

We continue to see massive clouds of bait fish and swarms of mobula rays, hunting in packs of 12-18 individuals. And we continue to explore new dive sites. I'm looking forward to taking guests to a gorgeous pinnacle Andrew and I surveyed close to Yillet. We were accompanied for a large part of the dive by a rather large and curious grey reef shark. We also saw what surely must be the biggest napoleon wrasse in the Southern hemisphere..

We're now well into our fifth group of guests, and we've enjoyed meeting lots of keen divers, conservationists, photographers, and adventurers. It's also been nice to welcome back some old friends!

photo by Stephen Frink

Pak Ai, Paul, and Francis

Amongst our visitors were Paul and Francis, who appeared one windy day on the horizon, sailing a yacht from Darwin, Australia. They had the foresight (ha!) to bring 1200 pairs of cast-off eyeglasses with them, and a little vision testing kit. They tested about 30 members of our staff and then returned the following morning with donated reading and long-distance glasses for anyone who needed them.

Francis and Bebe

Shawn, Peter, and Nassir

We also hosted Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid, and filmmaker Shawn Heinrichs of BlueSphere Media. If you're not yet familiar with WildAid, they take an unusually pragmatic approach to stopping illegal wildlife trade. Their tactic is to end the demand for wildlife products.

You've probably seen their visually arresting public service announcements on television, broadcast world-wide and delivered by celebrities like Harrison Ford, Jackie Chan, Minnie Driver, and Yao Ming. During the Beijing olympics, they engaged the services of Chinese celebrities and athletes to deliver anti-shark finning messages, chipping away at the social status traditionally associated with shark fin soup.

Peter, Shawn, Andrew, and Nassir, a member of our staff and former shark finner, set off in a rickety old fishing boat, chasing down suspected shark finners in the area. Well, 'chasing down' might not be the best choice of words. It wasn't the speediest of vessels!

The crew of the boat were an interesting bunch. I enjoyed hearing their tale of being caught fishing illegally in Australian waters. They reported that they quite enjoyed the incarceration. It was comfortable and easy and they got to eat chicken every day. Best of all, they got sent back home on an airplane. They're only complaint was that the prison guards refused to let them out on their last night to visit an Australian disco.

I spent a couple days at sea with the group, and was very happy for the chance to discuss WildAid's conservation projects and how they might dovetail with our own Misool Ranger Project. And hopefully we'll see some of Shawn's magnificent footage from the trip soon!

sunset

Lots of new photos for you to feast your eyes on. I've just updated our gallery page with some new albums, including new images from renowned underwater photographers Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock of Secret SeaVisions. I've also added albums documenting our construction. I thought this might come in handy, as many of the guests visiting MER from passing live-aboards simply don't believe we've built our whole resort from salved hardwoods. Click here to see the new albums. Also, some of our guests have started posting their own photos from their visit to Misool Eco Resort. Click here to see Dominic's, and here to see Gregory's.

Please also note our last minute booking deal! We have a couple of spaces available for our special 12-night trip starting December 14th. Book now and you'll get a 25% discount! Don't dilly-dally, as I expect these will be snatched up right away. Email us to make your reservation.

And last but not least, I'm happy to announce that our German website has finally been overhauled (thanks Sara!!). And we've also got a brand new Polish page (thanks Kasia!!)