Diving Raja Ampat, Day 4
June 24, 2010 – 7:15 pm
A mixed day today. We headed out west to dive Melissas Garden and Anita’s garden, named after Max’s daughter and wife, respectively. Melissa’s Garden was a blaze of colour with thousands of smaller, colourful reef fish and many coral species I have never seen before. I also had the thrill of having a wobbegong shark swim right at me, eventually passing just underneath me. This is the first time I have seen one swimming, rather than lying half hidden, and on its own volition, instead of poked by a diver to make it move! Sadly the first part of the dive also revealed some dynamite fishing damage, despite it being a protected area.
Following the dive, we took the boat to a group of stunning karts limestone islands surrounding a lagoon. Awesome. then we moved towards dive no 2 at Anita’s Garden. However, en route, our dive guide, Luis, spotted a boat hidden on a small sandy beach. We pulled up and found on board the catch from dynamite fishing and some crude fertiliser bombs. The owners had fled into the island. We confiscated the boat and catch and called up the police on the radio. Success – if only it had been before the catch. We decided not to dive Anita’s in case the rogue fishermen had another boat and more bombs! We didn’t want to be the next casualties!
Instead we stopped and dived around a tiny stack island where the corals were splendid and the reef life vibrant…. despite more evidence on one side of dynamite fishing.
