TravelConservation

Field chapters — No. I

Chapter I — Raja Ampat, Indonesia · 1°52′S 130°03′E

The reef that came
back from the dead.

In 2005, the island of Batbitim was a shark-finning camp. The sharks were going. The reef was going with them. — Misool Foundation

Chart of the seas around Misool: Halmahera, Seram and the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea, with Misool marked at its true position and the boat route south from Sorong. 0° 2°S 130°E 134°E Batbitim — shark-finning camp, 2005 Misool — the reef in this story four hours south of Sorong, by boat Sorong Halmahera Seram Bird’s Head · New Guinea Seram Sea 100 km
Chart generalized from Natural Earth 1:110m — coastlines are coarse at this scale; Misool is smaller than the pin that marks it, and marked at its true position.
Aerial view over the Piaynemo karst islets and turquoise channels of Raja Ampat

2005

From the air, it looked untouched. Underwater, it was being emptied — dynamite on the reef, cyanide in the lagoons.

Photo: Rolandandika, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

the turn

What turned it around.

  1. 2005

    Two divers, Andrew and Marit Miners, anchor at Batbitim island and find the finning camp.

  2. the deal

    They lease the waters from the villages that own them. The lease pays the villages to keep the reef wild. The fishing stops.

  3. the guards

    Eighteen rangers, hired from those same villages, start patrolling — about a thousand patrols a year, across water bigger than Hong Kong.

  4. now

    Visitor money does what fishing money used to: it pays the villages. The difference is the reef keeps its fish.

— Misool Foundation

Shallow hard-coral reef seen from just below the surface, Raja Ampat

below the waterline

This is what they’re guarding.

Photo: Akbar Raf, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

sixteen years of patrols later

The fish came back.
So did the sharks.

121,400 hectares
of sea where no one fishes — Indonesia’s largest no-take zone Misool Foundation
+248%
more fish in the water than in 2007, measured by weight Misool Foundation reef monitoring, 2007–2021
+190%
more sharks on the reef than in 2012 Misool Foundation reef monitoring, 2012 to now

We read the monitoring reports before we wrote a word of this page. If we couldn’t verify the work, it wouldn’t be here.

Telaga Bintang lagoon ringed by jagged limestone karst, Raja Ampat

how you can help

Stay at Misool.
Fund the patrols.

There’s a small lodge on Batbitim — the same island that was the finning camp. It pays for all of it: the lease, the rangers, the patrols. The trip is the conservation.

Book a stay at Misool — Batbitim Island, Raja Ampat

Photo: Caka Komsary, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons