SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — July 4th, 2008 — Conservation International, The Coral Reef Alliance, and Wetpixel.com have announce the 2009 Raja Ampat Entrance Tag Design Contest.

If you have the perfect photo that captures the excitement and beauty of Raja Ampat diving, enter the 2009 contest for a chance to have your image printed on the 4,000 park tags that will be attached BCDs of visiting divers!

In addition, the first place winner will receive a 7-day, 6-night, all-inclusive dive trip* to Raja Ampat’s original eco-resort at Kri, kindly donated by Papua Diving. (*excludes airfares)

2nd and 3rd place winners will receive a fabulous book about Raja Ampat by 10 of the world’s leading underwater photographers.

To enter the contest, submit up to 2 photos or graphic designs per contestant before midnight on Thursday, August 28, 2008. After finalists are chosen, you — the public — will vote for the best image or design until September 25, 2008. Winners will be announced on October 1, 2008.

For rules and submission details, please visit:
http://wetpixel.com/raja

For more information about Raja Ampat, visit:
http://www.diverajaampat.org.

Scubacam Singapore is organising an informal underwater photography outing at Kasawari Lembeh Resort. Superb accommodation and photography facilities will be offered for all participants. 

Special invited guest will be Tony Wu, who will be available for discussions about photo techniques, tips, and advice. David Cheung and Sanah Z of Scubacam will be there to provide technical advice on equipment and maintenance.

Scubacam prizes will be offered for the best three photos taken during the week.

The trip is planned for March 2009, exact dates to be finalised.

For more information, contact Scubacam. To read more about Tony’s most recent visits to Lembeh, see the following posts here and here on his blog.

When you think of muck diving destinations, Sihanoukville, Cambodia probably doesn’t jump to mind.

But according to an email we received from FiNS readers who recently visited and dived the area, there are many undiscovered reefs and and abundance of marine life just a couple of hours offshore.

During an an 80-minute dive at a site called the Corral, they saw: nine Hippocampus kuda seahorses, including two beautiful juveniles; Chaetoderma penicilligera (leafy or weedy filefish); ocellated (spotted) octopuses (which seemed to be in every other clam shell); a pipefish that looked like Acentronura gracilissima (graceful or bastard seahorse); Cephaloscyllium umbratile (30cm juvenile balloon or swell shark, often found in Japan but uncommon in the Indochina Sea); sting rays; dragonets; and a number of nudibranchs: Bornella stellifer, Pteraeolidia ianthina, Thecacera pennigera, and various Chromodoris.

They dived with the Dive Shop, located on the road to Serendipity Beach, right next to the well-known the Monkey Republic Bar, Restaurant and Guesthouse. The Dive Shop’s guides, Bora, Shina and Paul, were on hand to help them spot all the little critters.

If you’re interested in looking further into diving Cambodia, here’s some general information that the divers passed along to us: “Accommodation ranges from 8-15 USD, food costs 2-3 USD per meal (try the Cambodian Lok Lak, it’s tasty!), and Anchor Beer costs 1 USD per bottle in the bar (0.75 cents at happy hour). A day trip for diving runs about 50 USD for two dives. And lastly, there’s plenty to do in the beach town when you’re not diving…cool beach bars, wooden huts with hammocks, music clubs, and even a couple of casinos to keep anyone entertain.”If anyone else heads over there, drop us an email and let us know more.

In 2006, Misool Eco Resort helped to create a Marine Protected Area in Raja Ampat encompassing 200 sq km of sea surrounding the resort. Hook- and line-fishing, dynamite- and cyanide-fishing, long-lining, netting, shark finning, harvesting turtle eggs and other similar activities are prohibited in the MPA.

The good news is that local villages and government support these measures. The bad news is that non-local commercial fishing enterprises aren’t as conservation-minded.

To address the need to patrol the boundaries of the MPA, the resort is raising funds for the Misool Ranger Project in conjunction with French charity Precious Planet. For every 50 Euros donated to the Misool Ranger Project, donors will be entered into a lucky draw for a free stay at Misool Eco Resort.

The deadline for entry is 1 August, so contribute to a good cause and secure your chance to win a free stay at the resort!

For more information, click here.

Following is a statement we just received from Komodo regarding the missing divers, now found:

Five divers were found alive today more than 40 hours after they were reported missing in Komodo National Park.

The three British nationals, Charlotte Allin, James Manning and locally-based dive-master Kathleen Mitchinson, and an unidentified Swedish woman and Frenchman, were discovered on the beach on the south of Komodo Island near Tanjung Manta at 11.10 am (Bali time) by Pt. Putri Naga Komodo’s speedboat Cakalang.

All divers, who were first reported missing at 5.30pm on Thursday evening (5 June 2008), were reportedly in remarkably good condition after their ordeal and a medical team from Labuan Bajo, the gateway to the park, is heading toward the site to rendezvous with the speedboat.

The Park is considered one of the world’s premier dive sites but is also home to some of the swiftest and most unpredictable currents and undertows on the planet. Ironically, these fierce currents, a constant concern for divers here, are at least partly responsible for Komodo’s famously rich abundance of marine life.

Three cheers for the search and rescue team!!!

Another update to follow as soon as the divers reach Labuan Bajo.

Sam’s Tours in Palau reports that Palau has banned the live reef fish industry, thanks in no small part to the hard work of Sam’s Tours.

In case you’re not aware, the live reef fish you see in tanks in restaurants around Asia come from all over the world, and catching the fish involves highly destructive fishing practices such as the use of cyanide. In short, it’s an unsustainable practice that caters to wealthy urban residents at the expense of reefs and the long-term welfare of local populations.

Kudos to Palau, and to the efforts of Sam’s Tours to address this issue! 

Authorities and divers in Phuket are preparing to create what might become one of the most popular wreck-centric dive sites in the region, if not the world.

On 5 May 2008, participating parties will sink four Douglas C-47 Dakota transport planes used during the Vietnam and Korean Wars, as well as six Sikorsky S-58T helicopters. This will take place in an area with a sandy bottom, one kilometre outside of Bang Tao Bay. The dive site created by these wrecks will cover 2,500 square metres, with depths ranging between 15 and 20 metres.

Of course, all the wrecks are being properly cleaned and prepared for sinking. Participants believe that this endeavour will attract thousands of divers a year to the area.

The project involves cooperation among multiple parties, including: Phuket Provincial Governor’s Office, Cheng Tale Sub-District Administrative Organization, Tourism and Sport Authority of Phuket, Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation Office Center 4 (Phuket), Thailand Diving Association (TDA), and For Sea Foundation.

FiNS Associate Editor Tony Wu has just posted a story about his recent trip to swim with adorable Australian sea lions in Western Australia. Read more here. 

During a recent dive at Laha in Ambon Bay, divemaster Toby Fadirsyair and Maluku Divers’ owner Buck Randolph found this unusual fish. Toby, who has been diving the region for over 18 years, had previously only seen this fish once before, 15 years ago. The specimen pictured here is one of a pair and is about 10cm long.

Unable to identify the frogfish, Maluku Divers enlisted help from photographers Beth and Shaun Tierney, who were equally fascinated, but unable to ID the critter.

Maluku Divers has sent these images to fish experts around the world, and is seeking your help to identify this frogfish. If you’ve seen this fish before and/ or can help identify it, please contact Maluku Divers