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.

The latest issue of Wetpixel Quarterly has just shipped, with this edition featuring the work of Alex Kirkbride, who undertook a three-year project to photograph the waters of America’s 50 states, plus the winners of the 2008 Our-World Underwater and DEEP Indonesia photo competitions.

In addition, Christopher Bahnsen writes about a colony of up to 100 large green turtles that have managed to thrive in San Diego Bay, one of the busiest harbours in the world.

More information at the Wetpixel Quarterly site.

Five divers from the UK have gone missing in Komodo after a drift dive.  Read more…

We know you’re suffering withdrawal symptoms. It’s been an entire two months since you’ve had your last injection of FiNS. Life’s been uneventful, routine, dreary…altogether just too predictable.

Never fear. Just like Toyota’s vaunted just-in-time manufacturing system, the newest issue of FiNS Magazine is out now…just in time to prevent sanity from settling in.

Speaking of insanity, our beloved Gadget Guru took a vacation recently, so instead of featuring one of his illuminating(?) experiments in this issue, we tagged along and documented the many mishaps events that transpired when he decided to visit the offices of Scubapro in Hong Kong. Suffice it to say that they’re still recovering (Come to think of it, so are we.).

Also in this issue, our contributors introduce you to classy cardinalfish and pretty pygmy seahorses, and also take you to visit Bali, Yap and a wreck dive near Bangkok. And in our popular PixTips column, we show you how to analyse and learn from prize-winning photographs picked from the recent UnderwaterCompetition.com contests.

Obviously, there’s much, much more in this issue, but we’re tired of writing now, so grab your copy (or download it from our website or from iTunes.) and immerse yourself in this issue’s madness.

We’ll be at TDEX from 15 to 18th May, so if you’re in Bangkok, drop by to say hello (and bring snacks please). After the show, we’re taking off for a dive trip and ignoring all responsibilities, so don’t expect any answers to emails through the end of the month.

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! 

Legislators in Taiwan are considering requiring shark fin restaurants to warn consumers that shark fins often contain levels of mercury considered hazardous to human health, and also having the Department of Health print posters to let consumers know that eating shark fins can reduce intelligence. Read more…

It’s nice to have a happy ending. The missing divers in Taiwan have been rescued. Story via AFP: Read more…

Eight divers in Taiwan went missing this weekend. A massive search is underway. Story below via Taipei Times. Read more…

Realising that his beloved Suunto D9 and Mac computer were having communication issues, Singapore-based Kiwi Nick Shore created MacDive, a free application to help the two get along.

Nick says: “There wasn’t an application that had the functionality I wanted or the look and feel of a Mac application, and I thought it would be easiest to just start from scratch and make the exact app I wanted. Plus, this way I could make it free. I worked on MacDive in my spare time after work. It’s been a real labour of love. I know there are many divers who are also Mac users and who, like me, have been frustrated with the lack of options available for Macs. I hope MacDive will help make them happy.”

While developing MacDive, a number of divers in Singapore loaned him their Suuntos for testing. As a result, the application is currently compatible with the D9, D6, D3, Cobra, Cobra 2, Vyper, Vyper 2, Gekko, Vytec and Mosquito.

Nick plans to continue developing MacDive, adding support for more dive computer brands as well as additional functionality, and he’s keen to receive user feedback on where to take the application next.

At the same time, Nick is working on a project with two programmers and divers from Belgium and Canada to make it easier to develop applications for the majority of dive computers on the market.”First things first, though. I’ve got to get in the water and do some testing of my own!”

MacDive is available for free download at: http://thedoorisajar.org/macdive