(Please note, keywords are highlighted with further information and my Trip advisor reports)

All the images below, are uncropped frame grabs from our 4K film stock

shot on this trip.

A huge thanks to our amazing dive guide Opel, at Two Fish Divers, Lembeh for finding and sharing his knowledge of the wonderful critters that we managed to capture for our RAW 4K video stock footage.

Our highlights were Bluering Octopus mating, Cowfish Courting, Clown fish with eggs where we were even able to film the eyes and hearts beating in the eggs( to complete the story of our existing footage of hatching clown fish eggs) and the newborn's.

We also saw Pygmy Seahorses, a huge Shame Faced Box Crab (Calappa spp) releasing thousands of its eggs into the ocean in a cloud, fertilized Squid eggs, a Bobtail squid covering itself with sand in disguise, Bobbit worm catching a fish, Cuttlefish hunting, a tiny Sea horse braving the raging current, a Peacock Mantis shrimp attacking the camera and loads of other fantastic behaviour and unusual critters in extreme macro.

We spent almost 4 weeks in the water here, diving 4 times a day and managed to capture so many little stories. The water temperature, weather and currents fluctuated quite a bit, but each change brought new critters.

Our filming gear worked overtime, but did not disappoint. Our RED Dragon, with Canon lens, in a Nauticam housing and our BlackMagic Production Camera with Canon lens, also in a Nauticam housing, performed seamlessly. It is so important to have reliable well built equipment in environments like this. Our 7 inch Dive and SEE monitors also made life easy when having to manually focus all the time as the critters moved around in the current.

Our hard working *Keldan Video lights* made day and night filming so easy, even when plankton clouded the lights at night.

The aerial footage was all shot with a DJI Inspire RAW carrying a Zenmuse X5R camera.

Thanks to Mark and Bev, the managers at Two Fish Divers, Lembeh and all the staff for a wonderful dive experience. A special thanks to Mark for arranging a search and recovery exercise and finding my macro lenses that I lost on a dive.

Tips:

1. We can highly recommend Two Fish Dives, Lembeh.

2.Bring plenty of bug repellent

3.Two Fish divers will efficiently arrange all your transfers and pickups

4. Drinking water is free and readily available at the Resort.

5. Ensure you have a power surge plug protector to protect your charging electronics, as there are power fluctuations.

6. Two fish divers are conveniently located, so one is able to charge batteries ect between dives, as the boat returns to the resort.

7. Free WiFi is functional and available at the resort.

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All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.

We have just completed a short Showcase Film for the Raja Ampat SEA Centre that covers all the FANTASTIC work they have done to date and will hopefully assist with fund raising and sponsorship for the mammoth task ahead of them.

The Raja Ampat SEA Centre, is based at the stunning Papua Explorers Dive Resort, in the midst of the Dampier Strait, in West Papua, Indonesia, which places them slap bang in the heart of the Coral Triangle.

During the late 1990's and early 2000, Raja Ampat was the scene of many illegal and destructive fishing methods like dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and Shark finning. In 2000, Conservation International, along with the Indonesian Government and local communities, managed to put an end to these practices, by establishing marine parks and protected areas, but the long term damage to the coral reef structures had already been done.

For the past 2 years, the SEA Centre team have been working hard, researching and developing methods for reef stabilization and restoration. At the same time, the local community have been eagerly participating in training to be Coral Gardeners and building, positioning and populating the test site with over 5000 coral fragments. All of this has been undertaken with the support of Conservation International, KEHATI Indonesian Biodiversity Conservation Trust and Kabupaten Raja Ampat Regional Council.

24 months down the line and over 500m2 of coral reef, in the waters directly in front of the resort, have been successfully restored.

What Now?

Work has just started on replicating this successful pilot project, in front of the village of Arborek, where the villagers themselves will be doing the majority of the rehabilitation. This restoration will take place over the next 24 months or so.

What then?

Well, would you believe that the Raja Ampat SEA Centre's long term goal is to restore a 500 hectare portion of reef over the next 5 to 10 years. Looking at what they have achieved so fer, we feel that this is well within their ability, should funding become available.