March 6, 2004
The Guardian
It's got more types of fish than the Great Barrier Reef, and it's working hard to keep them. John Aglionby opens our Asia special at the award-winning Bunaken National Marine Park, an oasis for divers and a blueprint for sustainable tourism.

December 6, 2003 Tomorrow's world The London Daily Telegraph Travel Supplement Full res version - 250 Ko A marine park has won Britain's highest honour for responsible tourism. Tim Ecott went to Bunaken Island in Indonesia to meet the people behind it Each morning, Christiane Muller bathes in buckets of cold water brought over from the mainland, an hour's boat ride away. For 11 years she has lived without running water and with only intermittent electricity on the Indonesian island of Bunaken, off the northern tip of the larger island of Sulawesi. Her home is a simple wooden cottage at Froggies, the resort where she works as a diving instructor. It is the kind of lifestyle hundreds of young Europeans enjoy at diving resorts around the world, but Christiane only became an instructor in her early 50s. This month she celebrates her 65th birthday. Her story and the fate of the island are closely intertwined. "My husband died very young," she explained on the veranda overlooking the bay, as she sipped green tea and smoked an endless succession of cigarettes. "I was going crazy at home in France and my son persuaded me to go on holiday with him to the Caribbean. He challenged me to try scuba diving, but I wasn't keen, and he accused me of being scared - so naturally I had to do it. As soon as I got underwater and saw the fish I felt I had come home." After training as an instructor, Christiane found work on Bunaken, where she is known to everyone as Ibu - an Indonesian term for "mother" signifying great respect. Since she began living on the island she has been a key figure in the North Sulawesi Watersports Association, a forum for local diving operators to collaborate on measures to protect the surrounding coral reefs. Their efforts, and those of many local people, were recognised this week when Bunaken National Marine Park was named overall winner in the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. But while recognition is useful, this is about passion, not prizes. "I will fight till my last breath to save this place," said Christiane quietly. "The fish here are my friends." Bunaken and the four nearby islands that form the marine park are home to about 30,000 people, most of them traditional fishermen and farmers whose lives have always depended on the sea. For many years, some of the fishermen used sticks of dynamite to catch fish, unaware of the destruction the explosions were wreaking on the fragile coral system beneath their boats. From Christiane's balcony I could see the shadowy, mountainous peaks of the mainland across the straits. At night there are the glittering lights of Manado, a sprawling port with a population of half a million. Ethnic Chinese businessmen there will pay £150 for a live grouper or Napoleon wrasse, large reef fish that can fetch £10,000 in Hong Kong or Taiwan as delicacies at wedding banquets. The Napoleon wrasse is particularly prized, its thick lips regarded as a delicacy to offer up to guests of honour. To secure these fish, the businessmen buy fishermen new outboard engines and diving equipment with which to plunder the reef. Technically, the waters of Bunaken have been a Marine National Park since 1991, but under the corrupt regime of General Suharto it was merely a "paper park" with virtually no enforceable regulation. Under the current president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, things have improved. Indonesia has liberalised and decentralised its government and, in 2000, Bunaken National Park was given permission to set its own entrance fees. More importantly, and for the first time in Indonesia, a park management board was set up to administer 80 per cent of the fees. Central and provincial government share the remainder, happy to be receiving new income. One third of the money raised is guaranteed in cash to the 22 villages located on the five islands that make up the park. The idea of sharing tourist revenues with local communities is not new: it happens in African safari parks and in many developing countries where environmentalists have learnt that simply proclaiming areas out of bounds to the local people doesn't work. In Bunaken, local communities are already spending the money collected from foreign scuba divers and Indonesian day-trippers who come to snorkel and sunbathe. Local people pay about 20p to visit the park, foreigners about £12. Scuba divers buy a numbered tag that allows them to return any number of times within one year. On the neighbouring island of Manado Tua, the villagers of Bualo were keen to show me the cement track they had built with last year's park grant. "Before, it was very difficult for the women to carry their supplies to and from the market during the monsoon season," explained Reinhart Paat, a local park official. "The villagers have said that, with next year's money, they want to extend the track along the coast towards the next village." Other practical schemes sponsored by the board include free breast cancer screening for village women, and scholarships for students of marine studies at the local polytechnic in Manado. Crucially, most of the park's income goes towards patrols to monitor boating activity around the islands. Several people have been arrested for poaching and dynamite fishing since the park board was established three years ago. The coastline and reefs around the islands have been divided into zones - some for fishing, some for diving and some where no activities at all are allowed. Villagers are already reporting healthier fish populations. Underwater, the evidence for how well the park management scheme is working becomes clear. The reefs are a twitching, crawling, swaying, surging forest of corals, giant barrel sponges, gorgonians, crustacea and fish. Diving beside a sheer coral wall, I looked outwards into a featureless blue chasm that stretched 5,000ft into the abyss. This area is home to dolphins and sharks, killer whales and even dugongs (a type of sea mammal, like a benign, toothless walrus). Recently some divers even met a sperm whale ascending from the depths close to one of the reef walls. I turned away from the dizzying blue and concentrated on the wall. Within minutes I had seen three species of nudibranch - snails without shells, whose external lungs flutter upright from their backs like streaming banners. One snail was pure black with bright green pustular knobbles all over its body, another covered in tiny golden speckles as if spray-painted with Christmas-card glitter. The third was smaller, an inch or so long, with a blue body and feelers tipped with crimson; they glowed red, as bright as brake lights at dusk. Here I saw coral fringed with green, orange and blue, crinoids (sea lilies) with curling yellow fronds and, 100ft below the surface, a sea fan extending its delicate cotton-bud fingers into the current. Opo, my dive guide, beckoned me close. There, almost invisible among the vein-like branches and holding on with its minuscule tail, was a pygmy seahorse. I froze in mid-water, mesmerised by its immaculate form. Hippocampus bargibanti lacks the prominent extended "snout" of other species and has a tiny body covered in protuberances that exactly mimic the polyps of the sea fan branches. I was bewitched. Moby Dick might have been swimming up from the depths behind me for all I cared. Just a few inches from my face, a second seahorse twitched on its perch. Had it not moved, I would never have seen it against the sea fan. Objects always look larger underwater, and I held up a finger to gauge the creature's size. The pygmy's body was shorter than the top joint of my little finger. Park fees alone cannot protect Bunaken. Crucial support has also been given by the Manado city government, the regional government of North Sulawesi and most of the region's diving schools. Dr Mark Erdmann, an American marine biologist, has committed funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) - but this, worth $100,000 (£58,000) a year, is to be withdrawn in 2004. "Sadly," Erdmann explained at his office in Manado, "our new regional director feels environmental projects aren't a priority. We are hoping that a charity or another environmental agency might step in to help out." As in most countries labelled "Islamic", tourist numbers have fallen since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In October last year, Indonesia suffered its own outrage with the Bali bombing, and publicity about Sars further weakened the appeal of South-east Asia. In the face of all this, Erdmann remains positive. "Even though foreign visitors were scared away from Indonesia in huge numbers, the park is working," he said. "Sure, there are still some problems, but this country is really trying to address the ghastly environmental mistakes of the past." North Sulawesi has undoubtedly suffered from the negative publicity about Indonesia as a whole. Many British tour operators have discouraged divers from making the journey to Manado, even though the area is predominantly Christian and has been free of ethnic unrest and fundamentalist activity. A glance at the Foreign Office website is enough to put off all but the most hardened. It baldly advises against "all non-essential travel to Indonesia". At the Tasik Ria resort outside Manado, I met Mike Atkinson, a British diving instructor from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, who was on his second visit. He had brought a dozen members from his club to Bunaken to dive the reefs. "We weren't worried about coming here and this place is outstanding," he remarked. "Our members like the idea of paying towards keeping the reefs in good health. I'll definitely be back." It is the reefs that make Bunaken special. Surrounded by oceanic trenches where deep-water currents flush the coral walls with cooler water and nutrients, they are immensely rich in marine life. A recent study by the International Oceanographic Institute found that Bunaken Park is home to more than 390 species of hard coral. The Great Barrier Reef, by comparison, has 318. Some coral experts believe the waters off North Sulawesi are the epicentre of what marine scientists call the "Golden Triangle", formed by Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Here, there are more species of coral, sponges, fish and invertebrates than anywhere else. Biodiversity brings strength. In 1998, marine biologists were dismayed by the effects of El Nino, the warming of the eastern tropical Pacific that occurs every few years. Coral, always vulnerable to fluctuations in water temperature and quality, began to turn white, a phenomenon known as bleaching. Soon afterwards it generally died. Incredibly, while other reefs have become mounds of unsightly coral rubble, those around Bunaken have recovered. Last year, coral cover within the park increased by more than 11 per cent. With half of all coral reefs around the world now destroyed, or badly damaged, the value of Bunaken's ecosystem is incalculable. The reefs here are full of life, much of it unknown to science. Christiane Muller had Opo take me to one of her favourite spots, on Bunaken's southern reef, for a night dive. The reef wall was the playground of new creatures, entirely nocturnal species. A sponge, fully a foot long, shimmied across the wall. Beneath it was its host, the sponge crab, which allowed it to grow on its back in return for the cover it provided. Miniature cuttlefish jetted backwards, extending their tentacles towards me. A frog fish sat on a rock, its pectoral fins like crude feet planted firmly apart. A slithering black and white form darted across the wall: a rare juvenile bamboo shark hurrying from its lair. Opo led me down into a narrow groove in the reef wall. Christiane had told him to show me some pygmy seahorses: a new species, recently discovered by one of her dive guides. Even tinier than the bargibanti, these creatures were as thin as a razor blade, with yellow bodies and red gills. Back at Froggies, Christiane explained why she had wanted me to see them. "We're waiting for scientific confirmation," she said quietly, "but everyone here wants them to be named after the Indonesian diver who first found them last year." That was Hence Pontoh, another of Christiane's colleagues. The species will be called Hippocampus pontohi. "For the first time, a local diver will have a species named after him," Christiane told me proudly. "It will mean a lot to this community. All our dive guides are Indonesian and they love the reefs - so it's time their contribution to saving this place was recognised." Tim Ecott for the Daily Telegraph

July 11, 2003 New Seahorse Encounters Bunaken walls have recently given birth to a new seahorse species. It has been officially described under the name of Hippocampus pontohi, from the name of the diving guide who discovered it, Hence Pontoh. (See the full article below) Very small, less than 1 cm high, they are unusually active for seahorses. Aside is a recent shot from a white and yellow "mane" couple. In the article below and on this site's homepage, you can find almost totally white specimens.

September 09, 2002
A new Hippocampus in Bunaken's National Park

English version Bunaken's National Park still holds many surprises. One of them is we recently discovered a new species of pigmy Seahorse. One of our guides was diving with a couple of photographers in a place we do not dive regularly, because there are mainly small critters and not a lot of bigger fish. Hence Pontoh, the guide, was swimming along the wall very slowly in order to find the very small animals that macro photographers just love, when suddenly his attention was caught by a tiny completely white thing that jumped from one seagrass bit to another : it was a seahorse and very flat almost like cardboard and no bigger than 2,5 cm ! Imagine the excitement, he had never seen the like before and he has been freediving this reefs ever since a little boy, when he used to help his dad with the fishing. He tought he knew every secret of his reefs, especially since he started diving many years ago, and could stay down much longer and satisfy all the curiosity he always had about his "backgarden". Hence came back from the dive very excited, and next thing we organized a boat so that all of us could go and admire his discovery. It is really a very cute little seahorse as you can see, and we gave it temporarily the name Hippocampus Pontohi, after the discoverer, and we hope that once they are fully described, which is being done right now, they can keep that name in honour of the first discoverer. Very soon in another spot we discovered a brown coloured couple, male and female, and the male with his pouch full of eggs. Then a couple of days later two green ones, and then on a different reef again, two yellow ones. They live on different kinds of seagrass, and they seem not to mind currents, obviously the seagrass they live on, offers enough protection. Hope to see you soon somewhere underwater on our astonishing reefs.

German version Bunaken's National Park bietet noch immer sämtliche Überraschungen. Vor kurzem haben wir sogar eine neue Art Zwerg-Seepferdchen entdeckt. Einer unseren Guides war mit einige Fotografern am tauchen auf einen Ort die wir nicht so oft betauchen weil es dort hauptsächlich Macrotierchen gibt und wenig Grossfischen. Hence Pontoh, der Guide, ging langsam der Wand Entlang um eben die kleine tieren zu finden die bei Fotografern so beliebt sind, als er plötzlich ein ganz kleiner weisser ding sah, die von einer Grasshalm zu ein ander am überspringen war : es war ein Seepferdchen und sehr dünn, fast so wie Karton und nicht länger als 2,5 cm ! Sie können sich sicher die Aufregung vorstellen, nieh vorher hatte er so eine Gesehen, obwohl er schon von Kind ab unter- schnorkelte um Vater bei der Fischfangst zu helfen. Er dachte er kannte jeder Geheimnis von seinen Korallenriffe, um so mehr weil er schon sehr viele Jahren mit Atemautomat taucht, und dadurch viel Länger ünter bleiben kann um seine Neugier nach seinem "Hintergarten" zu befriedigen. Hence kam natürlich sehr aufgeregt bei der Base zurück, und wir organisierten gleich ein Boot damit wir allen seine Entdeckung bewundern konnten. Der kleiner Seepferdchen sieht wirklich sehr süss aus, wie Sie selber hier auf die Foto sehen können, und wir nannten hin vorlaüfig Hippocampus Pontohi, nach der Entdecker ; wir hoffen er kann der Name seiner Entdecker behalten, auch nachdem die Offizielle Beschreibung die gerade im gang ist, fertig ist. Schon schnell nachher fanden wir bei einen anderen Stelle, ein braunes Pahr, Männchen und Weibchen, und der Männchen hatte der Beutel voller Eier. Ein pahr Tagen später fanden wir zwei grünen, und nachher auf wieder eine ander Stelle, zwei gelbe. Sie leben auf Mehresgrass, verchiedener Art und sie können auch gut gegen Strömung, offensichtlich gibt das Gras genug beschützung. Ich hoffe Sie mal Unterwasser bei einer unsere bezauberende Wände zu treffen. Text by Christiane Muller Photo by Hansjörg Berger (Giorgio)