We were all excited to be making this trip. The Raja Ampat islands, located west of Papua, Indonesia, are at the center of the world's bull's eye for coral biodiversity. Remote and beautiful, these islands are literally at the ends of the earth. Previous studies have recognized that the area probably has the highest coral biodiversity in the world, and that it also contains high levels of other unique plant and animal groups. However, these studies did not provide sufficient information about the area to plan sustainable conservation activities.

Our expedition's aim was to fill in the data gaps for the marine diversity and ecosystems in the seas and natural vegetation types on land. This information will feed into The Nature Conservancy's conservation planning initiatives for Papua by identifying priority sites for conservation action and management potentials at these sites.

Our departure day was hectic, as we rushed everywhere for last-minute supplies, but it all came good in the end and our first night was wonderful. We anchored north of Batanta Island on a calm sea, with no lights on shore, and a dazzling display of stars overhead in a sky the deep blue of a fresh-caught tuna.

Over the course of our 22 days at sea we saw amazing things. There were three dive teams - the documentary filmmakers and two groups of scientists that studied hard-corals and fish. The fish counting team was led by Dr. Gerald (Gerry) Allan from the Western Australian Museum, a renowned expert on coral reef fishes who holds the world record at Raja Ampat for the number of species seen in a one-hour dive - 283.

With three dives a day, almost every time a team came up it was "mind-blowing." By the end of the trip the teams had found 828 species of fish, bringing the known total for Raja Ampat to 1,065 species, amongst the highest diversity in the world. And Gerry got a new personal record of 284 species on one dive, which is about one every 5 seconds!

The coral team found 465 different corals, with at least 20 they still need to check out in the lab. That means at least 505 species have been found in Raja Ampat, which is well over half all known coral species. That's incredible! The Conservancy's Asia Pacific Coastal Marine Program Director, Dr. Rod Salm, thinks that the waters surrounding the islands can also serve as a source of fish and coral larvae to replenish reefs to the west and north (even as far away as Japan) which have been damaged by blast fishing.

I was working with the terrestrial team, surveying forest types, and collecting specimens of unusual trees. We were working on strange terrain - some areas were limestone, no soil (imagine broken bottles standing upright, and you can guess how carefully we were stepping) and some were volcanic, ultrabasic, soil - red and grainy, with lumps of metal ore scattered about. We may have found a few new species, including a pitcher plant and a strange tree that we couldn't even categorize into a scientific family.

Along the way we had some beautiful views from the hills we climbed, and at Kofiau Island the most spectacular sunset of my life. This wasn't a sunset you just looked at, this one came right out and drew you into it - the whole world was tinged orange and rose, in five dimensions. It was almost a religious experience: a temple of light.

Raja Ampat is truly beautiful, but there are a lot of things going badly - fishermen bomb the reefs and use dilute cyanide to catch rockfish, and the forests are in danger of being over-logged. The locals know what is happening, but outsiders are doing most of the damage. The Conservancy's next step is to partner with local villages to help them protect their reefs and forests, working with the government and maybe with a local NGO. The survey report should help raise awareness of the need to protect the area's remarkable natural resources, especially once we translate it into Indonesian.

Duncan Neville
Sulawesi and Papua Portfolio Manager, The Nature Conservancy