The writing for the Coral Triangle book is coming along pretty well, but I wish it were moving faster. I have cleared almost all my other professional side projects and am now down to just this last big one. To wrap it up, Eric and I will be making a marathon push to Melanesia later this month. In total we will take 13 flights, over 12,000 miles and visit 3 major field sites in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
Flights from KL, to Brisbane, to Honiara, to Gizo, to Honiara, to Port Moresby, to Lae, to Kimbe Bay, to Rabaul, to Kavieng, to Port Moresby, to Brisbane and back to KL. 20,000 km.
We will make longer stops in Gizo, Kimbe Bay and Kavieng.
We will be visiting WWF projects in Solomon Islands, particularly around Gizo Island. I have wanted to visit Gizo since 2002 and thought I might never get the chance. Hopefully the reefs are as stunning as they were described to me 10 years ago.
Thats a lot of reefs
Check out the location of the airport! Air strip? Air coral reef?
How do you get to the airport???
In PNG we will visit Kimbe Bay, where The Nature Conservancy worked for many years to establish a network of marine protected areas. We’ll visit a local NGO, an oil palm plantation and a dive resort.
Kimbe Bay. The deep waters are home to Sperm whales.
Our last stop will be at Kavieng. I visited this place in 2002 on a side trip during a workshop. The diving opens up to the Pacific Ocean and the chances to see really big fish is high. We’ll visit the Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Aquaculture Research Centre.
Kavieng is at the western tip of New Ireland island.
We’ll be thanking many partners along the way, but so far we have great support from WWF-Solomon Islands, WCS Papua New Guinea, New Britain Palm Oil Company, The PNG National Aquaculture Research Centre, Walindi Resort and Lissenung Island Resort.
We depart on 17 February and return to KL on 21 March. Whew!
And for those who have asked….. the currently erupting volcano in Indonesia is 5,600 km away at its nearest. I am closer in KL than I will be on that trip. 🙂 So no worries.
Weightless in the World 