RickMo

Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record...Reefs have been battered by cyclones and starfish that eat coral, but heat stress driven by climate change is the main cause of damage.

Will do. I've resigned myself to expecting bleaching just about everywhere, given the global mass bleaching event: Seeing images of bleaching across Cape Kri a month after we were there last fall, and saw healthy corals, was gutting. But we're both optimistic by nature, and whatever the hard coral situation the reef fish, macro life and occasional whale shark at Pemba will give us joy.

We are booked to dive Pemba next month. Going out with Afro Divers, which have good equipment and a good reputation. I'll report back.

"Embrace [the] softness" . . . My new mantra. Thanks!

To round this thread out--I've done some bonfire dives with Martijn and Mirjam, at Front Porch and Oil Slick. Basically, lights are anchored --I believe it was a set on the surface and at maybe 5m--and then we did a normal night dive for 15-20 minutes while the critters, such as the were, assembled. We never saw much in the lights, although my buddy got inked by a teeny squid; that made her night. We are huge fans of Twilight Diving Bonaire for night dives--they are both terrific spotters and guides.

Thank you, Alex. Very helpful. I was hoping you'd weigh in.

That'll be a great trip. (I meant "fully," not "folly," of course, but it kinda fits). I'd really like to get to Triton Bay and the south Birdshead (really, more interested in that than Misool, as we were on a boat down there in October).

Dave, are you staying at Misool Eco, or diving from the liveaboard? The resort is now folly booked through 2028, at least for the hoi polloi, which makes the south Raja and Triton Bay liveaboards very appealing.

Aaargh! Thanks, Bill. I’d buy it myself. Too late to edit again . . . But in case the typo’s not obvious, it’s an OM-D E-M1ii, which is still quite a good camera. Apologies to the assembled masses. (And Mods, if there’s a way to edit, please let me know) —Rick

Nauticam/Olympus kit for $2600, all functioning as expected: 1. Nauticam NA-EM1ii housing with water intrusion alarm and vacuum system installed and pump included, purchased November 2018, full Natuticam factory service September 2021, about 40 dives since service (the OM-1 came out in 2022). Works as expected. Includes original Nauticam nylon case and shipping box. The housing with vacuum was $2,340 in 2018, and the 2021 service was $600. It appears that the housing is still available, new, for $2927+$250 for the vacuum ($3175). 2. An OM-D E-M1/Mkii body with ~10,600 actuations. Includes one FL-LM3 miniflash, three aftermarket batteries and two single-battery a/c chargers. I was usually able to get two dives per charge, but YMMV. 3. An Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 12-50 f3.5-6.0 power zoom lens (aka “the underrated kit lens” with “secret macro”), with zoom gear. 4. Nauticam flat port for the 12-50 (and other lenses). 5. Three Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobes, with diffusers. Two were bought around 2013, the third in 2015, and all three work. I got the third because one of the original two was a battery hog. Included with purchase of body and housing.

Here's a link to the Batik site. The others have similar provisions. https://help.batikair.com/article/bring-diving-equipment-diving-on-batik-air-indonesia-flights/750

Remember that domestic carriers in Indonesia are expected to allow 23kg for scuba gear, which has accommodated our dive bags and/or my camera case. Garuda has a good business class, which seems to wave a wand over any baggage sins; on our Garuda flight a few weeks ago from Sorong to Jakarta, we had zero baggage issues despite our mountain of bags, and we were waved through the carry-on weighing. In May, we were on Teak from Manado to Singapore and it was a different story—they did allow the sporting-goods waiver, but we were still over a good bit. The cost was 2.4 million IDR (about $150), which could only be paid in IDR—as our time to catch the plane dwindled, I was sent out of the terminal to an ATM which, to my surprise, promptly gave me three separate million-rupiah withdrawals, and of course the flight was a few minutes late, so we were on our way despite a bit of a nail-biter.

There's also a good set of phone apps published by Gary Cobb, who is the hard-working mod of the FB nudibranch ID group. There are six collections, broken down by region, and don't require an internet or cell connection.

OOPS--I knew it was Milne Bay, and my brain just went on autopilot. Mea culpa! We are now considering a Walindi-Kavieng trip in 2026, covering the northwest coast of New Britain and the entire east coast of New Ireland. Kaviang was involved in the serious disturbances in January, however, and so we're waiting to see whether things seem to be less unsettled before making a decision.

A firmware update was made available for the OM-1 mk1 a couple of weeks ago, with the main improvement billed as subject acquisition in “all-target mode.” I don’t use that mode, but have found the OM-1 to focus well both above and below the surface with busy backgrounds, particularly with subject detection (bird eyes and fish eyes aren’t so different).