Those of you who have been to Misool Resort in the last couple of years will have surely noticed a little stilted platform standing in the tranquil waters off of South Beach. Now, you might think that this is just a nice little structure the resort installed for resting snorkelers, paddleboarders, or kayakers. Or, maybe it’s a place to have a special dinner with your loved one! Nope, none of those ideas are correct. All wrong. “Then what is it, Alex!?” I'll tell you, that beautiful little structure is a fancy sea pen for a very special type of shark! Many many years ago leopard sharks used to cruise in the waters of Raja Ampat, from the very north and beyond, all the way down to the south in Misool. They were abundant. As they are a very docile species of shark that tends to spend the majority of their time resting on the bottom and doesn’t shy away from humans, their populations were decimated as a result of unregulated shark fishing and bycatch. Now, with the different MPAs (marine protected areas) in place and strictly enforced around Raja Ampat thanks in part to the Misool Foundation and other marine conservation agencies, these sharks stand a chance at recovering. However, as the leopard shark population was essentially wiped out in this region, there is just not enough of them to naturally repopulate. For example, prior to working for Snorkel Venture, I worked as an underwater videographer on a liveaboard for five years. I would average about three-hundred dives a year all around Raja Ampat. Not once did I, or any of the thousands of guests we took diving ever catch a glimps of a leopard single shark. So, since there is very little hope for the leopard sharks at repopulating
Those of you who have been to Misool Resort in the last couple of years will have surely noticed a little stilted platform standing in the tranquil waters off of South Beach. Now, you might think that this is just a nice little structure the resort installed for resting snorkelers, paddleboarders, or kayakers. Or, maybe
If you are not in the loop on sharks and their global well-being, they are not in a great way. Here are some quick facts to get you up to speed. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed each year Since the 1970s, 70% of the oceanic shark and ray population has been wiped out Sharks are killed as a result of overfishing, and bycatch, but mostly it's due to the demand for shark fin soup, a delicacy in China The top five shark fishing countries are: Indonesia Spain India Mexico USA So, as you can see, there is just an overwhelming amount of threats against them, especially when you also consider the fact that their food supply is decreasing and breeding grounds—mangroves and lagoons—are being destroyed. While it's not necessarily too far gone, there is some urgency needed when it comes to shark conservation. There are a lot of conservation groups out there, like Thrive Conservation, Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation, and the Misool Foundation—all of which we make annual donations to via our Every Trip Program, who are actively advocating for sharks on a daily basis and have achieved some landmark victories with projects like as the StaR project. So, aside from contributing funds to shark conservation groups like the ones above, what can you do as a regular citizen passionate about shark conservation? Here are a couple of things you can do. Stop Watching Shark Week (asking politely) Shark Week has become an annual event on the Discovery Channel that apparently originated as a way of helping correct the misconceptions about sharks with shark-based episodes. While that may have been the case, the episode lineup for 2023 involved titles like “Cocaine Shark”, “Mega Sharks of Dangerous Reef”, “Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks”, and “Monsters of the Bermuda Triangle”.
If you are not in the loop on sharks and their global well-being, they are not in a great way. Here are some quick facts to get you up to speed. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed each year Since the 1970s, 70% of the oceanic shark and ray population has been wiped out Sharks
If you had asked me 10 years ago, while I was finding my way in the world as a diving instructor. “Do you want to be a snorkel guide?” I most likely would have laughed and said NO. 10 years on and I could not imagine doing anything else. Like most people who choose this career and lifestyle, you start out with a lust for travel and the ocean. Even better to combine the two together. As I was making my travels and wishing I could stay in all these exotic places longer. But instead having to go back to the UK to save money for the next adventure. I kept meeting all these people that were maintaining a life I wished for. living by the sea, great tans and having a great lifestyle. Not to mention spending their days at sea looking for beautiful marine creatures. All of them were working as dive instructors or dive masters. Without too much hesitation I decided that was the life for me. In 2009 I packed up and moved to Thailand to embark on my not so certain career in the diving industry. I was informed the best way into the industry was to do a 4 month divemaster internship. I joined a dive centre on a small island in the South Andaman sea, and began my 4 month internship. Once completed I was hooked. The ocean, and working in the dive and travel industry was my new home. I would spend the next 4 years working as a divemaster in Thailand, gaining a wealth of experience on the sea. After 4 years it was time to transition into becoming an instructor. Again I decided a great way to gain experience as an instructor was to do another internship. I was very
If you had asked me 10 years ago, while I was finding my way in the world as a diving instructor. “Do you want to be a snorkel guide?” I most likely would have laughed and said NO. 10 years on and I could not imagine doing anything else. Like most people who choose this
In terms of sea conditions, there is very little difference between the snorkeling trips we would recommend for beginners and the snorkeling trips we would recommend for more advanced snorkelers. Regardless of if we are snorkeling in the Caribbean where the currents are mild to none, or Indonesia's Alor where the currents can rip like a river, the areas where we snorkel are essentially the same. Yes, in very specific sites there could be some current, but it's never the main current, we brief you fully before it, and we always drift with it. Any site we are taking you to, on any of our snorkeling safaris around the world can easily and safely be snorkeled by someone who's never snorkeled before. The biggest reason why the following list of snorkel safaris have received the “Advanced” rating has more to do with overall trip logistics than anything else. These trips are longer, might require a bit more domestic travel, and a few have slightly more basic accommodation as a result of their remoteness. While these tours are amazing, and we want everyone to join them, we just want to make sure that you don't bite off a bit more than you can chew, so to speak. Basically, the hardest part of these specific snorkeling tours are the flights. Alor & Komodo Safari | 14 Nights This is not a particularly difficult snorkeling trip, it's actually our most popular snorkel safari by far. We run anywhere from six to ten of these each year and have run these tours with everyone from advanced freediving folks to beginners without any issues whatsoever. The big reason why I say it's advanced is that it requires quite a bit of flying at uncomfortable hours. The snorkeling is as good as it gets in both
In terms of sea conditions, there is very little difference between the snorkeling trips we would recommend for beginners and the snorkeling trips we would recommend for more advanced snorkelers. Regardless of if we are snorkeling in the Caribbean where the currents are mild to none, or Indonesia’s Alor where the currents can rip like
Twenty-twenty-two was a big year for a lot of reasons. It marked the end of the global lockdown that plagued us all and allowed countries like Indonesia, Egypt, The Philippines, Palau, Honduras, French Polynesia, Fiji, and Cuba to once again welcome visitors into their beautiful oceans! Twenty-twenty-two was also our biggest year since we launched in 2018. Even though many of the countries we run snorkeling safaris to were not open at the beginning of the year, we still managed to successfully run 31 tours with 520 snorkeling guests, in 10 different countries! I believe we've said this before, but we can't thank you enough for sticking by us as we all bushwhacked our way through that rough patch. It's only a few more weeks before our 2023 tours begin in February, and we can't wait to welcome you all back as we kick the new year off with a big splash in Belize, Raja Ampat, and Halmahera! Here are Just Some of the Best Moments of 2o22 With all the tours wrapped up for 2022 and the next ones starting in February, our Video and Photo Pro Alex Lindbloom has finally had a minute to go through the hundreds of gigabytes of footage he captured while on tour and has edited a quick little recap of just some of the snorkeling highlights from the last year.
Twenty-twenty-two was a big year for a lot of reasons. It marked the end of the global lockdown that plagued us all and allowed countries like Indonesia, Egypt, The Philippines, Palau, Honduras, French Polynesia, Fiji, and Cuba to once again welcome visitors into their beautiful oceans! Twenty-twenty-two was also our biggest year since we launched
