Marine lovers to gather in Bali to highlight Year of the Ocean
Marine lovers to gather in Bali to highlight Year of the Ocean
JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of marine lovers are to gather at
Tulamben Bay, about 2.5 hours drive from Bali's capital of
Denpasar, from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28 in celebration of the Year of
the Ocean.
The event, called Sea Life Week, will include lectures and
field sessions on marine life and underwater photography. It is
sponsored by, among others, the Australian-based
OceaNEnvironment, a nonprofit organization for sea preservation,
and will be based at the boutique-style Mimpi Tulamben resort.
It will involve a number of renowned marine experts and
underwater photographers from Australia and the United States
such as OceaNEnvironment chairman Michael Aw, who is also field
editor of the U.K.-based Dive International and Australian Scuba
Diver; Doug Perrine, author of Mysteries of the Sea; Robert
Myers, author of Micronesian Reef Fishes; Dr. Carden Wallace,
curator of the Museum of Tropical Queensland, and Clay Bryce, an
underwater photography expert.
An underwater photography competition with cash prizes
totaling US$15,000 and various holiday packages is also on offer.
Participants, particularly those who have no interest in
photography, will be invited to take part in the Count the Fishes
and Count the Coral competition.
According to Aw, 44 people from the United Kingdom, Germany,
Australia, the United States, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore and
Hong Kong have already confirmed their participation.
He gave no details of the event but said that all participants
must stay at the Mimpi Tulamben resort.
According to an employee at Mimpi, each participant is
required to pay $698 for the event, which includes accommodation,
meals and transportation.
Those who intend, for example, to participate in the
underwater photo competition have to pay another $100, which
covers film and film processing.
The resort, owned by local hotelier Wirya Santosa Chandra, is
one of the major sponsors of the event.
"The Sea Life Week is also designed to improve people's
awareness of the diversity of the Tulamben environment as well as
the richness of the reefs of Indonesia," Aw said.
Tulamben Bay, home of the volcanic Mount Agung, has been long
dubbed by the world's marine and scuba diving community as one of
the best dive sites in Bali. Its diving mascot is the 56-year old
wreck of the armed vessel USAT Liberty, a 100-m long remnant of
World War II. Described as one of the world's most popular diving
wrecks for its huge diversity and density of reef fish, it lies
just 400 meters west of the Mimpi resort,
On the eastern end of the bay is a rich coral wall that
plummets to a depth of more than 60 meters. (bsr)