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)