My twelfth day in West Papua with The SEA People, enjoying more ‘doing’ and less talking about the ocean. Filming, Roy and Piet go fishing… and dugongs (six of them)
My twelfth day in West Papua with The SEA People, enjoying more ‘doing’ and less talking about the ocean.
Day Twelve
We’re up at 5:30 ready to film a local fisher but the weather doesn’t cooperate and it’s overcast and gloomy. Kevin cans the filming idea for today.
While we wait for the final decision I sit in a dark boat galley in West Papua learning about polarisation in French politics from a marine biologist and a camera man. This is a sentence I never thought I’d write.
Most of the day is spent out of the water.
We work on a video submission for a major environmental prize, filming and scripting and then filming again.
When that’s done I finish a biography I’ve been reading about John Muir, the father of America’s National Park system.
Before I left home my wife wondered aloud how Muir managed to influence such great conservation decisions in his day. I went and bought the book to try and work it out.
Muir described himself as someone who found scientific discourse too dominated by “angular factiness” and who thought it was better to write from the head and the heart. I often talk about facts and evidence being a necessary but no longer sufficient condition for influencing change and now I realise, maybe they never were.
The day’s highlight comes when Piet suddenly points to the sea and says “dugong” and soon after that, Roy points to it again. Kevin’s drone confirms there are actually between four and six cruising past.
Three of us get in the runabout and with the drone as our guide, slip quietly into the water and try to position ourselves to swim with them. They spook easily and move surprisingly fast for sea ‘cows’. I’m lucky and am the only one who actually gets to swim with one.
Later I ask Piet if he wants to go fishing. I plan to leave my rod with the boat and want to make sure the crew are happy with how it all works. Soon I’m in the boat with him, Roy and Lynn dashing toward the sunset.
We park on the edge of a reef where small fish are leaping away from predators. I quickly grab a needlefish and a skipjack tuna and then hand over the rod to give the rest of the boat a shot.
Piet and Roy are unbelievably good casters. They pick it up so quickly and within minutes each is casting at least as far as I do and making the little adjustments that took me years to work out.
They both grab a mackerel as a spectacular sunset plays out and a turtle sticks its head out of the water to watch us. I coach them each through playing and landing their fish and I’m smiling from ear to ear. And they’re smiling from ear to ear. When they bring their fish to the boat there’s high-5s all round.
When we’re not celebrating our catches I realise that there is perfect silence. Even in West Papua there’s almost always the sound of a generator or an outboard somewhere in the distance. But not on this still evening. It’s the perfect last night on the water in Raja.
Source: LinkedIn | Greg Johannes
Photo: Greg Johannes
Past Entries:
About The Author: Greg Johannes, Ambassador – The SEA People. Greg spent 2 weeks aboard the Galaxea with us and documented his experience in his daily entries into ‘The SEA People Diaries’.
Day 11 – Read here
Day Ten – Read here
Day Nine – Read here
Day Eight – Read here
Day Seven – Read here
Day Six – Read here
Day Five – Read here
Day Four – Read here
Day Three – Read here
Day One and Two – Read here
Day Zero – Read here