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“Do you ever feel like trying something different, maybe
a little easier?” I asked.
“Do you mean following the crowd instead of blazing
the trail?” he answered.
“I guess that’s what I mean, but I already know we
won’t do it.”
I remember that conversation well. It was September 2008, and my
husband, Burt, and I were attempting sleep on the deck of an aging
liveaboard cursed with a problematic electrical system. Anchored off
Waigeo Island in the Raja Ampat regency of Indonesia’s West Papua
province, our miniscule cabin fan had stopped turning hours before, and it
was sweat-dripping hot at midnight. It mattered, but not enough to make
me want to leave. We were being paid to survey and photograph never-
before-dived reefs for a guidebook to be published the next year. More
important, we were where we loved to be: out there.
People who know our work would probably classify us as photojournalists
who specialize in marine life. People who know us, however, understand
we think of ourselves as “destination developers.” We are excited by the
EPICENTER OF
MARINE BIODIVERSITY
H
E A D
T E X T B Y M A U R I N E S H I M L O C K
P H O T O S B Y B U R T J O N E S A N D M A U R I N E S H I M L O C
E OF NORTH DAKOT A ) — THA T A NEW T ERM , “ SEASCAPE , ” WAS NEEDED TO DESCR I BE I T .
Seascap
Papuan kids freediving off Mansuar Island, Raja Ampat
Snorkelers and whale sharks, Kwatisore Bay, Cenderawasih National Park
A short climb up Mt. Pindito in Raja
Ampat’s Wayag Islands reveals a
magnificent island-studded sea.
Top: Kayaking through southeast
Misool’s maze of islands and reefs
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