When I first arrived back in 2001, Dauin was one of the Philippines’ best-kept diving secrets, often overlooked in favour of more popular locations such as Puerto Galera or Anilao. Not anymore! In the ensuing decades, it has gained renown as one of the country’s diving hotspots. Personally, however, Dauin is special for two additional reasons. It is the place I decided to pursue underwater photography, and was the subject of my very first diving article (in this very magazine, to boot). 

For the dedicated macro enthusiast, there are a number of locations worldwide that have gained legendary status, and the Philippines certainly has its fair share. Yet one had always eluded me: Romblon. Although I had been aware of it for years, the opportunity to visit had never arisen. My last trip to the Philippines, ten years earlier, was hampered by an international summit that closed Manila’s airport for days, thwarting a planned visit. Now, a decade on, my chance had finally come.

Having visited Southeast Sulawesi in the first half of my trip to Indonesia, my goal now was a small island to the west of the big island of Halmahera in North Maluku: Sali Kecil. A Garuda Indonesia flight took me from Jakarta to Ternate in the middle of the night. Early in the morning, a Wings Air flight linked Ternate to Bacan Island, further south. An overland transfer followed, taking me through the forested, mountainous interior to the east coast.

On my fifth visit to the Philippines, I chose to begin my trip at a dive location that is still relatively unexplored: Anda, at the southeastern tip of the island of Bohol. I departed from Rome, with a stopover in Taipei, one of the most convenient and functional airports in Asia, before landing in Cebu. It was a practical choice, allowing me to avoid the traffic of Manila and gradually enter the archipelago.

Last year, I took a job in a remote location with far less travel and vacation time than I was used to. After slogging through the months without booking flights or planning dive trips, my collected time off finally reached numbers that would justify a plane ticket. But then the question arose of where to go. The long time away from home and family tugged me toward visiting my mother. However, she resides in the Midwest of the United States, which lacks warm waters and abundant critters to dive with.

I had not previously considered the Halmahera region and had to look it up to find out exactly where it was. For those who do not know, it lies northwest of Raja Ampat. Our liveaboard tour on the MS Gaia Love started in Ternate and Halmahera and then took us via Misool and Raja Ampat back to Sorong.

The first article, in issue #132, focused on Mark Erdmann, Vice President of Asia Pacific Marine Programmes for Conservation International (CI) and architect of the innovative, broad-based, bottom-up strategy that underpins conservation efforts in the region. Central to Erdmann’s approach was the need to quantify Raja Ampat’s extraordinary biodiversity. The person who played a pivotal and sustained role in that critical undertaking was Gerry Allen, whose contributions have been instrumental in shaping the conservation narrative of this incredible area.

Facing the great blue yonder of the Solomon Sea, Milne Bay opens eastwards like the gaping jaws of a giant saltwater crocodile. Located at the southeastern end of the island of New Guinea, at 10°22’00” S latitude and 150°30’00” E longitude, it has a maximum length of 35km, a maximum width of 15km and a surface area of 525km². The bay is surrounded to the north and to the south by the heavily wooded Stirling Range. The narrow coastal strip on the northern shore is soggy, with sago and mangrove swamps.