Eastern Indonesia ‘most biologically diverse in all the oceans’

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, which means a lot of islands and a lot of water.

Earlier this year scientists discovered what they called a Garden of Eden in Eastern Indonesia, featuring new spieces of birds and other animals, that were unafraid of people.

Now a team of scientists from Conservation International (CI), say the Bird’s Head region in Papua (Irian Jaya) may be the most biologically diverse in all the oceans. ‘Walking sharks’ were among 50 new species recently discovered. According to one CI scientist, Mark Erdmann, “Five years ago we ran our first expedition to Raja Ampat [islands off the Bird’s Head], and this revealed what we felt to be the epicentre of marine biodiversity on the planet,”

My friend Mike Hillis, is running a diving business in Eastern Indonesia, in Ambon. Its not in the exact same place as the recent find, but is very close! Guess what, the guy who wrote the book on diving in Indonesia, says his best ever single dive, was a night dive in Ambon. With tremendous bio-diversity who can blame him?

Indonesia is an amazing place. One hopes human beings won’t rush to destroy, what took millions of years to develop.