DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA ISSUE 413 AUGUST 25

Spine cheek Anemone fish.

to fifty per cent of the maximum! The fact is that lots of fish take five to seven years to reach maturity and begin to breed. Wakatobi has reefs that are like those wild imaginings! How did they do that? Two Swiss brothers Lorentz and Valentin dreamt of this paradise more than thirty years ago. They imagined a perfect resort, formulated a plan and began to look for a suitable location. After many trips to remote locations, they decided on the S. E. tip of Sulawesi. This spot is 2 and a 1/2 hours East from Bali by plane. Fast forward to today. Lorentz has systems in place that have five levels of protection. The House Reef has full protection. As you go further and further from the resort, the levels of protection are more relaxed but still effective. Once you have dived at Wakatobi, it becomes the gold standard. The way the world should be! The sad fact is that when you go to a resort that does

not have any sort of environmental protection, it is most disappointing. The lack of marine abundance is immediately disheartening. Sadly, this is far too common. As I see it, Dive resorts will only survive in the future, if they can manage their dive sites more effectively. I visited another country some months ago. All of the dive sites were fished and speared regularly. It is Desolation Row; the Nothing; the

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Dive Log Australasia #413 August‘25

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