DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

WAKATOBI; A WORLD-WIDE ROLE MODEL by Mike Scotland

O nce you have been to Wakatobi, you will be spoilt! They have achieved a dive resort that is a Worldwide role model for resorts and reef management going forward into the future of dive touirism. I have dived at places where lots of the corals are dead, the fish are sparse and the excitement level is barely detectable. There is nothing worse than a dud dive. The best dive operators I have been on can take you diving to one great dive after another. The comment “Let’s do an exploration dive” raises a great deal of concern in my mind, truck loads of perplexity along with tinges of alarm, based on experience of too many substandard reefs. If it fails to meet the mark, it is disappointing. If you are on a dive boat and you end up doing one lousy dive after another, it really wrankles. Sadly, this has been my experience on a couple of occasions. I try to be honest with the operator but it is never appreciated when you let them know that half of the dives were sub-standard. It takes a brave man to be that honest and the simple fact is that dive operators need to know but do not want to listen to helpful advice. After all, they are competing with Komodo and the Galapagos. There are no such issues at Wakatobi. Thirty years of reef conservation and protection along with exploration diving to find the best sites have been carried out on each and every local dive sites. The result is that the forty or so dive sites around Wakatobi are superb. Wakatobi has paid local fishers not to fish on the House reef, for example. They have negotiated with these same fishers to limit fishing activity on nearby reefs. The surprising thing is that the health of the reefs has improved and the fish life has proliferated. This has resulted in an ideal outcome. Lo and behold, the fishers have become ardent conservationists because surrounding reefs where they can fish under this voluntary agreement are also showing an increase in both numbers and size of fish. Apart from getting financial compensation for staying away from protected reefs, they are catching more fish. So, it is a win win situation. Then the dive sites are vastly improved. Everyone is happy. Better still, the fishers actually chase away illegal fishers and police these dive sites on behalf of Wakatobi.

It fascinates me as to how Lorentz and Valentin, the Swiss owners have managed to achieve such as delicate balance. Their negotiating skills must be next level. So, in short, the diving is great, the fish life is great. The accommodation is excellent, spacious and is serviced daily. The gardens and beachfronts are manicured and swept daily. The whole set up is first class. The dive boats are typically timber Phinisi style boats. The average size is around 22 to 25 metres long and has a crew of about six. Same goes for the dive staff. There are always plenty of very experienced instructors, divemasters and dive guides so that you dive in very small groups. We often dived from a Phinisi with six or eight divers. When busy, these beautiful boats can take up to sixteen divers. On breaks between diving, you are invited to walk a couple of hundred metres down the beach to see how they build the boats right there on the beach. They actually, dig out a huge work place out of the sand and build the boats in it. When they are finished, they flood the area with sea water and the boat can slide down into the sea water. It is quite ingenious. Sulawesi boat building is famous world wide. The main thing about Wakatobi is the absolute highest standard of service at the resort. Wakatobi has about five hundred staff. About one third come from all over Indonesia. Most have worked in international standard hotels as far away as the Caribbean for many years as chefs, managers and so on. They, in turn, have skilled up many of the locals in hotel management such as waiters, bar staff, house maids and gardeners.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #415 - December ‘25

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