Into the Blue - The Wonders of the Coral Triangle

During the last year our Cruise Director Alex, besides running a few trips and working on his International awarded short movies, had the chance to work with ZONA MIXTA - a Spanish TV production company - who took all his footage from his last three years on board The Seven Seas. The result is a Docu Series of 8 chapters called "INTO THE BLUE. The Wonders of The Coral Triangle". The series will be distributed by a Canadian company called BLUE ANT INT. By viewing the series, you will be able to (re-)visit some of the best dive sites in the world, where the Seven Seas takes you on our trips in Komodo, Raja Ampat, East of Flores, the Banda Sea and the Forgotten islands. And discover new ones with us as well, like our dive destination around Triton Bay in West Papua.

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Raja Ampat's Wonderland of Pulsating Pulchritude

By Anita Lococo

We, as a group, were so lucky to experience Raja Ampat, together, from the backyard of our home island, Bali. Soma Temple, a long-time resident of Bali invited her family and friends of whom her grown up kids were raised in Bali, with their own families, and her friends also seasoned residents sailed off from Sorong on the Seven Seas to the outer eastern limits of Indonesia, Raja Ampat, where most of us had never been despite the many years we have lived in Indonesia.

Mostly a group of snorkelers and a third of the group, divers, we were immediately in the water with our masks when we hit the high seas of turquoise rings surrounding "camel hump" islands (Mioskon) protruding with tropical forests. Once your face immersed beneath the surface of the water, a technicolor world envelops you with all its majesty of landscaped coral as only the hand of nature can arrange in such magnitude of flowing order with sprinkles of sunlight glittering on thousands of species of fish, still some without names, and the vast coral sea life. Seven Seas does not miss a beat with 3 snorkel/dives per day, always announced by the ring of the ship's bell, by our master diver and trusty guide, Foued Kaddachi.

During our 10-day sojourn, we experienced swimming with sharks, turtles, mantas and the region's community of reef fish including families of gobies, wrasses, damsel fishes, gropers, moray eels, cardinal fishes and surgeonfish, only to mention a few among the plethora of biodiversity in this preciously protected area of the world.

» CLICK HERE FOR ANITA'S FULL ARTICLE AND MORE PHOTOS

Playing with Sharks - The Valerie Taylor Story

Dear Shipmates

My Aunt Valerie Taylor, a living legend and icon in the underwater world, joins us on Seven Seas at least 2 or 3 times a year. Many of you have been onboard with her over the last 15 years. She is now 85 years old and not quite ready to hang up her fins. So keep an eye out for the latest production of her life story which I had the privilege of viewing in a recent screening with the production crew. National Geographic has bought the film and it's due to be released in October.

Mark Heighes

A Precious Gift

By Valerie Taylor

Our marine world is a precious gift. A gift from nature that sustains all life on this planet yet we treat it harshly. We pollute its waters and harvest its life without thought for the future or a care for the destruction we leave in our wake.

It is said you can't miss what you don't know. This is true. You can't miss schools of fish that take 20 minutes to pass if you have never seen them or 30 silver tip sharks along a reef edge if they are no longer there. What I have just written used to be how it was. The disappearance of these sights was fast. In 15 years they were no longer a common sight, in 20 they - like so much marine life we took for granted - were gone.

» CLICK HERE FOR VALERIE'S FULL ARTICLE