Seven Seas Update

Dear Shipmates

Just want to let you know that here at The Seven Seas we are still very much alive and kicking. We managed to run a handful of trips during 2021 with the main focus being conservation and expat family related trips.

Seven Seas arrived in Raja Ampat 2 weeks ago after successfully transiting the Banda Sea and covering a distance of over 2000 nautical miles during the process. Hope you enjoy following our progress online.

We would like to send out a big thank you to all of you who supported our conservation efforts in 2021. We plan to continue breaking new ground and continue this work into 2022.

The crew can't wait to have you all back on board and as we approach the end of yet another challenging year, the entire staff and crew of The Seven Seas would like to wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

Captain Mark

Merry Christmas
(Click here for Robert's Banda, Triton Bay & Misool gallery)

Reef Conservation Agreements - Dawera

By Peter Mous.

During the conservation trips with Seven Seas in November 2020, April 2021, and November 2021, we visited various villages to see if the village administrations would be interested to engage in a conservation agreement with Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN), an Indonesia non-governmental organization. The idea is to involve villagers in conservation of the reefs nearby their village: The villagers commit to protect the reefs from fishing, in return for an annual payment or technical assistance for development of an environmentally friendly business. One of the villages we visited was Welora, in Maluku (East Indonesia). This village has become one of the candidates for development of a community-managed marine reserve.

Welora village on Dawera Island may be the nicest, most tourism-friendly, village in eastern Indonesia. Dawera is a small, green island, measuring some six km over its longest axis from northwest to southeast, with a narrow fringing reef surrounded by a deep ocean (c. 500 m deep only a stone's throw from the shore). The island is shaped like a low, multi-layered wedding cake. This layered shape is common for islands in this area. The streets of Welora village are well-kept, the houses are well-maintained, there is a beach with parasols, a visitors center, a restaurant, a marker that dates back from the era of the VOC (the Dutch East India Company), a modern statue of a triton shell, all with signposts to make sure that visitors won't get lost. There is a path along the northeastern shore to a secluded beach, with, looking slightly out of place in this remote area, twin rubbish bins that allow for waste separation. It's a tiny version of Kuta in Bali, but more organized and without the party atmosphere. Due to covid-19, there were no tourists at the time of our visit in November 2020, but the banners showed that district government of has high hopes for tourism in the Forgotten Islands.

» CLICK HERE FOR PETER'S FULL REPORT

Good News for our Cruise Director Alex!

As many of you already know, besides his work on the Seven Seas Alex also does underwater short movies.

During this month of December Alex won 6 international film awards: Gold, Silver and Bronze during the International Underwater Image competition "CIMASUB" held in San Sebastian. The CIMASUB is the most important International underwater film festival in Spain and one of the oldest in Europe (45 years running). This is the first time that someone has been awarded three times in the same category.

» CIMASUB - List of winners 2021

And just a few days afterwards Alex also won three more awards. He placed Gold, Silver and Honorable Mention with three short movies during the DGP/Wetpixel Masters of Underwater Imaging, previously known as "Our World Underwater". DGP is one of the best video competition in the world.

» DPG/Wetpixel Masters 2021 - Results

Here you can watch Alex's winner short movies filmed during his trips on board the Seven Seas and get wet virtually: