Komodo is one of the 2000 islands that make up Indonesia. It is located East of Bali. I was blown away by the destination. There is so much life, not only underwater but also on land. It is the only place in the world where one can find the Komodo Dragon, which is the world’s biggest lizard. It is an impressive species that can reach over 2 metres in length. The dragons are found mostly on Rincah Island, neighbour to Komodo. About 2000 individuals have been counted on the island. The guides that take you on the tour are armed with sticks. It is quite strange to be walking on the island knowing that these animals are all over the place. But these dragons live with and within the local communityWhen you look at a Komodo Dragon they seem quite passive, lying around in the sun. But we know they are very fast animals. I believe they can catch a running human within a short distance. So we have to be vigilant. In this particular area I think they are quite used to human presence. However, in the south, the décor changes completely. Here we have mountains and dense vegetation, and the dragons often walk up and down the beachand are attracted by the smell of food that comes off boats’ kitchens. These animals swim incredibly well. They have unbelievable buoyancy, which can be observedwhen they pull their heads out 30cm above the surface without any difficulty. They float and swim very fast, and are really very agile in the water. The dragons come into the water and follow the boatsbut they never go further than 20 or 30 metres from the beach. They don’t seem to be diversthey follow the coastline all day and soak up the sun, since they are cold-blooded animals. The water is quite cold around the Southern Islands, at about 21°C. Their system cools down quite quickly so they don’t stay in the water very long. However, the temperature itself doesn’t seem to bother them much. Komodo Island is also a Marine Protected Area. The coral reef is so much healthier than that in Mauritius. It’s hard to find a square centimetre that hasn’t been colonised by coral,a sponge, an invertebrate or some other species. Divers pay a conservation fee and a team of rangers stand guard against dynamite fishingwhich is extremely destructive. There is also very little pollution and the human impact on the reef is minimal. Anchoring is not a common practice. Divers are very careful and diving instructors are particularly strict underwater. I really believe the island is an example to follow. We tend to forget that we have beautiful things to offer to the rest of the worldand stunning sites, but maybe we should think about reserving these for diving only, not fishing. We very well know that a fish on a plate is much, much less valuablethan it is in the water, where thousands of divers can visit it per year. And by opening marine parks in Mauritiusdo we still have the possibility of recovering the fauna we use to have?Absolutely. There are many places that had deteriorated in the pastjust like Gunner’s Quoinwhich has now improved because people have stopped dropping anchor. and I found that the coral is growing again; there are many more fish species in the area. If we limit fishing on some sites and restrict others to diving only, we will definitely start seeing more fish. These sites can even become nature parks where everything travelling outside its limits can be fished and exploited. But in the end we will have a bank of our fauna and flora in a specific spotwhich will be open to recreational divers.
