Doubilet's National Geographic Piece On Raja Empat

Editor's note: I was with David and Jen on their scouting mission to Raja Empat in 2005. The images and story in Nat Geo are fabntastic. Pick one up if you don't have a subscription! What scientists found when they surveyed the waters of the Raja Ampat Islands six years ago set off an international alert for their preservation. The archipelago's reefs were not just richu"the region would prove to have the greatest coral reef biodiversity for its size in the world. Even a short initial voyage confirmed more than 450 species of reef-building coral, nine newly discovered. The entire Caribbean, by contrast, holds fewer than 70 species. With so many of the world's reefs destroyed or suffering catastrophic decline, efforts to safeguard this treasure went into high gear...