On Bora Bora, the new coral preservation & snorkeling program. Any body done it? Was it worth 135$ per person?

Thanks.

Cindy

Yes, we did it two weeks ago, and it was great.

It's limited to 6 people, and you are led by Denis (can't remember his last name), who is a marine biologist. He first takes the group out for a deep water snorkel which is not pretty particularly, while he collects small coral specimens that are damaged in some way, and he talks about the different types of coral and how to tell if they are damaged or not.

Then you boat over to the Bora Bora Pearl Beach hotel, where he shows you their coral hospital and gardens. What they are doing is building small coral "reefs" (he calls them "toblerones" for the shape of the enclosures) under the OWB walkways of the hotel. Lots of fish, really interesting stuff about coral and how to save it. The collected damaged coral gets added to the collection. Denis is like Michael Poole (the dolhin guy)--passionate about what he's doing, and he makes you think hard about the importance of coral, how it is abused, and why it's so important.

The fish are really beautiful, and just "right there" by your feet--the water is only chest-high or less, so you just stroll around with your reef shoes. It was one of my favourite excursions.

One small matter that Wendy missed. It is sort of expensive, but the money is for a good cause. I was happy to give financial support to the work that they are doing.

-- David

Sounds very interesting. The most beautiful coral we saw in 2003 was during the Shark and Ray feeding excursion in Bora Bora. We'll have to see what to do when we go back in February.

Eugene

Eugene - The Shark and Ray feeding excursion in Bora Bora was my favorite. I agree, the coral was spectacular as well as a lot of beautiful fish. I hated for that excursion to end.

Wendy & David - I was wondering how you liked the coral preservation excursion. Sounds like you learned a lot, as well as had fun.

Eugene and Cyndi, I agree that the best coral I saw was on the BB shark and ray excursion.

There's disagreement about the Moorea excursion which is similar--I found the coral to be in pretty bad shape, others thought the excursion was great, their very favourite. Maybe we went to different places, who knows?

I didn't mean to imply that the coral was great on the preservation trip, but the fish were.

Dear Wendy and David,

Thank you very much for your info. We are going to scuba, so I would expect to see the most beautiful coral in the bottom of the ocean anyway. The educational part of the excursion is what we after.

I might convince my husband this trip as a donation to the coral, then he might think easier of the 270$.

Thanks. Cindy