Expedition cruise company SeaTrek announced that it is expanding the number of local conservation projects it will be supporting in Indonesia for 2025.

With the primary goal of preserving and restoring Indonesia’s incredible natural and cultural heritage SeaTrek is channelling its support at the grassroots level to help local people doing good on the ground with the resources they have available. 

These local heroes are champions of their local environments and SeaTrek believes they are better able to identify the needs of their community by working directly to protect and steward animals and ecosystems in their own backyards.

Sailing aboard its 12-berth traditional, UNESCO-heritage Indonesian Ironwood masted sailing ship, Ombak Putih or the smaller 6-berth Katharina, SeaTrek takes guests on a variety of sailing itineraries to meet and experience these organisations’ work, depending on the season and local conditions.

SeaTrek director Frank Hyde said: “It feels good to help and helping is at the centre of what we do.  The whole team’s goal is to help maintain, and restore where necessary, the incredible nature and cultures of Indonesia. Our belief is that by operating trips filled with pleasure and purpose our guests can go home with a next level happiness knowing that their travel has helped the places that they visited, the people that they met and the crew that took care of them.  Last but certainly not least, the traditional wooden boats that we travel in help keep the amazing culture of traditional wooden boat building alive. My aim is to have a business that allows all participants, guests, the SeaTrek team, and the people that we visit to go to bed at night feeling that they have done something to make things just a little bit better.”

A variety of initiatives

The proposed projects include meeting Pak Oné, a remarkable local fisherman in Alor who has worked with various organisations to reduce coral abrasion and restore the underwater seagrass meadows and mangroves of Sikka Island and Mali Island. 

Through his work Pak Oné has been able to encourage a lone Dugong called ‘Mawar’ to make this underwater meadow his home. 

As part of the journey from Komodo to Alor SeaTrek guests join a small local boat excursion to an area of seagrass where Mawar is frequently spotted, and the Dugong will often approach the boat, allowing guests to have a rare encounter with nature.

In Sumbawa near the Komodo National Park and at Kaimana in Triton Bay, the fishermen at the bagan fishing platforms share a small part of their catch with the local population of Whale Sharks. 

Working with these fishermen, SeaTrek arranges to bring small groups to swim in the water with these gentle giants and observe them in their natural environment. 

This is a lovely illustration of how people and animals may coexist peacefully, and the whale sharks are no longer seen as a threat to the fishermen’s livelihoods by taking a portion of their catch and have instead value as a second stream of income.

As a further illustration of the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and their native fauna, the residents of Bacan and Papua collaborate with SeaTrek to guide guests through the forests to witness the breathtaking Birds of Paradise. 

Before this arrangement, these individuals, who own the woodlands SeaTrek visits, made a living by clearing the trees and catching these birds to sell in the local markets. 

Under this new agreement, the birds are protected, the trees are flourishing again, and the men now have a new source of income from tourism.

All hands in for conservation

For guests wanting to get hands-on with a conservation project they can spend a morning assisting in the restoration of a coral reef off the island of Hatamin in the Komodo National Park. 

Wearing snorkels and a mask, they can help to secure small ‘frags’ of coral onto metal racks which are then carried by the SeaTrek guests to an area just offshore where they will grow into new coral beds. 

Over time, these attract hundreds of fish to live amongst the kaleidoscope of colourful coral species and guests leave with a deeper appreciation for the important conservation work being done and the feeling that they have been a part of the restoration process.

The project is headed up by the Coral Guardians who have successfully brought back an extensive area of corals and thus the fish for a local community living on the edge of the National Park.  

Powered by one time fisherman, they have now become stewards or ‘coral guardians’ of their place. 

Since the project started in 2012 over 53,000 corals have been restored, with five times the number of fish species reintroduced in the last four years and the local fish population has increased by over 300%.

In the waters of Raja Ampat, after decades of decline in local populations endangered Zebra Sharks are being bred and released as part of the ReShark STaR programme.  

SeaTrek guests visit the project to learn how ReShark is using eggs flown in from various partner aquariums around the world to support the Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery (StAR) project and realise the goal of releasing 500 Zebra Sharks in Indonesian waters in an attempt to restore a self-sustaining wild population.

SeaTrek guests in Raja Ampat will also meet Konstantinus Saleo, a Papuan local who is restoring seagrass beds and corals near his home village.  

They can get hands on helping to plant the mangrove seedlings and learn about the vital role seagrass plays in providing food, shelter, and nurseries for many marine animals, absorbing carbon dioxide from the water through photosynthesis, and how it helps to mitigate the impact of storms and wave action on coral reefs by absorbing wave energy.

Aiding local communities and organisations

Beyond these projects SeaTrek also supports local drivers and guides and sources local produce and seafood from villages along the routes. 

SeaTrek even carries solar powered lights to distribute to villages, as well as simple ceramic-based water filters, providing safe and clean drinking water. 

One of SeaTrek’s tour leaders has a small NGO called Peek Under the Surface (PUTS) which is run through SeaTrek and works by giving swim goggles to children in the places SeaTrek visits. 

The children live alongside some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world, but without the means to see them they have never been able to experience or understand the allure of corals that brings people thousands of miles to their village to see them. 

By giving the children goggles they get a chance to gain a wider understanding of the world around them and the importance of keeping a healthy ecosystem for the good of all.