BANDA SEA
In October, 2012, we boarded the Aurora in Maumere, Indonesia for a twelve day crossing of the Banda Sea. Despite some atypically bad weather, we were able to dive at Gunung Api, a small volcanic island to the west of Banda Neira where a volcanic eruption destroyed most of the existing reef structure in 1988. Surprisingly, the coral has regrown at remarkable speed, raising questions about how rapidly hard corals can grow in nature. Gunug Api is also known as Snake island due to its enormous population of resident sea snakes.
