Sound of Beauty

27/06/2022

Palau's world-first 'good traveller' incentive

In a world-first initiative, visitors to Palau will be offered exclusive experiences based on how they treat the environment and culture, not by how much they spend.

Despite being home to fewer than 20,000 residents, the Republic of Palau is making an outsized impact to preserve the planet. Not only did the country – made up of 300-plus islands in the West Pacific – adopt the world's first anti-nuclear constitution in 1979, but it also implemented the Palau Pledge in December 2017, which requires international visitors to sign a pledge stamp in their passports that promises the children of Palau that they will "tread lightly" and "preserve and protect" the islands.

27/06/2022

East Timor: A young nation reviving ancient laws!

Traditional East Timorese resource-management laws are helping to preserve the most biodiverse coral reef in the world.

Estevao Marques was barefoot, kitted out in a salt-stained football shirt with a well-worn mask and snorkel pushed high on his forehead. A sharp-looking knife was in one hand and speargun in the other. Marques encouraged me to snap a photo before he dashed off to the beach while there was a break in the monsoon clouds above.

27/06/2022

Australia's X-***ed underwater show!

Each year, the small South Australian town of Whyalla becomes home to one of the most spectacular underwater events: the spawning of the giant Australian cuttlefish.
"First time you go and put your head under the water and see hundreds and hundreds of cuttlefish in this one little area, it just looks like a chaotic kaleidoscope. What the hell is going on here?" said Tony Bramley.

As owner of Whyalla Diving Services and a decades-long advocate for the Giant Australian cuttlefish, Bramley has observed the frenzied and colourful cuttlefish mating that occurs in South Australia's Upper Spencer Marine Gulf Park for years. Once only of interest to fishermen and local scuba divers – who would spread the word to one another that "the cuttles are in" – this marine phenomenon now attracts tourists and researchers from across the world. It's a welcome boost to the small steelworks town of Whyalla, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

27/06/2022

The 'sea gypsies' who live with whale sharks!

In the remote area of Triton Bay in West Papua, a very special relationship has developed between the world's largest fish and generations of Bugis sea nomads.

My husband and I awoke to the voice of our guide, Indra, outside our bungalow. "Hey guys, we're on," he said. It was 04.30 and still pitch black out, but the sea was calm and the waning crescent moon was full of promise. A flock of Papuan hornbills soared overhead, their sound mimicking that of a helicopter flying by.

27/06/2022

A 'blue hole' to the Northern Lights

A little-known meteorological phenomenon makes a tiny village in Arctic Sweden one of the best places on Earth to consistently see the Aurora Borealis.

27/06/2022

27/06/2022