The Anambas Islands are composed of 238 islands located just 150 nautical miles from Singapore - a hidden world in the midst of the bustling South China Sea. It is thought that these islands were once part of a larger continent called Sundaland, an ancient land of Asia that became submerged about 8,000 years ago when the ocean water rose at the end of the last ice age. Once fertile valleys and lowlands became submerged, and forests became reefs, lagoons and a rolling continental shelf.


During these years, as the ocean claimed the continent, people were forced to flee in all directions, thus the islands and its people became trading ports and sea faring people. These were “sea people” of ancient times: people that traveled the sea bringing their language, crops such as rice, their dogs and other animals, and know-how that has influenced the world as we know it today.

We had first arrived the Anambas Islands in 2006 on the suggestion of Raffles Marina colleagues and immediately felt at home. Now, years later, we are collaborating with friends from Indonesia and Singapore to implement long-term marine conservation programs and to our great joy, we have learned that the people of Anambas embrace our efforts.

Durai Island, located in the South China Sea, is the nesting site for thousands of green and hawksbill turtles, and is considered the most populated sea turtle beach in the region. Over the past few years, BF, joined by our board member and sea turtle scientist Wallace J. Nichols, and the island owners initiated a conservation program with Premier Oil to stop Durai's turtles from being harvested and sent to market. As a result, hundreds of thousands of sea turtle hatchlings are born and safely now return to the sea every year!

A luxuriant, biodiverse reef surrounds Durai, but like all reefs in the region, it is threatened by over-fishing dynamite and cyanide fishing, anchor damage, as well as oil and mercury contamination from oil drilling and bleaching caused by climate change. In an effort to protect Durai's reef and give the fish population a chance to replenish itself, the BF team met with local government officials and won the approval for a 2 km circumference Marine Protected Area around Durai and its neighboring island Pahat. BF also initiated education/outreach about the MPA and planted the seeds for a community-based effort to implement a No-Take area within the MPA to give the reef and its dwindling fish population a chance to recover and thrive.