A tattered skull and crossbones fluttered high on the stern mast of the double-mast prahu KLM Shakti as it cut through tranquil waters off the western tip off Papua. This is the secret islands of Raja Ampat, an area steeped in a shadowy past and present. ...

Then, on each descent, we were greeted by devastation. White skeletons of dead or dying corals and almost everywhere we looked, crown of thorns were eating the few surviving corals. The reefs were all but deserted; most fish had moved out of their coral homes. We thought the ...