Yap is probably best known among non-divers as the Land of Stone Money. Up to 12 feet in diameter these massive stone discs rates without competition as the largest coins in the world.

The US dollar is the common currency in Yap, but the stone money is still used to this day for major transactions like payment of dowry or purchase of land.

One of the amazing facts about the stone money, or Rai as they are called in Yapese, is that these gigantic stone discs were not quarried on the island. Instead, the Yapese traveled by outrigger canoe more than 300 miles to the neighboring island nation of Palau. There, in a quarry on northern Babelthaob, the Rai were hewn out of the rock with primitive tools and brought back to Yap on a perilous journey in the canoes.

The value of an individual Rai piece is not determined by its size alone. Its shape, the quality and texture of the stone, and most important: the difficulty of acquisition is equally important. The greater the effort involved in bringing it safely home, the storms encountered and all too often, the men lost in the process – contribute to increasing the value.

The Rai are not carried about, for obvious reasons. Individual pieces are found all over Yap, but most are kept in “Stone Money Banks” in the villages.

When Rai shift hands as the result of a land transaction, a wedding, or otherwise, the news spreads fast and it is soon common knowledge that a particular piece has a new owner. The Rai are seldom moved but remain where they stand.

In the mid 19th century the Irish-American trader and adventurer David Dean O’Keefe started a successful business using his ship to carry stone money from the Palau quarries to Yap in exchange for copra and beche-de-mer.

The Yapese liked the idea, and even if the “O’Keefe-money” was valued much lower than the Rai brought by canoe, they offered a welcome possibility for the less well-off to own money and thus increase their status in the village. O’Keefe was well-loved by the Yapese people who refused to trade with anyone else, and he maintained his monopoly for over 30 years.

While my wife Patricia and I were driving to town this morning on our way to pick up our youngest granddaughter who is scheduled to spend the weekend with us, I suddenly realized something special.  The day is glorious, sun is shining, breeze is blowing, everything is green from the summer rains and then it dawned on me.  Exactly 17 years ago, to the day, I was making this same drive as the brand new owner of the Manta Ray Bay Hotel, Yap Divers and Wave Crest Travel Agency.  Sure, I started each of these businesses and ran them from the day they opened but August 1, 1973 was the first day that my family and I actually OWNED them.

What a time it was.  The oldest and youngest kids had turned 12 & 4 years old less than 30 days earlier while the middle two were 8 & 6 respectively.  Today, Numie the oldest one, has just turned 29 with a degree in Hotel Management from the University in Canberra, Australia is married and has a 14 month old daughter – Mary Patricia.  Numie is now the Human Resource Manager for the Resort after having spent her life working at just about every job we have here.  Next in line is Nathan a 24 year old Lance Corporal in the US Marine Corps who spent a year in Engineering School at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and 2 years at the University of Hawaii before finding his calling in the military.  Nathan also spent 2 years as our chef between the time he was in Hawaii and the time he joined the Corps.

Valerie is next in line and she is back home working as a dive guide for Yap Divers after spending two years in the Business program at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth where she was double majoring in Accounting and Entrepreneurial Studies.  Val is now married and has an 19 month old son – Thaddaeus.  Last, but certainly not least, is Oliver Patrick “OP” Acker who has just celebrated his 21st birthday and is set to graduate from the College of Micronesia in Pohnpei with an AA degree in Computer Information Systems. OP is looking forward to enrolling in the University of Hawaii at Manoa in January (the same school I attended for Graduate School).

I have been married for more than 25 years to Patricia Mangthin, who is sitting beside me this morning as we head for town.  She is happy to finally be a grandmother and realizes how lucky we are that they are all living close to us in Yap.  Patricia has a wonderful family spread between Yap, Saipan and the United States, my family are all still in Texas and doing well.  The kids are healthy, there are two grandkids in Yap, the business is better than it’s ever been so, as Joe Walsh would sing . . . “Life’s Been Good to Me So Far.”

Here I am, at the Manta Ray Bay Resort on the island of Yap in the Pacific region known as Micronesia.  After a long journey from French Polynesia, my video equipment and I have arrived safely.  I had just enough time to set up my diving and video equipment, when Yap Divers announced  a Shark Dive. Yessss, I thought …that is the right way to start my new job as a photo/video pro at Manta Visions.  I was very excited to meet up with the local shark population for the first time and was wondering how many sharks we will see and how close I can get to them.  You know, …I have done more than a thousand shark dives before and honestly I thought it will be hard to impress me.

So how was it, you ask?

As a warm-up Bill Acker, owner/operator of the resort, brought down a basket of fish carcasses and placed it in a crevice in the coral at a depth of 10 meters (30+ feet).  The sharks, mostly grey reef sharks with a few blacktip reef sharks in the midst, smelled the bait but couldn’t get it.  They stayed really cool and the divers, …among them several photographers, had time to find a good place for taking their desired pictures.  The less experienced divers got time to get used to the presence of the sharks.  I started to love them from the first minute.  It was really easy to get close and they almost posed for us.  My camera was rolling and rolling, …didn’t dare switch it off so I would not miss a scene.  It was just beautiful,  the light was perfect and the water extremely clear.

After 10 minutes or so Bill, with the help of a couple of the Yap Diver’s dive guides, brought down a large ball of frozen chum attached to a line and float so that the “chumcicle” stayed in mid-water.  This time the sharks got a bit more excited as they could actually get to the food source.  Still, the entire feed was very controlled and the sharks were just interested in the chum and ignored the divers.  Ok, ok, …some sharks were a little more interested in cameras and strobes but isn’t that what we were looking for?  “Come a little closer baby …..c’mon gimme a smile …” and they did!

To get the feeling you have to be here of course, …even the best pictures cannot make up for the real thing.  So I hope to see you in Yap soon so I can introduce you to my new friends.

The crew of Yap Divers spent this morning with several of our guests, including Ken Kurtis of Reef Seekers Dive Company in Hollywood, California, our webmaster Dustin Macdonald, the Captain of the Spanish owned sailing yacht – Never Say Never, currently moored off from the Manta Ray Bay Resort and several local residents of Yap. What were we doing you might well ask?

We were all watching the finals of the World Cup Football, soccer to us Yanks, between Spain and the Netherlands. We projected the game on to the big screen on the S/V Mnuw and sat around drinking fresh brewed coffee while the match was played out. The sun came up just as regulation time was ending so we moved downstairs into the Nautical Weaver lounge and showed the overtime period. I am not sure there is a better setting in the world for watching live sports than the Crow’s Nest as a full moon is rising or in our case, the sun was coming up.

Our group was evenly split between rooting for Spain and/or Holland. As a result of Spain’s 1 to 0 overtime win, Fredy, our Swiss brew meister is telling everyone that Switzerland is co-champion as a result of their opening game defeat of the Spanish.
Needless to say, it was a good morning and after breakfast, 4 dive boats departed for various locations around the island. The seas are very calm, the water is clear and the boat that I was on saw over 20 sharks including white tip, black tip, grey reef and a rare sighting of a zebra shark.

ab dem 1. Juli wird Profi-Filmer Peter Schneider die Leitung von Manta Visions, dem
Video- und Foto-Center des Manta Ray Bay Resorts, übernehmen.

Ambitionierten Filmern und Fotografen ist sein Name sicherlich ein Begriff: Nachdem
der gebürtige Berliner zwölf Jahre lang für das Deutsche Fernsehen gearbeitet hatte,
ging er für neun Jahre nach Rangiroa/Französisch-Polynesien und produzierte
spektakuläre Über- und Unterwassersequenzen, die von National Geogaphic TV,
Dicovery Channel und diversen anderen renommierten Sendern weltweit mit offenen
Armen angenommen wurden.
Einige Highlights seiner bisherigen Karriere bilden die Zusammenarbeit mit Christian
Petron (Haus-Filmer für den Kultregisseur Luc Besson, u.A. „Die Tiefe“, „Atlantis“), der
prämierte Film „Sharks of Rangiroa, from Legend to Reality“ – ein Manifest gegen die
Hai-Fischerei in der Südsee, das tatsächlich ein gesetzliches Fangverbot nach sich zog
– oder etwa eine Sequenz, die nicht nur die Mating-Tänze von Mantarochen, sondern
erstmals in freier Wildbahn auch die Paarung der „fliegenden Teppiche“ eingefangen
hat.

Gemessen an seiner Liebe zu Mantas und Haien – soviel lässt sich wohl schon vorab
sagen – hat sich Peter Schneider mit Yap sicher für die richtige Destination
entschieden.

Der Tauchlehrer und Video-Instructor wird im Rahmen seines neuen Engagements
nicht nur unseren fotografierenden und filmenden Gästen mit Rat und Tat beiseite
stehen und für alle anderen auf Wunsch Erinnerungsvideos produzieren.

Bill Acker, Jan Sledsens und Team freuen sich jetzt schon auf spannende
Unterwasserfilme, die spätestens ab unserem Foto- und Filmwettbewerb Manta Fest
(4.-14. September, mantafest.com) allabendlich über die Großleinwand unseres
Restaurantschiffs Mnuw flimmern werden.


Weitere Informationen:
www.mantaray.com
www.underwatercam.tv
mantavisions@mantaray.com
peter@underwatercam.tv

WWII Memorial to be dedicated on Pacific Island of Yap

Yap Island, FSM, June 12th, 2010:  The Yap Visitors Bureau (YVB) and the Missing Air Crew Project (MACP) announce the dedication of one of the most unique World War II memorials in the Pacific. The newly constructed site displays the wreckage of a plane flown by Ens. Joseph Cox (from Idaho) and will be dedicated July 27th, symbolizing the tremendous sacrifice and loss of human life near this Pacific Island during WWII. The YVB and MACP have been working together for several years to preserve and remember this very special group of soldiers.

In the historical context of WWII and the Pacific theatre, American losses near Yap (now part of the Federated States of Micronesia) were substantial yet continue to be overlooked even today. Strategically located between the Philippines and Guam, Japanese occupied Yap was targeted almost daily from June of 1944 to August of 1945 at the cost of hundreds of American men, 110 of which remain classified as missing in action (MIA). Pat Ranfranz (from Cameron, WI), founder of the MACP has spent over 20 years researching Yap during WWII and the stories behind each soldier and his mission, hoping to preserve their memories for generations to come. Pat’s uncle is among the soldiers that remain MIA.

The memorial to be dedicated on July 27th displays the actual wreckage of an F6F-5 Hellcat flown by Ens. Joseph Cox, one of 36 planes American planes that fell near the island. Joseph’s plane was shot down with three other Hellcats from the USS Enterprise on September 6, 1944 and was only recently recovered moderately intact. “It is truly one of the most unique wrecks and now memorials in the Pacific,” explains Pat. “After the war, most of the wreckage throughout the world was picked over and removed. Fortunately in this case, the Yapese have respected the wreckages as grave sites and taken care to preserve them and remember the American men who lost their lives during the war.” Joseph’s plane was spared from the expanding Yap landfill in 2008 and relocated to government held land. Displayed on a concrete pad next to an all-weather sign and memorial marker describing the man, the plane, and the mission, the YVB together with the MACP were able to construct one of the finest memorials to American men lost in WWII’s Pacific theatre.

Pat Ranfranz is extremely grateful for the work that has been done to make the memorial come together. “This would not have been possible without the work done by the people of Yap and the Yap Visitors Bureau to save and preserve the American crash sites and wreckages that remained after the war. Too many people have forgotten the men who gave their lives for our freedom during WWII. This memorial and others on Yap Island will help to immortalize the forgotten and bring meaning to their sacrifices.”  Attending the dedication will be Yap Governor Sebastian Anefal, US Ambassador Peter A. Prahar and other dignitaries along with the 90 year old brother of the pilot, Ellis Cox of Idaho.

The memorial dedication, open to the press, will take place from 2-4pm near the Public Works building on the Island of Yap. Please contact the YVB for assistance if your organization would like to attend. Both Pat Ranfranz and representatives from the YVB are available for interviews between now and July (see the contact information at the top of this release). Pat Ranfranz will also be available in Tokyo July 19-20th and Guam July 20th while traveling to Yap. For more information about the memorial dedication and Missing Air Crew Project, visit: https://www.missingaircrew.com or https://www.mantaray.com.

Peter A. Prahar, U.S. Ambassador, Federated States of Micronesia standing in front of the Ens. Joseph Cox F6F-5 Hellcat Memorial on Yap Island.
Patrick Ranfranz stands next to the Ens. Joseph Cox F6F-5 Hellcat wreckage after it was saved.

Contact Information:

Patrick Ranfranz
Missing Air Crew Project
Tel: (715) 458-0020
Cell: (612) 282-5624
pat@missingaircrew.com
www.missingaircrew.com

Bill Acker
Manta Ray Bay Resort
Tel: (691)350-2300
Fax: (691)350-4567 or 3841
yapdivers@mantaray.com
www.mantaray.com

Pat Ranfranz started researching his uncle’s (T/Sgt John R. McCullough) downed aircraft almost 25 years ago while in college. First traveling to Yap in 2005 to find his uncle’s missing plane, Pat has researched, located and documented numerous other missing American planes lost over Yap during the war. The Missing Air Crew Project is thrilled to be joined this summer by two members of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. They volunteered to help the Missing Air Crew Project this summer after hearing a talk from Pat Ranfranz at a dive show last winter. Bringing with them additional deep water search equipment to locate T/Sgt John R. McCullough’s B-24 bomber, the project hopes to bring closure to this decades long search.

Pat Ranfranz, the Missing Crew Project, and the Woods Hole volunteers will be in Yap this summer from July 18-28, 2010

and…

On July 27, 2010 the island of Yap will dedicate the Ens. Joseph Cox F6F-5 Hellcat memorial. The Ens. Cox Hellcat is one of 36 American planes shot down over Yap during World War II. Although the plane was shot down with three other Hellcat’s from the USS Enterprise on September 6, 1944 the plane remains relatively intact. It is truly one of the most unique wrecks and now memorials in the Pacific.

Mantas, Barrakudas, Schildkröten, Herden von Büffelkopf-Papageifischen, Mandarinfisch-Mating und nicht zuletzt auch hautnahe Begegnungen mit verschiedenen Hai-Arten in kristallklarem Wasser machen die mikronesische Insel Yap zu einem Traumziel für Fotografen und Filmer. Vom 4. bis zum 14. September veranstalten Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers zum vierten Mal in Folge das Shoot-Out „Manta Fest“. Zu gewinnen gibt es nicht nur fünf Reisen zurück nach Yap, sondern auch wertvolle Praxistipps von den renommierten US-Fotoprofis Andy Sallmon, Tim Rock und Ray Bullion.

Weitere Informationen: www.mantafest.com

„Fast alle Unterwasserfoto-Festivals werden an Orten veranstaltet, wo man schöne Landschaften und nette Korallenfische ablichten kann“, sagt Mantaflüsterer Bill Acker. „Bei uns können Fotografen und Filmer darüber hinaus zusätzlich mit Mantas und Haien interagieren und sich über mehr als 60 Meter Sichtweite am Außenriff freuen.“ Wiederholungsbesuche von National Geographic, Voxtours sowie von Filmteams der BBC und des ZDF und etlichen Bildjournalisten geben dem gebürtigen Texaner Recht. Welches andere Fotofestival wirbt schon selbstbewusst mit einer Kategorie „Mantas & Haie“? Neben Standardkategorien wie „Landschaft“ und „Makro“ stehen auch „Verhalten“sowie „Land & Leute“ auf der Agenda. Schließlich gilt Yap mit seinem bunten kulturellen Erbe und traditionellen Tänzen als ursprünglichstes Reiseziel Mikronesiens.
Als Hauptgewinn winkt in jeder Kategorie ein Urlaubspaket im Manta Ray Bay Resort Yap mit sieben Nächten und fünf Tauchtagen. Bill Acker: „Damit erstatten wir den Gewinnern quasi rückwirkend die Kosten für Wohnen und Tauchen.“ Außerdem, so erklärt Bill, seien die Flugpreise dank einer exklusiven Vereinbarung mit Continental Airlines für europäische Gäste so günstig wie nie zuvor (s. www.mantaray.com).
Während des zehntägigen Foto-Festivals im September werden Andy Sallmon, Tim Rock und Ray Bullion nachmittags Seminare im Schulungsraum abhalten, nach Sonnenuntergang Großbild-Vorführungen an Deck des antiken Segelschoners Mnuw präsentieren und am Ende der Veranstaltung die besten Aufnahmen prämieren.

Weitere Informationen: www.mantafest.com, www.mantaray.com.

Honorarfreie Bilder (© Daniel Brinckmann): www.
Anfragen Presse / Reiseveranstalter: daniel.brinckmann@mantaray.com