Starfish in a bed of sea grass in the waters of Raja Ampat's Mansuar Island, located in eastern Indonesia's Papua region. Raja Ampat's palm-fringed islands, surrounded by an underwater kaleidoscope of coral and fish, are described by the regional tourism office as 'the last paradise on Earth'. A 2002 report by US-based Conservation International classed the waters as 'potentially the world's richest in terms of marine biodiversity,' with nearly 1,400 varieties of fish and 603 species of coral

Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images