Jolts of low-voltage electricity reviving damaged coral reef off

Jolts of low-voltage electricity reviving damaged coral reef off

Marilyn August
The Associated Press/Pemuteran, Bali

As the late-afternoon sun bathes the beach with a soft warmth,
gentle waves lap quietly at the shore -- and strollers
occasionally stumble over a thick wad of white cables embedded in
the fine, black sand.

The cables seem to disappear into the sea, where large blue
plastic balls bob in the waves. And they seem to come out of
nowhere, sprouting like a nasty growth on the face of this
stretch of tropical paradise on Bali's northwestern coast.

The wires are part of highly original and ambitious underwater
experiment: the use of low-voltage electrical current to
stimulate regrowth in a badly damaged coral reef.
Conceived by coral expert Tom Goreau of the United States and
German architecture professor Wolf Hilbertz, the project began
four years ago and has already achieved remarkable results.

Covering a total length of 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet), the
Karang Lestari Project -- "coral preservation" in Indonesian --
is the world's largest coral nursery ever built using this
technology.

"You can really see the difference in the reef in just a short
time," said Chris Brown, owner of Reef Seen Aquatics Dive Center,
which co-sponsors the project along with local hotels and shops
committed to preserving the reef.

The technique is also being used experimentally in other
tropical locations, such as Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, but
the project in Bali is the largest and most ambitious of its
kind.

Indonesia is home to 581 of the world's 793 known coral reef-
building species, and most thrive in Pemuteran Bay. The area has
long been a favorite among scuba divers, who will go elsewhere,
affecting tourism, if the reef dies.

On the sandy ocean floor 3 to 7 meters (9 to 21 feet) down are
dozens of grids made from welded construction bars. Seen from
above, they look like some underwater playground equipped with
jungle gyms, monkey bars, upside-down cone and other climbing
apparatus for kids. One looks like the ribcage of a whale.

Wires carrying the electrical current are secured to the bars
and are plugged into onshore charging stations. Brown estimates
the amount of electricity used in a week is equal to burning a
single 60-watt bulb for a month.

Non-swimmers can follow the reef's renewal thanks to color
photographs displayed at Taman Sari Bali Cottages, a sponsor that
injected some US$15,000 (12,138) in seed money to get the project
started in 2000.

Brown, an Australian who settled in this fishing village of
8,000 people in 1992 and a co-owner of the cottages, said that
within days of receiving their first jolts of electricity, the
bars grew a white limestone film. This covering provides the
necessary substrate for coral growth.

The grids were then seeded with small fragments of live coral,
which begin to grow "between five and 10 times faster than
normal, with much brighter colors and more resilience to hot
weather and pollution," said a coowner of the Taman Sari
Cottages, an American who goes by the single name Naryana.

Some corals have been transplanted directly onto the bars,
attached by wires or wedged into specially designed spaces. Soft
corals, sponges, tunicates and anemones were also transplanted.
Vibrant colors and growth up to one centimeter (0.4 inch) in less
than a month have been recorded. Grids that suffered power
failures saw less vigorous development and duller colors.

"Today, the fish are back, including deep-water fish which
come into the reef to rest during the daytime," Naryana said.
The regenerated reef has attracted mobiel squid, cuttle fish, sea
urchins and starfish. Batfish, damsel fish and cleaning fish also
have clustered in the area, along with dense schools of snappers.
Divers also have noted the presence of large groups of young fish
- a good sign of future self-sustaining populations and the long-
awaited return to a balanced ecosystem.

Naryana, who was born Randall Dodge in Nebraska, described the
reef as a "total wasteland" when the project began. He said the
El Nino weather phenomenon bleached it in the early 1990s,
killing most of the coral in shallow water, and the 1998 Asian
economic crisis forced starving fishermen to adopt destructive
fishing practices that caused further damage.

Another near-catastrophe came in the mid-'90s with the arrival
of some 70,000 voracious Crown of Thorns starfish, most of which
divers yanked from the water before they could devour the reef.

Concerned citizens like Brown and Naryana have long supported
community programs to educate the locals about the long-term
consequences of the reef's worst enemy: fishing with explosives.

"Fishermen from Pemuteran actually went out and stopped the
bombers," Naryana said. "It took education, talking and
demonstrations to convince them that ocean conservation is the
future."

Naryana agrees with Goreau and Hilbertz that the reef project
is not just about jump-starting an ecosystem but rather an
investment in the preservation of rapidly disappearing coral
species and the fish that breed there.

Brown hopes the technique will spread to countries that lack
the money for more expensive methods to regenerate or improve
their coral reefs.

"We find that electricity reinforces the coral that's already
there, and has a profound effect on the condition of surrounding
corals," he said. "It shows you can take good coral and make it
better."

GetAP 1.00 -- AUG 19, 2004 08:53:34