Saving Bali's pristine reef through reef check program

By I Wayan Juniartha

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): A growing involvement of amateur divers and dive operators highlighted the Reef Check Bali 2000, an annual event aimed at monitoring the present condition of Bali's most precious coral reef.

Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Wallacea Bioregion-Bali, this's year event attracted voluntary participation of at least 35 amateur divers who came from every walk of life. These divers admitted that the event gave them a deeper understanding on the need of conserving coral reef.

"It presented me with the fact that we can, no matter how small, do something to protect and conserve this beautiful natural heritage of ours," volunteer Retty Chijanto said.

Retty, a stationery section manager at one of the biggest bookshops in Bali, confessed that not until she was briefed by the WWF trainers on the damages sustained by Bali's coral reef and then later witnessed the damages on the spot, that she realize that all divers must do their part in the efforts to save the coral reef.

"I am glad that I have done my part and I will do it again whenever the WWF needs me," she said.

The amateur diver's growing enthusiasm was well matched by several Bali-based dive operators, who offered increasing support to the program. In this year's program twelve dive operators, namely Waka Dive, Matahari Beach Resort Dive, YOS Marine Adventure, PRO Dive, Bali Hai Diving Adventure, Nusa Penida Dive, Dunia Selam Lembongan, AquaPro, Spice Dive, Bali International Diving Professional, Quicksilver and Bali Safari Dive provided diving guides, equipment and board and lodging for all the volunteers.

"Their commitment and awareness keep increasing by the year, and we truly appreciate the great contribution they have made to the program," the Reef Check Bali 2000 coordinator Made Iwan Dewantama said.

Dewantama recalled how in the previous reef checks it was the WWF's staff that did most of the job. But, now, he said, WWF is mostly acting as a facilitator in the program.

Dewantama also noted the rising awareness among the coastal villages' fishermen on the importance of coral reef conservation. Recently dozens of a North Bali coastal village fishermen, fully armed with blades and sticks, scared away a group of fishermen who were doing fish bombing in the area.

"Although we do not condone such violent actions, we do believe that the incident signified a major shift in thinking among our fishermen. More and more fishermen now understand that the coral reef's condition directly affects the number of fish in the sea," Dewantama said, adding that the fishermen must conserve the coral reef in order to protect the supply of fish, their source of living.

The Reef Check Bali 2000 was conducted from Oct. 13 to Oct. 19 at nine dive sites in Buleleng regency (Menjangan island and Pemuteran beach), Karangasem regency (Amed beach), Klungkung regency (Nusa Lembongan island and Nusa Penida island) and Denpasar municipality (Sanur beach).

Dewantama explained that except for Toyapakeh dive site on Nusa Penida island, the coral reef of which had been observed since Reef Check Bali 1997, all the other sites were observed for the first time in this year's reef check.

"So all we have is the initial raw data which would not give us any information on whether the coral reef's condition is improving or deteriorating," he said.

Yet, the data showed that fish bombing caused damages, indicated by the coral rubble spotted during the check at many dive sites.

The worst damaged sites by this illegal fishing method are the Menjangan island dive site, with 38.8 percent of coral rubble rate at 3 meters depth and 1.9 percent of coral rubble rate at 10 m depth; and Amed beach, which had 42.5 percent of coral rubble rate at 3 m depth and 23.1 percent of coral rubble rate at 10 m depth.

"Various kinds of coral reef fishes were found but in very limited numbers and in small sizes. Napoleon Wrasse fish and Bumphead Parrotfish were only found in dive sites in Nusa Penida island, while lobsters and sea cucumbers were not found at any of the sites," Dewantama told, adding that those were obvious signs of deterioration of Bali's coral reef.

Dewantama believed that the survival of Bali's coral reef would depend a lot on the ability of NGO's such as WWF in raising people's awareness, creating feasible conservation programs and in working together with government agencies and the people to conserve the age-old ecological treasure.

"The growing enthusiasm and commitment among amateur divers and dive operators to join our program have made me believe that it is still possible to save the coral reef," he said optimistically.