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Jolts of
low-voltage electricity are reviving
damaged coral reef off Indonesian resort
August 20, 2004
By Marilyn August, Associated Press
PEMUTERAN, Indonesia — 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 if the reef dies, affecting tourism.
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.
Nonswimmers can follow the reef's renewal thanks to color photographs displayed
at Taman Sari Bali Cottages, a sponsor that injected some US$15,000 (euro12,138)
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 co-owner 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 Niño weather phenomenon
bleached it in the early 1990s, killing most of the coral in shallow water, and
the 1998 Asian economic crisis forced starving fishers 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 who 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."
Source: Associated Press
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