Sea Cucumber Hatchery and Culture to Tackle Overfishing

By Henrylito D. Tacio

Pangasinan, May 2009.  With more and more people now inhabiting the world, the law of supply and demand needs not to be explained anymore. This is particularly true in the case of sea cucumbers, which are found in shallow waters inhabiting wide seagrass beds, soft bottom areas, and coral reefs.

There is a huge demand for these homely undersea animals around the world known scientifically as Holothuroidea. Across Asia, sea cucumbers have long been a staple in people's diets, mainly in soups, stews, and stir-fries. They are fast gaining recognition among European chefs.

As demand continues to escalate, the supply dwindles - to the extent that their population is now in jeopardy.

Sea cucumber stocks are under intense fishing pressure throughout the world, according to a recent report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Most high value commercial species have been depleted.

In Asia and the Pacific, the most sought-after species are largely depleted. The region generates some 20,000 to 40,000 tons per year, which are exported to China and other Asian markets. Most of them come from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

“The fast pace of development of sea cucumber fisheries to supply growing international demand is placing most fisheries and many sea cucumber species at risk,” pointed out the FAO report, Sea Cucumbers: A Global Review of Fisheries and Trade.

After Indonesia, the Philippines is the world’s second largest exporter of dried sea cucumbers. The price rate of dried commodity in the United States is from US$180 to US$250 per kilogram.

Sea cucumber is not popular among Filipino consumers. It is usually an ingredient in preparing mixed seafood and ho-to-tay dishes popular in regular Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately, the ingredient is unknown to many.

Sea cucumbers are utilized almost exclusively as an export commodity. This huge export make the population of sea cucumbers in the country to decline significantly. “Yes, we used to have a lot of sea cucumbers in our coastal areas,” admits Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, the executive director of the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD). “They have been depleted because of over-harvesting.”

But the good news is: There are now on-going projects for the artificial breeding and culture of sea cucumbers being conducted by the Marine Science Institute (MSI) of the University of the Philippines (UP) in Bolinao, Pangasinan. In Mindanao, the UP is also conducting pond culture of sea cucumber in Davao City, in cooperation with a private entity, the Alson Aquaculture.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has recently established the country’s first-ever commercial hatchery for sea cucumber to enhance massive raising of the commodity nationwide. The hatchery produces 60,000 “juvenile” sea cucumbers every month, which can be distributed to farmers who are interested in culturing them in fish ponds, or for sea ranching (stocking them in a designated space in the sea for gathering later).

“Sea cucumber is a good material for sea ranching because, based on its behavior, it can travel just one to two meters a day and about one kilometer a year,” the BFAR said in a statement.

The mortality rate of cultured juveniles is high. But once they weigh 20 grams and placed in the seafloor or in ponds, the survival rate is almost 100 percent, according to Dr. Westly Rosario, executive director of the BFAR’s National Fisheries Research Development Institute.

In a recent report, Northern Luzon correspondent Yolanda Fuertes wrote: “Aside from the initial cost of the juvenile sea cucumbers (P5 each), they are not fed commercial food, depending only on organic matter in the culture pond for nourishment (salinity should be at least 20 parts per thousand) or the sea tidal flats which are their natural habitats.”

Dr. Guerrero said that sea farming of sea cucumbers “can be a profitable and environmentally-friendly livelihood industry for coastal communities.” The PCAMRD, a line agency of the Department of Science and Technology, is supporting such kind of projects.

A study conducted at BFAR showed that it takes six months for the sea cucumber to reach 250 grams, the desired weight in the export market. One hectare of fishpond can accommodate 10,000 sea cucumbers. This means that after six months, a farmer can harvest at least 2.5 tons.

But before they can be exported, they have to be dried first – shrunk to about 10 percent of their live weight. So, the marketable harvest would only be 250 kilograms. At P4,000 per kilogram, the farmer earns a whooping P1 million from his one-hectare pond in six months.

But sea cucumbers are not the only commodity that can be raised in the pond. Dr. Rosario was quoted as saying by Fuertes: “(Sea cucumbers) can be cultured together with vannamei or Pacific white shrimps. They can also be alternated with white shrimps (in a process) similar to crop rotation. After the harvest of the shrimps, sea cucumbers can be cultured and they will at the organic matter and impurities in the pond.”

Or as Dr. Guerrero puts it: “Sea cucumbers can be used for cleaning up the sea bottom in areas where fish cages are found because of their detritus-feeding habit.”

The BFAR identified the following areas as most feasible for raising sea cucumber: Pangasinan, particularly Bolinao and the Hundred Islands; Zambales, Palawan and Sulu archipelago which are rocky and sandy. It added that over 60 coastal municipalities in 14 regions of the country depend on sea cucumber fishery for livelihood.

The Philippines is home to 100 species of balatan (as sea cucumbers are called), of which 31 are commercially important. However, BFAR is only breeding the Holothuria scabra species (sandfish) because it is the easiest to culture, very meaty and commands a high price abroad.

“There is a big export market for sea cucumbers particularly for Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan,” Dr. Guerrero claims.

Mostly, sea cucumber is used as a delicacy. An ideal tonic food, it is higher in protein (at 55%) than most any other food except egg whites (at 99%). It is lower in fat than most other foods.

Sea cucumber is highly prized as an ingredient in haute cuisine. Whole bêche-de-mer – as it is known among French – can be stuffed with a filling of pork, cornstarch and chopped fried fish. The Chinese poach the sea cukes, smother them in a thick sauce of garlic, ginger, onion and soy sauce and call them hai sum.

Aside from their use in cooking, there’s also an emerging market for the use of sea cucumbers in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

According to analysis by principles of traditional Chinese medicine, the sea cucumber nourishes the blood and vital essence, treats kidney disorders and reproductive organs, and moistens dryness (especially of the intestines). It has a salty quality and warming nature.

Common medicinal uses of sea cucumber in China include treating: weakness, impotence, debility of the aged, constipation due to intestinal dryness, and frequent urination.

Some species of sea cucumbers are believed to be endowed with aphrodisiac powers. The reason for this belief is the peculiar reaction of the creature on being kneaded or disturbed slightly with fingers. It swells and stiffens and a jet of water is released from one end. This behavior is similar to the erection and subsequent ejaculation of the male sexual organ.

What Are Sea Cucumbers?

Sea cucumbers, although they can be pickled, are not cucumbers at all. Rather they are a form of echinoderm along with starfish and sea urchins.

A remarkable feature of these marine animals is they catch collagen that forms their body wall. This can be loosened and tightened at will and if the animal wants to squeeze through a small gap it can essentially liquefy its body and pour into the space. To keep itself safe in these crevices and cracks the sea cucumbers hooks up all its collagen fibers to make its body firm again.

In particular, these creatures have the remarkable ability to live for months, often up to half a year, without feeding. It is very common for these creatures to be introduced into a system that can’t support them. Once it is hungry and not feed, it slowly shrink as it digests its own body mass to survive.

According to marine science, most sea cucumbers reproduce by releasing sperm and ova into the ocean water. Depending on conditions, one organism can produce thousands of gametes.

Philippine's Coral Reefs Ecologically Threatened, UNEP Reports

By Henrylito D. Tacio

Nearly all of the ecologically-fragile coral reefs in the Philippines are under severe threat from economic development and climate change.

This was according to an update circulated by the Southeast Asian Centre of Excellence (SEA CoE) during the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida late last year.

The Philippines is part of the so-called coral triangle, which spans eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands. It covers an area that is equivalent to half of the entire United States.

Although there are 1,000 marine protected areas (MPAs) within the country, only 20 percent are functioning, the update said. MPAs are carefully selected areas where human development and exploitation of natural resources are regulated to protect species and habitats. In the Philippines, coral reefs are important economic assets, contributing more than US$1 billion annually to the economy. 

Many local, coastal communities do not understand or know what a coral reef actually is, how its ecosystem interacts with them, and why it is so important for their villages to preserve and conserve it, SEA CoE said in a statement. 

Coral reefs are some of the world's ecologically-fragile ecosystems. They attract a diverse array of organisms in the ocean. They provide a source of food and shelter for a large variety of species including fish, shellfish, fungi, sponges, sea anemones, sea urchins, turtles and snails.

A single reef can support as many as 3,000 species of marine life. As fishing grounds, they are thought to be 10 to 100 times as productive per unit area as the open sea. In the Philippines, an estimated 10-15 per cent of the total fisheries come from coral reefs.

Coral reefs also create a natural barrier (hence reducing erosion and protecting coastlines) against waves and storm surge. Also, within the past few decades, researches have recognized the potential for deriving medicinal compounds from organisms found on reefs. The Aids drug AZT, for instance, is based on chemicals extracted from a reef sponge. 

Coral reef ecosystems are often hailed by experts as the rainforests of the seas. But unlike their counterparts, they have not given much importance by people since they could not be seen. 

When trees are cut and human beings are affected as a result of flash floods, people rallied against deforestation, explained Dr. Bernhard Riegel, associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute in the United States. But like forests, coral reefs are also suffering the same magnitude of destruction.

According to marine scientists, 70 percent of the world s coral reefs may be lost by 2050 if human impacts on corals are not reduced. In the Philippines, coral reefs have been slowly dying over the past 30 years.

The World Atlas of Coral Reefs, compiled by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), reported that 97 percent of reefs in the Philippines are under threat from destructive fishing techniques, including cyanide poisoning, over-fishing, or from deforestation and urbanization that result in harmful sediment spilling into the sea.

Last year, Reef Check, an international organization assessing the health of reefs in 82 countries, stated that only five percent of the country's coral reefs are in excellent condition. These are the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park in Palawan, Apo Island in Negros Oriental, Apo Reef in Puerto Galera, Mindoro, and Verde Island Passage off Batangas.

About 80-90 per cent of the incomes of small island communities come from fisheries. Coral reef fish yields range from 20 to 25 metric tons per square kilometer per year for healthy reefs, said Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former environment secretary.

Dr. Alcala is known for his work in Apo Island, one of the world-renowned community-run fish sanctuaries in the country. It even earned him the prestigious 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service.

Rapid population growth and the increasing human pressure on coastal resources have also resulted in the massive degradation of the coral reefs. Robert Ginsburg, a specialist on coral reefs working with the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, said human beings have a lot to do with the rapid destruction of reefs.

In areas where people are using the reefs or where there is a large population, there are significant declines in coral reefs, he pointed out.

Dr. Edgardo D. Gomez, director of the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines at Diliman, agrees. If asked what the major problem of coral reefs is, my reply would be The pressure of human populations, he asserted.

A visit to any fishing village near a reef will quickly confirm this, he pointed out. There are just too many fishermen. They overfish the reefs, and even if the use non-destructive fishing gear, they still stress the coral reef ecosystem, Dr. Gomez deplored.

Life in the Philippines is never far from the sea, wrote Joan Castro and Leona D Agnes in a recent report. Every Filipino lives within 45 miles of the coast, and every day, more than 4,500 new residents are born. 

Aside from human pressures, coral reefs are also facing an unseen scourge: climate change. Coral reefs are under siege from many threats, but climate change is among the most serious risks to their survival, said Dr. Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science. 

Climate change due to the enhanced greenhouse effect has significant consequences for coral reefs, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN-backed group of experts studying the extent of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions and its impact on the planet. There is a direct link between unusually warm seawater temperature and bleaching of reef-building corals around the world. 

Among those who agree with such troubling assessments is Domingo Ochavillo, a Filipino marine biologist. Coral reefs serve as one of the best barometers of climate change, he was quoted as saying. Coral bleaching is an indicator of what is happening due to global warming. We are going to lose our heritage with this. 

Science, in an article titled World Without Corals? explained what coral bleaching is all about: When sea surface temperatures exceed the normal summer high of one degree Celsius or more for a few weeks running, coral polyps, for reasons not entirely understood, expel their zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that lend corals colour and provide nutrients. The polyps turn pale and starve. 

In the famed Galapagos, a single bleaching event wiped out a coral reef that had been around for thousands of years. 

The Philippines must do something now before it is too late. The Philippines is a country that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, warned US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso.

Will Marine Turtles be Soon Extinct?

by Henrylito D.Tacio

Marine turtles are one of the longest-lived creatures Earth has ever known. Individual turtles can survive for centuries, bearing silent witness to epic swaths of human swagger. These air-breathing reptiles live their long legendary lives mostly in the sea.

But why there is so much ado about marine turtles these days? Locally known as pawikan, they are hunted for meat and leather; their eggs are taken for food and aphrodisiacs. Their nesting sites go for development. They are ground up by dredges, run over by pleasure boats, poisoned by pollution, strangled by trash, and drowned by fishlines and net.

Of the eight species of marine turtles known to man, five of them can be found in the Philippines. These are the Green Sea (known in the science world as Chelonia mydas), Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricate), Loggerhead (Caretta caretta), Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), and Leatherback (Dermocheyls coriacea). The three others are the Kemps Ridley (Lepidochelys kempi), Flatback (Chelonia depressa), and Black Sea (Chelonia agassizi).

Unfortunately, all eight species are listed under the Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which means the trade of these species and subspecies is strictly prohibited except for educational, scientific or research and study purposes.

The Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has also classified the eight species as endangered. This is so because their populations are in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if the causal factors continue to operate.

Despite sincere efforts by the government and environmentalists to prevent the further decimation of the marine turtle population, the gathering of turtle eggs and trading of stuffed turtles in souvenir shops remain unabated.

If you have bought a stuffed turtle in one of those souvenir shops, you have unwittingly contributed to the extermination of an endangered Philippine wildlife species, observed a Filipino environmentalist.

Conservation of marine turtles should be the concern of all Filipinos. As a citizen, you can do your part in discouraging the sale collection, or the killing of sea turtles by not buying these or products from turtles, he added.

The Haribon Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources warns, Unless we seriously take on the task of protecting the much endangered marine turtles, these ancient creatures will soon be gone (from our waters).

Most of the marine turtles in the Philippines are found in Baguan, Taganak, Lihiman, Boan, Langaan, and the Great Bakkungan, which are part of the so-called Turtle Islands. These islands used to be a favorite weekend destination of British excursionists and other nationals from North Borneo (now Sabah).

But they can also be found in other parts of the country. The Green Sea turtles have been sighted as far north as the Fuga Islands in Cagayan, and in the Southwest in Bancuran, Palawan.

The Hawksbill turtles inhabit the Celebes Sea, the Cuyo island group of Palawan, neighbouring towns of Jolo, Cotabato, and Sitangkai in Tawi-Tawi, as well as in Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro and the open waters of Sulu Sea. The Olive Ridley turtles have been seen by fishermen in the shallow coastal waters of Paluan, Occidental Mindoro.

To save the marine turtles from disappearing in the Philippine waters, the government initiated the Pawikan Conservation Project (PCP), an implementing arm of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It manages and coordinates both the marine turtles and dugong (another endangered marine mammal) conservation efforts of the government and private sector.

The project was created by the late Ferdinand Marcos through Executive Order No. 54 and was known then as Task Force Pawikan. Its main objective was to conduct a nationwide program to conserve marine turtles, a task that involves the protection and propagation of the animals.

To help propagate marine turtle species, the PCP established sanctuaries in areas where the endangered species abound. Hatcheries have been set up in these areas. The main hatcheries are in Turtle Islands.

A couple of years go, the government passed Republic Act 9147 or the Wildlife Act that mandates, among others, putting a stop to the collection of eggs from the populated Turtle Islands.

In other parts of the country, government officials are doing their best to save the marine turtles from extinction. In the coastal village of Maitum, Sarangani marine turtles are given the chance to multiply.

Visitors may not find the sand parcel under the coconut trees and enclosed by a rectangular black fine-meshed net dotted by rounded green plastic sheet attractive at all. But ask Danny C. Dequia, and he will tell you: Below the sand enclosed by the net sometimes are hundreds of turtle eggs for hatching.

Based on experience, the hatchery caretaker pointed out that hatching percentage of the facility stood at 60 percent due to the shadow of the coconut trees. Some 3,000 turtle hatchlings and 100 mature turtles have been released to the ocean since 2003, his record showed.

Hawksbill, Olive Ridley and Green Sea turtles are among the species that have made the Sarangani shorelines as their egg-laying sanctuary. They have been coming at this coastal village to lay eggs as far as I could remember, said Jerry Bascua, the municipal environment and natural resources officer. It is maybe because their mothers also lay them here.

If left alone, marine turtles would survive several centuries. In March 2006, a giant tortoise said to be as old as 250 years died in a Calcutta zoo, having been taken to India by British sailors, records suggest, during the reign of King George II. Three months later, newspapers around the world noted the passing of Harriet, a Galapagos tortoise that died in the Australia Zoo at age 176 - 171 years after Charles Darwin plucked her from her equatorial home.

Behind such biblical longevity is the marine turtle’s stubborn refusal to senesce - to grow old. Don’t be fooled by the wrinkles, the halting gait and the rheumy gaze. Researchers lately have been astonished to discover that in contrast to nearly every other animal studied a turtles organs do not gradually break down or become less efficient over time. But the question remains: Will there be marine turtles in the next century?

Philippine's Coral Reefs Under Threat

By Henrylito D. Tacio

Nearly all of the ecologically-fragile coral reefs in the Philippines are under severe threat from economic development and climate change.

This was according to an update circulated by the Southeast Asian Centre of Excellence (SEA CoE) during the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida late last year.

The Philippines is part of the so-called coral triangle, which spans eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands. It covers an area that is equivalent to half of the entire United States. 

Although there are 1,000 marine protected areas (MPAs) within the country, only 20 percent are functioning, the update said. MPAs are carefully selected areas where human development and exploitation of natural resources are regulated to protect species and habitats. In the Philippines, coral reefs are important economic assets, contributing more than US$1 billion annually to the economy. 

Many local, coastal communities do not understand or know what a coral reef actually is, how its ecosystem interacts with them, and why it is so important for their villages to preserve and conserve it, SEA CoE said in a statement. 

Coral reefs are some of the world s ecologically-fragile ecosystems. They attract a diverse array of organisms in the ocean. They provide a source of food and shelter for a large variety of species including fish, shellfish, fungi, sponges, sea anemones, sea urchins, turtles and snails.

A single reef can support as many as 3,000 species of marine life. As fishing grounds, they are thought to be 10 to 100 times as productive per unit area as the open sea. In the Philippines, an estimated 10-15 per cent of the total fisheries come from coral reefs.

Coral reefs also create a natural barrier (hence reducing erosion and protecting coastlines) against waves and storm surge. Also, within the past few decades, researches have recognized the potential for deriving medicinal compounds from organisms found on reefs. The Aids drug AZT, for instance, is based on chemicals extracted from a reef sponge. 

Coral reef ecosystems are often hailed by experts as the rainforests of the seas. But unlike their counterparts, they have not given much importance by people since they could not be seen.  

When trees are cut and human beings are affected as a result of flash floods, people rallied against deforestation, explained Dr. Bernhard Riegel, associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute in the United States. But like forests, coral reefs are also suffering the same magnitude of destruction.  

According to marine scientists, 70 percent of the world s coral reefs may be lost by 2050 if human impacts on corals are not reduced. In the Philippines, coral reefs have been slowly dying over the past 30 years.

The World Atlas of Coral Reefs, compiled by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), reported that 97 percent of reefs in the Philippines are under threat from destructive fishing techniques, including cyanide poisoning, over-fishing, or from deforestation and urbanization that result in harmful sediment spilling into the sea.

Last year, Reef Check, an international organization assessing the health of reefs in 82 countries, stated that only five percent of the country's coral reefs are in excellent condition. These are the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park in Palawan, Apo Island in Negros Oriental, Apo Reef in Puerto Galera, Mindoro, and Verde Island Passage off Batangas.

About 80-90 per cent of the incomes of small island communities come from fisheries. Coral reef fish yields range from 20 to 25 metric tons per square kilometer per year for healthy reefs, said Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former environment secretary.

Dr. Alcala is known for his work in Apo Island, one of the world-renowned community-run fish sanctuaries in the country. It even earned him the prestigious 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service.

Rapid population growth and the increasing human pressure on coastal resources have also resulted in the massive degradation of the coral reefs. Robert Ginsburg, a specialist on coral reefs working with the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, said human beings have a lot to do with the rapid destruction of reefs.
 

In areas where people are using the reefs or where there is a large population, there are significant declines in coral reefs, he pointed out. 

Dr. Edgardo D. Gomez, director of the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines at Diliman, agrees. If asked what the major problem of coral reefs is, my reply would be The pressure of human populations, he asserted. 

A visit to any fishing village near a reef will quickly confirm this, he pointed out. There are just too many fishermen. They overfish the reefs, and even if the use non-destructive fishing gear, they still stress the coral reef ecosystem, Dr. Gomez deplored. 

Life in the Philippines is never far from the sea, wrote Joan Castro and Leona D Agnes in a recent report. Every Filipino lives within 45 miles of the coast, and every day, more than 4,500 new residents are born. 

Aside from human pressures, coral reefs are also facing an unseen scourge: climate change. Coral reefs are under siege from many threats, but climate change is among the most serious risks to their survival, said Dr. Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science. 

Climate change due to the enhanced greenhouse effect has significant consequences for coral reefs, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN-backed group of experts studying the extent of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions and its impact on the planet. There is a direct link between unusually warm seawater temperature and bleaching of reef-building corals around the world. 

Among those who agree with such troubling assessments is Domingo Ochavillo, a Filipino marine biologist. Coral reefs serve as one of the best barometers of climate change, he was quoted as saying. Coral bleaching is an indicator of what is happening due to global warming. We are going to lose our heritage with this. 

Science, in an article titled World Without Corals? explained what coral bleaching is all about: When sea surface temperatures exceed the normal summer high of one degree Celsius or more for a few weeks running, coral polyps, for reasons not entirely understood, expel their zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that lend corals colour and provide nutrients. The polyps turn pale and starve.  

In the famed Galapagos, a single bleaching event wiped out a coral reef that had been around for thousands of years.  

The Philippines must do something now before it is too late. The Philippines is a country that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, warned US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso.

Medicines from Coral Reefs

By Henrylito D. Tacio 
  
My friend, who is a physician, loves scuba diving.  “As if I am in another world,” he explains of his hobby.  “Down under, as I swim I see a different kind of spectacle.  It’s a feeling that only you can truly appreciate and experience.” 
  
The undersea world he is referring to is the ecologically-fragile coral reefs.  The Philippines has about 27,000 square kilometers of coral reefs.  Two-thirds of these are in Palawan and the Sulu Archipelago.  There are about 400 species of reef-forming corals in the country, comparable with those found in Great Barrier Reef of Australia. 
  
United States marine biologist Dr. Kent Carpenter, who has been diving in the country’s oceans since the 1970s, considers the Philippines to be “the best place in the world for a marine biologist.”  
  
Thanks to its coral reefs, which constitute one of the earth’s most productive ecosystems.  “They benefit people directly by providing food, construction materials and other valuable items,” writes Alan T. White in his book, Coral Reefs: Valuable Resources of Southeast Asia.  “More importantly, coral reefs provide support and sustenance to the other coastal ecosystems upon which people depend.” 
  
A single reef can support as many as 3,000 species of marine life. As fishing grounds, they are thought to be 10 to 100 times as productive per unit area as the open sea.  In the Philippines, an estimated 10-15 per cent of the total fisheries come from coral reefs. About 80-90 per cent of the incomes of small island communities come from fisheries. “Coral reef fish yields range from 20 to 25 metric tons per square kilometer per year for healthy reefs,” Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former environment secretary. 
  
What my physician friend doesn’t know – and this may interest a lot of doctors, too! – is that coral reefs are a vast source of medicines that could help humanity.  In fact, they could be the major sources of many new medicines in the 21st century. 
  
“Marine sources could be the major source of drugs for the next decade,” points out Dr. William Fenical, an American natural products chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. 

Like the tropical rain forests, coral reefs hold considerable untapped potential in the science of medicine. In Japan’s reefs -- one of the most studied coral coasts in the world -- there is a chemical called kainic acid, which is used as a diagnostic chemical to investigate Huntington’s chorea, a rare but fatal disease of the nervous system. 
  
Coral reefs also produce a natural sunscreen, which is now being marketed to sell as a sunscreen to humans in the United States. Also, the porous limestone skeleton of coral is now being tested as bone grafts in humans. 
  
“If used properly, the reefs of the entire world can better serve humans with medicine rather than with food,” some researchers claim.  “Half the potential pharmaceuticals being explored are from the oceans, many from coral reef ecosystems,” estimates the US State Department. 

In an article, which appeared in Reef Research, Dr. Patrick Colin, a marine biologist, clearly described the hopes that had led him to spend the 1990s collecting marine samples in the Pacific for the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). 
  
“Over the years, the NCI has been screening terrestrial plants and marine organisms worldwide for bioactivity against cancer and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and has come up with a number of hot prospects, a number of which are in clinical trials,” Dr. Colin reports. 
  
“Many coral reef species produce chemicals like histamines and antibiotics used in medicine and science,” reports The Nature Conservancy, an organization whose mission is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters needed for their survival. 

For centuries, coastal communities have used reef plants and animals for their medicinal properties. In the Philippines, for instance, giant clams are eaten as a malaria treatment. Chemicals from sea sponges collected off the coast of Florida have been used in developing a new drug, Ara-C, used to treat acute myelocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The antiviral drug called Ara-A is used for the treatment of herpes infections. 

Unfortunately, the future of our coral reefs is in jeopardy. Ten percent of the world's coral reefs have already been seriously degraded and a much greater percentage is threatened, particularly in areas adjacent to human populations. If this decline continues, there could be a significant loss of the world's reefs and their resources, 

The Philippines, home to over 400 local species of corals, which is more than what is found in the famous Great Barrier Reef of Australia, is not spared from this environmental problem. 

Nationwide surveys conducted from the 1970s to the 1990s found that only 4-5 percent of the reefs were in excellent condition, 25-27 percent good, 39-42 percent fair, and 27-31 percent poor. 
  
“The general trend is negative for the coral reefs in the Philippines,” disclosed a report released by the World Bank.  It cited an international analysis of coral reefs status around the world and found that the Philippines had “the most degraded reefs of all sampled countries.” 
  
The analysis found that 98 percent of coral reefs in the country were “at risk from human activities,” with 70 percent at high or very high risk. “The Philippines’ reefs are very badly damaged.  It’s one of the worst damaged in the world, on the average,” says George Hodgson, founder of Reef Check, an international marine watchdog group based in California. 
  
The decline is thought to be due primarily to destructive human activities. “Many areas are in really bad shape due largely to unwise coastal land use, deforestation and the increasing number of fishermen resorting to destructive fishing methods,” says marine biologist Porfirio M. Alino. 
  
Dr. Edgardo D. Gomez, director of the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines at Diliman, agrees.  “If asked what the major problem of coral reefs is, my reply would be ‘The pressure of human populations’,” he asserted. 
  
A visit to any fishing village near a reef will quickly confirm this, he pointed out.  “There are just too many fishermen.  They overfish the reefs, and even if the use non-destructive fishing gear, they still stress the coral reef ecosystem,” Dr. Gomez deplored. 
  
“Life in the Philippines is never far from the sea,” wrote Joan Castro and Leona D’Agnes in a recent report. “Every Filipino lives within 45 miles of the coast, and every day, more than 4,500 new residents are born.” 

Coral reefs have been around for about 200 million years, and have survived eons of storm-induced damage and sea animal predation. Unfortunately, their survival in this century is less certain. 

Let us then help conserve and protect our coral reefs. The words of Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III of the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development, come in handy: “We are the stewards of our nation’s resources; we should take care of our national heritage so that future generations can enjoy them. Let’s do our best to save our coral reefs. Our children’s children will thank us for the effort.”

Coral Bleaching Predictions for Coral Sea, Coral Triangle

by Mallika Naguran

Singapore 26.1.2009. Some of the world's important marine environments will see damage due to widespread and severe coral bleaching. The bleaching due to warmer-than-usual waters began in late 2008; this phenomenon is predicted to intensify over the next few weeks, turning colourful corals to bone white, and alerting NGOs worldwide to take firmer actions.

A report from the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts severe bleaching for parts of the Coral Sea, which lies adjacent to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Triangle in the Indo-Pacific.The following figure shows the most recent global 15-week Coral Bleaching Outlook from the 06 January 2009 model run.

Corals to suffer from bleaching due to raised temperatures.

The NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook indicates that the greatest chance of bleaching during the upcoming austral summer will be in the region bounded by Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and New Caledonia. Model runs now suggest that all of the GBR may experience some degree of bleaching this year.

Currently, the forecast system suggests that thermal stress with a high potential for bleaching possible in that region with thermal stress in a band stretching from the Coral Triangle region southeast beyond Fiji and perhaps to French Polynesia.

“This forecast bleaching episode will be caused by increased water temperatures and is the kind of event we can expect on a regular basis if average global temperatures rise above 2 degrees,” said Richard Leck, Climate Change Strategy Leader for WWF’s Coral Triangle Program.

The bleaching could have a devastating impact on coral reef ecosystems, killing coral and destroying food chains. There would be severe impacts for communities in Australia and the region who depend on the oceans for their livelihoods.

The Coral Triangle, stretching from the Philippines to Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, is home to 75 per cent of all known coral species. WWF reports that more than 120 million people rely on its marine resources.

“Regular bleaching episodes in this part of the world will have a massive impact on the region’s ability to sustain local communities. In the Pacific many of the Small Island Developing States, such as the Solomon Islands, rely largely on the coast and coastal environments such as coral reefs for food supply. This is a region where alternative sources of income and food are limited.

“Time is crucial and Australia needs to step up to the plate. Following the Government’s lack of resolve to seriously reduce future domestic carbon emissions, Australia has a huge role to play in assisting Coral Triangle countries and people to adapt to the changes in their climate,“ said Richard.

The Australian Government this week announced a 2020 target for reducing its greenhouse gas pollution by 5 per cent, which WWF criticised as completely inadequate. Reductions of at least 25 per cent by 2020 are needed to set the world on a pathway to meaningful cuts in greenhouse pollution.

Australia’s Coral Sea, which will also be affected by coral bleaching and climate change, is a pristine marine wilderness covering almost a million square kilometres and is extraordinarily rich in marine life, including sharks and turtles, with a series of spectacular reefs rising thousands of metres from the sea floor.

WWF is urging the Australian government to declare the Coral Sea a marine protected area, as well as working to establish a network of marine protected areas that will assist ocean environments to adapt to the changes caused by rising temperatures, and to absorb the impacts from human activity.

Other Threats

Oceans are intensified by other huge threats such as heightened cardon emissions and pollution.

“If nothing changes, we are looking at a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide in less than 50 years,” says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme, one of the organizations behind the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN). “As this carbon is absorbed, the oceans will become more acidic, which is seriously damaging a wide range of marine life from corals to plankton communities and from lobsters to seagrasses.”

Hope is also found in the ability of some corals to recover after major bleaching events, caused by warming waters, adapting to climate change threats. However, The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008, a report released by GCRMN in Washington, DC, in December 2008 indicated that the recent downward trends have not been reversed in the last four years. And corals have a higher chance of survival against climate change if other human threats are minimized.

“The report details the strong scientific consensus that climate change must be limited to the absolute minimum. If nothing is done to substantially cut emissions, we could effectively lose coral reefs as we know them, with major coral extinctions,” saysClive Wilkinson, Coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

“Ten years after the world’s biggest coral bleaching event,we know that reefs can recover given the chance. Unfortunately, impacts on the scale of 1998 will reoccur in the near future, and there’s no time to lose if we want to give reefs and people a chance to suffer as little as possible,” says Dr David Obura, Chair of the IUCN Climate Change and Coral Reefs working group and Director of theCoastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean Programme (CORDIO) in East Africa.

What is the Coral Triangle?

The Coral Triangle is the most diverse marine region on the planet, matched in its importance to life on Earth only by the Amazon rainforest and the Congo basin. Defined by marine areas containing more than 500 species of reef-building coral, it covers 5.4 million square kilometres of ocean across six countries in the Indo-Pacific – Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.

What is the Coral Sea?

The Coral Sea is located off the north-eastern coast of Australia. The area of Coral Sea within Australian jurisdiction covers approximately 1,000,000 sq km extending east from the boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) out to the boundary of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Australia's Coral Sea borders the Southeast edge of the Coral Triangle in the North (Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands), forming a natural geographic extension of the Coral Triangle and a link to the Great Barrier Reef.

NGO Information:

The GCRMN is a network of people, governments, institutes and NGOs in more than 80 countries, with many partners, including: CORDIO, Reef Check, CARICOMP, Project AWARE Foundation and AGRRA. All reports are available through www.ReefBase.org.

Project AWARE Foundation, a registered nonprofit organization, works in direct partnership with divers and water enthusiasts to conserve underwater environments through education, advocacy and action. To get involved in environmental activities and make a lasting difference visit www.projectaware.org

WWF is active in conservation programmes in over 22 countries in the Asia Pacific region. Visit www.wwf.org.

Gili Trawangan Ecotourism and Coral Reef Restoration

by Mallika Naguran

Just horse power to get you around on this isle.

Not too far away in the East of Bali lies a sleepy island that practices sustainable tourism. Just horse power to get you around on this isle.

The thousand odd people living within this Indonesian territory of Gili Trawangan island (near Lombok) recognise their growing economic needs, want to grow tourism in a bigger way to meet those needs, and yet take personal responsibility in protecting their environment.

Over the past decade, they have seen a drop in the number of fishes in the sea. Fishermen had been throwing handmade bombs into the waters as a quick way of getting seafood to feed its own people. “Our coral reefs have been badly hit as a result of the use of bombs in fishing and we realized that when reefs disappeared, so did the fish,” said Pak Malek, head of Gili Eco Trust at the opening ceremony of the 6th Biorock Workshop on Gili Trawangan from 1-7 December 2008.

“But this destructive fishing is not practised anymore since we have established a marine park area (MPA) here working with the Lombok marine conservation office Kelesterian Laut (KSDA),” said Delphine Robbe, manager of Gili EcoTrust. “Our corals have also been destroyed by storms, anchor drops, overfishing and compressor spare gun fishing,” she said, “not to mention El Nino in 1997-1998 that caused bleaching.”

Building blocks of tourism development.

Knowing better now, the community has taken action. Delphine and her colleagues in Gili Eco Trust have introduced a slew of measures. They have compensated fishermen for staying away from the MPA, installed mooring buoys, and promoted marine awareness in schools and dive shops. The Gili Eco Trust set up in 2001 by the seven dive shops and a local organisation gather funds and resources to heighten marine awareness and conservation of the three Gili islands – Gili Trawangan, Gili Nemo and Gili Air.

A major initiative is to restore demolished underwater habitats by building new coral reefs using electric powered structures or Biorock with the help of the community itself.

Community Leads, NGO Follows

Gili Trawangan is a case study of how initiatives to make the environment a better place can come from within, and bottom up. The first Biorock trial installation took off on 20 November 2004 (source: www.balidiscovery.com) at the invitation of long-time Bali resident Cody Schwaiko, and Bali Hai Diving Adventures with funding from the Vila Ombak Diving Academy backed by community support.

Coral reefs born again.

Dr Thomas J Goreau and the late Prof Wolf Hilbertz showed them how to build a steel structure in various shapes to create a new coral reef to bring back the fish – and hence boost fishing livelihood – and protect the shores from erosion. Coral reefs serve as natural hiding places for sea creatures from predators while helping themselves to lesser prey. A healthy ecosystem for butterfly fish, damsel fish, lion fish, sting rays, lobsters and even moray eels.

“Then as nobody could believe it was cheap and quite easy to make, my friends Laurent Lavoye, Foued Kaddachi and I built our structure in front of Trawangan with our own money and with guidance from Tom Goreau during the 3rd Biorock workshop in Pemuteran, Bali in November 2005,” said Delphine.

The following year, they organised 4th Biorock workshop in Gili Trawangan with the support of the Karang Lestari Foundation from Pemuteran, Bali, with 30 participants and TV crew from ARTE. “During this workshop we built 10 more structures,” said Delphine.

Two years later, the hands-on 6th Biorock workshop in December 2008 was held in Gili Trawangan again organised by Gili Eco Trust and Global Coral Reef Alliance with the support of PADI and local businesses such as dive shops, restaurants and hotels. “We built 15 mores structures, 5 in the north and 10 in front of the village,” said the workshop organiser Delphine, bringing the total number of structures surrounding Gili Trawangan to 28.

Tom on breakwater structures slowing wave intensity.

The latest Biorock workshop on designing, building and maintaining coral reef structures was conducted by Tom Goreau from the Global Coral Reef Alliance. The 52 participants remained glued through the lectures that ranged from the history of coral formation to factors for restoration success to the scientific basis of coral growth due to electrolytic reaction. Staying a week on the island to learn all about Biorock and acquire building skills were Makassar University students, foreign marine biologists, dive instructors from Argentina, Sabah and Australia, resort/dive shop operators and teachers.

As an observer, I got all dirty and wet too. I tied the structures on land, dived underwater, collected broken corals from the seabed and transplanted them to the structure underwater, fighting against sea currents and running low on air very quickly. It is hard work too, carrying heavy steel structures from the shore on to the boat, then lowering them into the water before proceeding to dive in for coral transplantation. While I discovered with glee new muscles emerging on my arms, I also basked in seeing healthy coral growth on the older structures – they were already natural habitats for the underwater creatures to live, mate and reproduce.

And all because of a bottom up approach, with the islanders taking the lead. At the workshop, Tom urged participants not to forget community-based resources as the most important success factor in establishing a long-term marine restoration project. “The local people know the issues and want to restore the situation - they just need the tools and money. Because their hope is to keep the environment for their future generations,” he said.

Grassroots democracy at Gili islands.

Tom highlighted the traditional top down approach with NGOs pushing their agenda on communities resulting in formation of marine protected area (MPA) and police state imposition do not tackle the root cause of coral reef degradation. “Without large-scale restoration of habitat quality the fishery decline will continue even in the well-managed and funded MPAs,” said Tom, adding, “It just does not work.”

“We need grassroots democracy,” said Tom.

With grassroots support and long-term commitment, the building of new reefs paves the way for restoration. Political will is first of all needed at the local level backed by historical knowledge and documentation of how the reefs used to be. “The strategy is to accept the fact that the corals that we have are damaged and decide what to do about them. Technology then can serve that role if we apply it on a large scale,” he said. Community-based fishery management using Biorock is presently ongoing in the Philippines and Thailand as well.

Agreeing, Badrul Munir, MM, Vice governor of Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) talks of the urgent need to escalate the projects with greater community involvement. “We need to grow new coral reefs not just around Gili Trawangan, but the 100 and more islands around here,” he said.

Charging up marine creatures big and small.

“Only then can we get our fish back,” said the local leader.

The government of Lombok recognises that the problem of bad fishing practices that led to beach erosion as well. “We take this very seriously and have established a monitoring system daily,” said Malek. “When anyone spots someone throwing a bomb in, we alert the enforcement team.”

This enforcement is not the police however; they are villagers who have assigned themselves with such a role. In fact, at Gili Trawangan, there is no police station or police officers. Crime is dealt the way it used to be when time began – public flogging and shaming. “We used to slash their faces with knives and rub salt on them, then soak them in the seawater until they beg for mercy and repent,” said Ahyar Rosidi, manager of Pondok Lita where I stayed. “Now we just whack them with our hands and drag them around for all to see so that they will be more careful with this person when he comes around.”

Taking ownership of the island as their own home is perhaps why the crime rate in this island is low, the pathways are free of litter, public facilities are well maintained, and businesses chip in to contribute to the upkeep of the tourism standards – including starting a tourism school for youths.

Gili Trawangan Tourism School

Maybe tourism school with the right tools will keep them indoors.

The new tourism school set up in 2008 hopes to build essential skills and training of the local community to meet the fast growing tourism industry on this island alone. “We want to make sure they also have good jobs like receptionists, accountants, serving staff at restaurants and dive shop assistants and earn good pay,” said Delphine, who also manages Big Bubble Dive centre.

Having a job and earning money means that the poor can thrive. It could also mean that the noticeable drug pushing when night falls is stamped out. “Our village elders find it hard to prevent the youths from peddling weed because they seem not to have alternative jobs,” said Rosidi, adding that he wishes for more businesses to be set up on the island to create employment and boost the economy.

The tourism school, however, lacks funds and is crippled by the lack of dedicated facilities. The 30 students who enrolled into the two- and three-year programme this year share the same compound as high school kids. According to Rosidi, only 15% of the funds come from the government under the Lombok municipality; the rest is contributed by the 70 businesses operating in the island (each giving USD4-50 a month) and from well-wishers.

Future divemasters, hopefully, these kids of horsecar driver Wayas.

“We need more money so we can buy books, computers and sponsor more people studying tourism,” explains Delphine. Her dive shop sells postcards, pledging 25% of sales proceeds to the tourism school fund. According to Rosidi, donations such as textbooks, plain writing books and pens will also come in handy.

Visitors making a trip to the island can contact Gili Eco Trust to find out how they can contribute to the island’s ecotourism needs and skills training.

Underwater photography courtesy of Scotty Graham. Rest by Mallika Naguran.

About the Sixth Indonesian Biorock Workshop

The workshop inaugurated the new PADI Introduction to Biorock Process - Distinctive Specialty, which can only be offered at locations with Biorock projects, and taught by PADI Instructors who are also Biorock Training Course graduates. The workshop is supported by PADI Asia Pacific and Project Aware.

For more information, visit:

Global Coral Reef Alliance www.globalcoral.org

Contact Dr Thomas J Goreau at goreau@bestweb.net

Gili EcoTrust www.giliecotrust.com

Send enquiries, donations to Gili Eco Trust through info@giliecotrust.com

 Accommodation and activities information www.gili-paradise.com

See related Gaia Discovery article on stressed corals and how Biorock comes to the rescue.

Read about Thomas J Goreau background and motivations.

Biorock Helps Corals Survive Environmental Threats

by Mallika Naguran

New birth of corals with some help from humans.

Corals are fussy animals. They need just the right conditions to live in. The right amount of sunlight, right amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen, and right amount of food.

They also need pollution-free water and ideal water temperatures. They need to be left alone too to grow slowly, just about the size of one to ten centimetres a year depending on the specie - away from dredging fishing vessels, bomb blasts, and coral stepping snorkelers and scuba divers.

But such a utopia for corals no longer exists in many parts of the world, said Dr Thomas J Goreau (Tom), president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance at the 6th Biorock Workshop on the Gili Islands from 1-7 December 2008. Stress factors are numerous on a local, regional and international scale and they collectively stunt, bleach or kill corals.

Some misguided researchers and managers, according to Tom, also tend to penalise fishermen for fishery collapse and algal blooms instead of addressing the real problems. Fishermen were the first to notice and suffer from the ecological impacts of algae killing reefs due to sewage and fertilizer nutrients in the coastal zone, for which they were unfairly blamed for. Their impact was minimal compared to the coastal development taking place that was at unsustainable levels.

Tom warns of environmental stresses.

“Bad science resulted in bad policy,” said the longest diving marine scientist.

Tom highlighted that the traditional top down approach with NGOs pushing their agenda on communities resulting in formation of marine park areas and police state impositions do not tackle the root causes of coral reef deterioration.

Speaking to the workshop participants, he explained that the current environmental crises on marine ecosystems affect not just Indonesian islands, but around the world. Localised threats are coastline development causing sedimentation, deliberate coral reef destruction by resort operators, bad fishing practices (use of bombs and poisons) and inadequate or nil sewage treatment. Regionalised or internationalised threats include pollution, rising temperatures, typhoons, hurricanes and diseases.

“I rank high temperatures, water-borne diseases and poor sewage treatment as the top three threats affecting water quality in that order, at least on a global scale” he said. As such threats are often not localised, for instance global warming due to industries’ reliance on the burning of fossil fuels to generate power, there is a need to look at coral protection from a bigger perspective.

Agustin Rebora (left) and Aaron Joseph secure the structure.

Tom highlighted that bacteria that spread in seas which cause corals to become sick, bleached or to die have not been researched thoroughly. A particular pathogen strain dubbed “the white plague” was first noticed in Florida, spread across the Caribbean in the late 1990s and reached Africa in 2002. It had spread to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia within a year and now can be found afflicting the corals in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, including Indonesia. “Scientists have yet to culture the pathogen and study it, so it is difficult to find the solution,” said Tom.

Due to such real threats destroying corals around the world, it is foolhardy to think that corals are naturally resilient to tackle these threats on their own, said Tom. They are delicate sea animals that cannot run or swim away.

Biorock the Enabler

That is why technology has to step in. Going beyond mere concrete structures, rubber tires and chicken coop mesh, Biorock or electric reef technology can expedite coral growth and more importantly make them more resistant to these environmental threats over time. Biorock materials (also known as Seament, Seacrete or Mineral Accretion) was developed in the early 1970s to grow limestone building materials from the sea.

Crispin Gibbs welds steel in place.Biorock method, invented by the late Prof.

Wolf Hilbertz, uses a low voltage direct current (above 1.2 Volts powered by the grid, solar, wind or tidal energy sources) passing through a steel structure underwater to grow solid limestone minerals on conductive substrates. The minerals grown come from seawater, such as calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide.

This limestone becomes a natural and conducive base for coral larvae to settle on to grow. To expedite the building of a coral reef, broken fragments are collected from the seabed and tied to the structure. Since the 1980s, the method has seen the growth of limestone reefs in more than 20 countries in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Hard and soft corals, sponges, tunicates and bivalves can be seen flourishing on the steel structures of various shapes. Hard corals grow between two to six times faster depending on the species. “Exceptionally brightly coloured and densely branched, the corals also heal from physical damage at least 20 times faster and have 16 to 50 times higher survival from the most severe high temperature bleaching events,” said Tom, formerly Senior Scientific Affairs Officer at the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development, in charge of climate change and biodiversity.

Biorock structures can be as small as three metres long (as in the turtle structure) or as big or wide as your imagination can take flight. The electrical conductor is safe to animals and humans. In Gili Trawangan, a huge dome shaped reef exists underwater that’s as tall as a chapel, and as wide. Unfortunately a passing catamaran had dropped an anchor on the structure in 2007, creating a dent. This has not deterred the multitude of fish swimming through the structure though that withstood that impact, and serves as a popular dive site for bubble makers.

Doing the turtle ain't easy.

According to Tom, the low current prevents, even reverses the rusting of steel substrates. The Biorock material is around three times the compressive strength of ordinary Portland Cement concrete if grown at a rate of less than 1-2 centimetres per year. They grow stronger with age too while other reef growing materials deteriorate or wash away.

Preventing Beach Erosion

Beach resort owners are slowly waking up to the knowledge that the very reefs they destroyed to build their property on are the very guardians of their shoreline. This is because of the protective nature of reefs in slowing the wave action that thrash shores. High wave impact crashes on to the sand of the beach and sucks them out into the deep.

“I have personally seen 12 metres of beach sand right at my doorstep being wiped away in just 5 months,” said Ingrid of Karma Kayak. She attended the workshop to learn how to reverse the damaging situation which destroyed not just the beach but her garden at Gili Trawangan.

Heave ho, Biorock on the go!

Beach sand is a calcerous organism made up of corals and shellfish over time. Without corals, beach sand cannot regenerate itself. In Pemuteran Bay, Bali for instance, around 60 Biorock reef structures restore collapsed fishery, slow down wave action and is naturally restoring the beach with new sand. On the tourist resort island of Ihuru in the Maldives lies a Biorock “necklace reef” of 45 metres long and 4 to 8 metres wide. It has been responsible for the growth of a once-eroding beach by 15 metres over two years.

Workshop participant Crispin Gibbs of Black Marlin Dive Resort intends to take the skills learnt back to his dive resort in Togian Islands of Sulawesi, Indonesia where the reefs are slowly deteriorating. He intends to place a large number of structures in a single location. “Concentrating these structures in one place will be more effective in building reefs, slowing down waves and restoring the beach,” he said, observing that the new structures placed underwater at Gili Trawangan were dispersed.

Creating an underwater nursery.

At the end of the day, it comes down to a collective decision by the community to restore critical stretches of beaches, and not just at participating or sponsoring beach resort house reefs to draw tourists.

“There is no limit in principle to the size of shape of Biorock structures,” said Tom, adding, “they could be grown hundreds of miles long if funding allowed.”

Following the Biorock development closely and convinced of its benefits to the coastal environment and villagers, mathematics teacher Mike Miron of Jakarta International School has secured sponsorship from the school to lay down a Biorock structure in the shallow water. Mike has personally nurtured 50 students to become certified divers and some, eco divers.

Attesting to its benefits, Dephine Robbe who has dived around the island for many years notices the difference. "Biorock has helped the island by providing new dive sites and lots of fish habitats as the corals are growing well on the structures and around," she said. The manager of Gili Eco Trust and Big Bubble Dive Centre has also observed new species such as file fish and frog fish appearing around the new reefs that also serve as nurseries and protective shelters for juvenile fishes.

It just goes to show that with some money, some sweat, a bit of technology and a lot of grit, corals can be thrown a lifeline to cope with the many stresses that threaten their very survival.

A new habitat is born with a bit of technology.

Underwater photography courtesy of Scotty Graham. Rest by Mallika Naguran.

The Biorock Workshop was supported by Project Aware and PADI Asia Pacific.

The workshop inaugurated the new PADI Introduction to Biorock Process - Distinctive Specialty for PADI Iinstructors where graduates are certified to build Biorock reefs.

For more information on donations or participation, visit:

Global Coral Reef Alliance http://www.globalcoral.org

Contact Dr Thomas J Goreau at goreau@bestweb.net

Gili EcoTrust http://www.giliecotrust.com/

Contact Gili Eco Trust at info@giliecotrust.com

Contact Delphine Robbe of Big Bubble Centre at robbedelphine@yahoo.fr

See related Gaia Discovery article on Gili Trawangan ecotourism.

Read about Thomas J Goreau's background and motivations

Shark Fishery in South China Sea and Impact on Ecosystem

Allen To and Vivian Lam investigate shark fishery in the South China Sea and reflect on the current status and trends of shark populations in the region.

Since the 1970s and thanks to Steven Spielberg, the world has got the most stunning and probably the most unforgettable impression on sharks. The image of the bloody sea and screaming crowds definitely etched into everyone’s minds. Second only to the outdated Lamarck’s illusion that marine resources are inexhaustible, sharks are grossly mistaken as an invincible, ferocious top predator of the oceans.

Misunderstood Creatures

Rostrum (saw) of endangered sawfish devoted to temple gods by fishermen in HK.

In the face of declining commercial fisheries worldwide, it may prompt one to wonder if these mighty predators can survive this global fishery crisis. Using a case study from Hong Kong and field visits to several fish markets in the region, let’s explore the possible future of sharks in South China Sea. But before we start our fishy journey, let’s go to the basics – the general biology of sharks. For the sake for clarity, the term ‘shark’ is used to refer collectively to sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras, which are all under the same taxonomic group, class Chondrichthyes.

Sharks are carnivorous top predators. They eat meat, basically fishes and molluscs but some feed on mammals and birds. Unlike many fishes we normally come across, sharks do not have hard bones; instead they use cartilages as supporting structure in the body (that’s also why we hardly get whole shark fossils!). Sharks have roved the ocean for hundreds of millions of years and have remained relatively unchanged throughout the period. Many species are about a metre big but some like the whale shark can grow beyond 10 metres.

Being ancient and successful predators, many have evolved into the lifestyle of being slow-growing, having late maturation and giving birth to few newborns. These biological characteristics render many sharks vulnerable to high fishing pressure. Simply put, sharks are removed faster than they can naturally replenish themselves.

So what about sharks in the northern South China Sea? The answer to this question is neither easy nor straightforward. Despite the popularity of utilising shark meat, fins, liver oil and jaws for different purposes, fishery data in the region are lacking or incomplete for sharks.

One of the biggest problems with shark fishery data, if available, is that information is lumped under a big category named sharks, hence not specie specific. With different sharks having different biological characteristics, this data is hardly sufficient for the monitoring of our sharks in the region. The use of anecdotal information, unpublished literature and interviews with experienced fishermen can help us understand better about the past of shark fishery, upon which present-day fishery status can be compared with. Instead of telling you the global status of sharks, let’s journey into Hong Kong, China, to have a brief look on the change in shark fishery over the past several decades.

Shark Fishing Since the Sixties

The 1960s to 1980s marked the peak shark landing period for Hong Kong with more than a thousand metric tonnes landed annually. Shark meat, liver, fins were used and a most interesting find - skins of some species were dried and used as tool for cleaning pots and pans!

Commonly caught spottail shark.

During that period, some 50 vessels were actively catching sharks. Shark fishing was practised throughout the year but catches were highly variable. Nonetheless, good catches were usually guaranteed; fishermen deploying long-lines often returned with several dozens of sharks. Many shark species were caught during that peak period but the most common species included the spottail shark, green shark, blacktip shark and several species of hammerhead shark, which are relatively large species.

The shark fishery collapsed towards the end of the 1980s. Catches have significantly declined over the years, fishermen that formerly targeted shark species gradually changed their targets to other fish species and commonly-caught sharks showed marked decline in sizes and weights compared to 10 to 20 years ago. The decline was so substantial to the point that targeted fishery on sharks no longer exists in Hong Kong. Mirroring other fishery resources, sharks are considered overfished. Sharks that turn up in the local food fish markets nowadays are bycatches, consist of few species and mainly small sized sharks such as the white-spotted bamboo shark. It is relatively docile and was outnumbered by other shark species in past fisheries. The ‘dark age’ of sharks has arrived.

Shark’s Place in an Ecosystem

Small white-spotted bamboo sharks can be spotted in markets now.

So sharks are disappearing. But why should we bother? We can shift our menu after all! There is no easy answer to the potential effect of reduction in shark abundance. The interacting nature of the ecosystem means that even the most sophisticated study might not give full account on its consequence. Available evidence however indicates a potential cascading effect of shark removal from the ecosystem, notably a change to smaller shark species in the ecosystem, as their bigger competitors are first to be wiped out.

Population of smaller sharks such as rays, which feed on scallops, increased and this led to the decline of the scallop fisheries in southeastern U.S. (Myers et al. 2007). A modeling study even suggested that the removal of tiger shark may cause a rapid crash in the abundance of tunas and jacks (Stevens et al. 2000). This might occur as seabirds, which are prey to the tiger shark, proliferate after shark removal and these birds feed on juveniles of tunas and jacks. Evidence may not be enough to postulate possible consequence, but the ecosystem is going to undergo dramatic changes with the demise of sharks in our ocean and we are to bear the brunt if this happens.

Can we help? Definitely. Like never before, all of us have the biggest power in our hands to change the future of sharks – consumer power. The main driving force to shark fisheries comes from the demand for shark meat and fins. While the taste, texture and the suggested medicinal use of shark components remain subjective, it is no doubt that sharks around the world are in great trouble. Now that we recognise the problem, we have also the possible solution.

It is time to act, we urge you to stick to no-shark menus when dining out and attending banquets. As the next U.S. President Barack Obama put it – ‘change we can believe in’.

Photos by Allen To and Vivian Lam. Next month: The plight of sharks in China by Allen To and Vivian Lam

References

Myers, R., Baum, J.K., Shepherd, T.D., Powers, S.P. and Peterson, C.H. (2007) Cascading effects of the loss of apex predatory sharks from a coastal ocean. Science 315. 1846–1850.

Stevens, J.D., Bonfil, R., Dulvy, N.K. and Walker, P.A. (2000) The effects of fishing on sharks, ray, and chimaeras (chondrichthyans), and the implications for marine ecosystems. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 476 – 494.

Marine Restoration Needed for Sustainable Fishery

Just how to tackle errant fishing practices? Mallika Naguran takes a trip to the coasts of Malaysia and Indonesia to discover that conservation of marine environment is mostly an elusive theory that looks better on paper than in reality.

Just last month, days after I had written an article in Singapore on threatened marine species, I found myself staring at the yellow-fin tuna (Thunnus albacares) for the first time – not while diving underwater among pristine coral reefs, but at a nose-defying fish market in Semporna, a coastal town on eastern end of Sabah, East Malaysia.

The sea has lost this amazing yellowfin tuna. Photo © Jürgen FREUND / WWF-Canon

The fish was dangled before me by young fishmongers extolling its taste in local Malay lingo, and on the slimy shelf lay possibly another 100 such fishthat’s listed as “moderately to highly threatened” on Fishbase. It’s also among Greenpeace 22 “red” species. There were no bigger than 20cm suggesting they were juveniles, another cause for concern.

At another stall, yet another batch of yellow-fin tuna invite the attention of local housewives possibly unaware that not much of the same specie is left in the waters, and hence has to be left alone. Especially juveniles, as yellow-fin tuna's reproduction rate has dropped due to overfishing.

The yellow-fin tuna according to the Dr Lida Pet-Soede, Leader of WWF Coral Triangle Network Initiative (CTNI), is mostsought after for its meat in sashimi preparation and is hence expensive. This is one of the six species of tuna found in the world, and one of the five that can be chanced upon in the Coral Triangle. The yellow-fin tuna now is found less and less in the waters because it has ended up more and more on dinner plates, at a rate exceeding the specie’s ability to reproduce to maintain survival status quo.

According to Jose Ingles, Tuna Strategy Leader of WWF CTNI, fishery stocks are categorized as: being exploited, fully exploited, overfished, severely overfished and collapsed. “Fishery of yellowfins is fully exploited,” he adds, “and overfishing is definitely occurring,” he says. In other words, this specie is going to be wiped out in a matter of time if fishing methods were either careless or incessant, or both.

Blue-spotted ray far and few.

Walking through the fish section of the bustling market in the morning, I saw more gruesome scenes. A grey or nurse shark, about a metre long, was sliced and disembowelled, while close to it lay blue-spotted marble rays waiting for their turn. When diving, I recalled being thrilled by those lovely rays underwater – alive, colourful and gloriously wild. As there aren’t too many underwater in Southeast Asia, I’d quickly activate my underwater camera and get close up. But they’d swim away whisking their long tail behind them. In the market, they lay still and cold as I took photos on the sly. 

Coral trouts, groupers, parrot fish and snappers of various kinds were displayed in a basket by a young urchin. These could have been a result of by-catch, in the act of random fishing for tuna or the use of prohibited nets, bomb fishing or cyanide poisoning. Yes, these freakish methods are still being used in this hi tech generation.

A walk down the jetty just past the Semporna Fisheries Department next to marine police boats, I see baskets of skipjack tuna or “ikan kayu” being unloaded. “Tastes just like meat, better than tuna,” says the fish merchant, comparing it with the yellowfin tuna. He is pleased with the catch of the day. While this fish stock status is considered “healthy” (Source: WWF), I frowned at the sheer quantity hauled out of water.  Just a matter of time, I thought.

A week later while muck diving in Lembeh in Bunting, North Sulawesi, I saw on the jetty huge Styrofoam boxes being packed with freshly caught skipjack tuna, and once again, the numbers were voluminous.

Shark slaughter.

Overfishing of any specie is a real threat in itself. WWF website states that the global fishing fleet is currently two and half times larger than what the oceans can sustainably support. As much as 52% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, and 24% are over exploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion (Source: FAO 2004).

Overfishing still takes place in marine regions known for splendid diving: near internationally famed Sipadan and splendorous Mabul, Kapalai and Mataking off Sabah, East Malaysia and Manado, Bunting off North Sulawesi, Indonesia. As much as 90% of the entire ocean’s large fish have been fished out, according to a report by Myers, R.A., and Worm, B. (Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities, 2003).

Skipjack tuna swept away in loads.

WWF’s Jose explains that overfishing of the yellowfin and bigeye tuna is being addressed by the Central and WesternPacific Commission which “recommends the need to reduce fishing mortality of juveniles of purse seine fishery by reducing fishing intensity by 30% using the average fishing effort values from years 2003-2006.” Jose adds that among all tuna species found in the Coral Triangle, “it is bigeye (Thunnus obesus) that needs immediate and drastic action followed by yellowfiin.”

The NGO is pursuing conservation management on several fronts. “At the resource level by pushing for the protection of key life stages such as reduction juvenile mortality by fishing and protecting spawning areas; at the market end, by working with traders and markets to push for reform to influence national and regional policies; and through advocacy by influencing consumption behaviour of seafood,” says Jose. WWF works on private-public partnerships as well to push for reforms, he adds.

Fishy Practices

Any diver will tell you, compared to a decade ago, there is a drastic reduction in the population of fish, and much of the once-vibrant coral reefs have been diminished or reduced to rubble in certain areas within the Coral Triangle.

This change is attributed to damaging fishing methods: overfishing, dynamites or bombs, sodium cyanide poisoning, deep fishing nets woven with smaller holes (they now need to because the big fishes are few), and coral mining.

How do we address these problems? Education, awareness and even policy enforcement are ways to arrest these terrible practices. However, in reality, fishermen do not understand the problems caused by over-fishing or refuse to contemplate on long term effects; to them, catching more fish means more money, an immediate gain. 

Resplendent corals preciously few. Photo by Mataking Reef Dive Resort.

This is especially true for life reef fish types that are highly sought after by restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China such as groupers and the humphead wrasse, also known as the Napolean wrasse (Cheilinus undulates). This and the giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) are currently listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

While there are opportunists in the trade, there are also, in reality, many poor people who need to feed their kids and send them to school, and fishing has been a traditional source of income. Why stop now?

Education is key to curb over-fishing, of course, but no amount of telling and finger wagging can put food in the mouths of poor people. Hence, poverty alleviation strategies have to be put in place before people can drop their Molotov cocktails for say, the computer keyboard. The cultivation of an alternative trade such as eco-tourism would be a way forward as this would create new jobs for various positions such as tour guides, agents, drivers, divemasters, trekking specialists, tour van drivers and more.

I spoke to people on the ground on what can be done to restore precious marine ecosystems. One, Adrian Van Dooren, a veteran diver and resort manager who’s lived and worked in many parts of the world, from New Zealand, Papua, Vanuatu to Malaysia. “We attended a meeting with WWF six months ago, and they wanted to put in place strategies for the next 5 years, 10 years, 15, 20… and I said to them, wait a minute, we can come up with strategies for the next five to 10 years, but until they work, what comes after is of no consequence,” says Adrian Van Dooren, resort manager of The Reef Dive Resort on Mataking island, off Sabah, East Malaysia.

Adrian who is no stranger to conservation work spoke to me of a three-day symposium held locally by WWF where participants were urged to address conservation issues. Apart from a thick report published from this meeting, Adrian has not heard of any updates, and continues to worry about destructive fishing practices in the area.

Corals bombed out to rubbles.

While diving around Mataking island, I was flabbergasted and distressed to see not glorious dazzling corals on the seabed but grey rubbles of wasted corals. This stretched on for miles and miles - a war-torn zone, similar to bombed out Baghdad. Never before had I seen such devastation which is in fact a criminal activity. Other divers who’ve scoured a broader area tell me “it’s normal”; such is rampant bombing fishing even today with all regulations in place.

There are pockets of healthy reefs, thankfully, which draw divers still, with amazing marine creatures. In the meantime, Adrian continues with the conservation programs that the resort has in place: beach cleanup, coral reef restoration on the house reef, turtle hatchery and student awareness programs on the importance of preserving a healthy marine ecosystem. He also created Sabah’s first (and the world’s fifth) underwater postal box by sinking a cargo boat near Mataking island. This new entry made an excellent new habitat for porcupine fish, lion fish, puffers and more, and a wreck of interest for divers.

Regulations and Policing

Adrian shares that even with government regulation protecting the sea, bomb fishing and other forbidden practices are still rife because of light enforcement. “Over here, the fishermen caught in the act by the Marine Police are handed over to the Fisheries Department for enforcement as the police do not have the power to confiscate the boats or arrest the offenders. The Fisheries Department often raps the knuckles of the offenders, who usually happen to be distant relatives or friends, and lets them go off with a warning. Because their boats aren’t taken away, within days or weeks, the same offence takes place.”

Fishery puts food in mouths of young and old.

While in Semporna in the same week, I picked up the local papers. Borneo Post on 12 September 2008 reported a seizure  Fishery puts food in mouths of young and old.the day before involving boats with controlled items (such as oil and rice) and bombed fish weighing a whopping 453 kg. The boats were heading towards neighbouring Philippines to unload the stock, but were intercepted during Operation Octopus, a joint crackdown involving Marine Police and Fisheries Department.

The boats, the article stated, were handed to the Fisheries Department. It added that the officials would take action to prosecute according to the Fisheries Act, and that it would step up its activities to prevent bomb fishing. It did not say how this was to be done.

According to Adrian, the fines are not severe and sometimes not imposed because the fishermen are too poor to pay, and the authorities do not wish to cause further hardship. “If they can’t pay the fine, their boats should be destroyed and sunk. If these guys have to take three months to rebuild a sampan, well at least the sea is rid of them for awhile!” says Adrian.

Dive operator Tino of Scuba Junkies, Semporna, tells of how even the marine police cannot be trusted. “Sometimes they confiscate the bombs from the fishermen, and when no one’s looking, use the explosives themselves. That way, they get extra money from the fish caught because they are poorly paid.”

When I checked with Adrian if this sounded familiar, he agreed. Corruption is rife and bribery is common. Another loophole, he informs me, is that fishermen near Sipadan get to their dirty tricks outside of official policing hours which is from 8 am to 5 pm. Once the police clock out of the seas, the fishermen clock in. “And the fishing goes out all night long. From here (pointing from Mataking island to the horizon) at night, you can see the horizon light up like Manhattan city.”

A puff before heading out when sun sets.

Right before my eyes, I did see the horizon light up with possibly hundreds of fishing vessels. Just imagine the tons of fishes being caught on a single night. There’s also another cunning trick engaged by the local fishermen, explains Adrian. “There’s a regulation forbidding fishing vessels to catch within a 100m range of the reefs. What they do in the night then is to sail near the reefs and switch on the bright lights. Dazzled by the brightness, the fishes awake and are drawn to the vessel. The boat slowly withdraws into the deep with the bright lights on, pursued by the fishes. Once beyond the 100m, they net them,” says Adrian.

Restoration Strategies

There are a number of alternatives that can be looked into to provide sustainable means of income to the local populace while giving the seas a much needed break. While the suggestions below are certainly not exhaustive or fully debated and while some are already being implemented (with or without success), it is an attempt to get discussions going. It is also a signal to those in power to make a change.  And an appeal to those who have cash to spare to fund conservation efforts of NGOs.

Develop Seafood Farms and Reefs for spawning and breeding of consumable marine fish and creatures such as shrimps, lobsters, abalone, crabs, seaweed and more to cater to the growing demand of seafood from around the world. The use of technology in restoring threatened or destroyed coral reefs such as Biorock is recommended which has a proven success rate in accelerating growth, especially useful for communities dependent on fishing for livelihood.

License Live Coral Farms and Coral Reef Fish Farms to cater to the growing demand of live corals and reef fish for aquariums. While I think it’s a crime to have corals and life reef fish in aquariums, and flinch when I see baby sharks circling the tanks infinitum in shopping malls and cheap nightclubs, I also realize that there’s a huge flourishing industry that’s just going to grow, and little can be done to buck the trend.

This is a sensitive issue; direct purchase from fishermen for live corals and reef fish is apparently cheaper than getting it from farmed sources. In my view, with more responsibly farmed sources of reef fish, there could be greater economies of scale. Licensing would be required to help crackdown on shoddy, illegal operations (if corruption can be nipped in the bud). At the same time, there has to be public education on the ills of having live coral and reef fish in aquariums as there is no way of ensuring that they are sourced from harvested farms.

Older and bigger than mankind. Photo by Mataking Reef Dive Resort.

Often corals and fish are taken out of sea and left in the farms for a minimum period that qualify them as being “farmed”. Corals take decades to grow to the size of a lettuce (depending on the coral specie, growth ranges from 5-25 mm a year. Source: marine specialist Richard Leck, WWF), so unless the farm has been around for half a century, your aquarium’s coral is probably a stolen gem from the sea. Who is responsible? I would think everyone who is now aware of this dicey trade should take personal responsibility in the preservation of our marine ecosystems.

Demarcate No Fishing Zones which often leads to the setting up of marine national parks. For it to succeed, it has to be a joint effort involving all stakeholders, especially the local community, and the source of funding to maintain the park has to be sustainable in the long term. The WWF is on the right path in influencing policymaking to establish MPAs, aiming to cover 10% of the world’s seas (currently only 0.6 % of the seas are protected. Source:WWF website).

Demarcate Fishing Zones that allow fresh catch using only safe methods. In Bunaken Marine National Park for instance, only line fishing is allowed in the fishing zone while there are other zones that rule out fishing and diving totally.

Regulate Fishing Practices – outlaw destructive fishing methods and nets; institute quotas for daily catch; prevent use of bright lights on boats to draw fish; have marine policing overnight.

Incentivise Good Fishing Practices – reward and recognize positive fishing practices by investing in the community infrastructure, education, water facilities and farming alternatives.

Incentivise Policemen, Whistle blowers – reward and praise prompt and effective monitoring and policing; fire up media attention to successful raids and enforcement; review salary scales to boost morale and institute pride in work.

Punish Wrongdoers - shame those who are corrupt, lackadaisical and negligent in carrying out their duties. This involves anyone having the official capacity to authorize or execute arrests, seizure, conviction and prosecution. Clamp down corruption now, and you can play a part by reporting it and creating a stink if nothing happens as a result. The media is always a good weapon to turn to for aid.

Nurture Alternative Trades – by creating new industries and opportunities such as eco tourism, handicraft, art and cultural galleries, cultural festivals, traditional condiment production, food and beverage stalls, eco resort development.

Transform them into captains of sea.

Invest in Skills Set – raise the service value chain and create new jobs, for example turn retired fishermen into sea   guardians; fishing boat captains to marine-based monitors; sponsor local college and university education to ‘spawn’ environment specialists, nurture eco-tourism skills development to increase the number of eco-trained service providers such as tour guides, nature guides and dive masters. See how Reid Ridgway did this in Thailand, by setting up an ecotourism training centre to transform unskilled youths to become certified dive masters in just nine months.

Should you have any thoughts on the above, go ahead and leave a comment below. I trust that with collective action based on the right strategies, we can help minimize the rapid depletion of fishes from our seas and correct the imbalance to precious marine ecosystems. At the same time, if some strategies don’t work, there are others that do and we should learn from each other. We have to act, and we have to do it now.

A long voyage ahead indeed, but it begins with the first sail. With you and me on board, of course.

Photos by Mallika Naguran.

Contact Jose Ingles at ingles.jose@gmail.com, Lida Pet-Soede at lpet@wallacea.wwf.or.id and Adrian Van Dooren at island@mataking.com.

Seafood Guide for Sustainable Life Reef Fish Trade

by Mallika Naguran

Think twice about eating Atlantic salmon from Norway, it says, but go ahead to enjoy Pacific salmon from Alaska, United States. A handy pocket-sized takeaway seafood guide produced by WWF for the Hongkong market, and soon, Singapore lists marine animals that are safe to eat, under threat and endangered.

Coral fish Juveniles Humphead wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus in Hongkong market. Photo © Michèle DÉPRAZ.

Over consumption of seafood, particular in Asia, is stripping our seas of ecologically crucial fish species and marine biodiversity such as the humphead wrasse, high-finned grouper, leopard coral trout and more. "You can choose to eat the right type of seafood that's sustainably caught," says Dr Lida Pet-Soede, Coral Triangle Network Initiative Leader, WWF.

Public education has made some headway in Hongkong with more than 50 corporations supporting the initiative by ordering only sustainable fish sources for their banquets.

To help push this awareness in a big way in particular Singapore “a travel gateway to the Asia Pacific”, the WWF has launched a Singapore conservation fund starting with the inaugural Asia Panda Ball. WWF’s signature fund-raising event will be brought to Asia for the first time on Friday 21 November 2008 at the St Regis Singapore to be graced by Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentian of the Netherlands.  Funds raised will help WWF Singapore kickoff this sustainable live reef fish trade and Coral Triangle eco-tourism awareness.

Where have all the fishes gone? Photo © Jürgen FREUND / WWF-Canon

Both consumers and corporations will learn the importance of maintaining a healthy ecosystem in our coral reefs, in particular the Coral Triangle, an area spanning Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon

Coral Triangle © WWF

Islands, Fiji and Northern Australia, over 5.7 million square kilometres. It is home to 75 percent of all coral species known to science and attracts 3,000 fish species, six of the seven species of marine turtles, migrating whale sharks, manta rays and marine mammals including 22 species of dolphins (Source: WWF).

The booklet lists seafood types safe to eat; types to think twice before eating; and varieties to avoid touching it altogether, for gastronomic purposes at least (see below for full listing).

Wish to attend the Asia Panda Ball? Send an email to pandaball@wwfint.org or visit www.wwf.sg.

WWF SEAFOOD GUIDE(Hongkong 2007 Edition)

Recommended (Caught or farmed in an ecologically-friendly way. Fisheries well managed)

Vibrant ecosystems. ©Cat Holloway.

Species Name,  Origin

Pacific salmon,  Alaska, US

Sardine,  Portugal

Leopard coral trout, Australia

Sea urchin, S China Sea

Scallop,  China, Australia

Chilean sea bass, S Georgia, UK

Geoduck,  N America

Clam,  China

Black cod, N America

Squid, Global

Abalone,  China, Australia

Rock lobster, W Australia, E Australia

Oyster,  China

Think Twice (Some issues with fishing or farming method, fisheries management. Increased demand may affect sustainability.)

Yellowfin tuna. Photo © Ezequiel NAVÍO.

Species,  Origin

Atlantic salmon, Norway

Big eye, S China Sea

Silver pomfret, S China Sea

Rockfish, S China Sea

Longfin grouper, S China Sea

Golden threadfin bream,  S China Sea

Horsehead,  S China Sea

Squid,  S China Sea

Star snapper, Hongkong

Areolate grouper, Hongkong

Duskytail grouper,  Hongkong

Giant grouper, Hongkong

Three-banded sweetlip, Hongkong

Mangrove snapper, Hongkong

Pompano,  Hongkong

Yellowfin seabream, Hongkong

Tiger grouper,  SE Asia

Sardine, Thailand

Orange-spotted grouper, Thailand

Turbot,  China

Mud crab,  China

Yellow croaker, China

Ling,  New Zealand

Yellowfin tuna, Global

Avoid (Over exploited, caught or farmed in an ecologically unfriendly way and fisheries not well managed)

Species,   Origin

Humphead wrasse. © John E. RANDALL.

Bombay duck,   S China Sea

Hairtail,   S China Sea

Flathead,  S China Sea

Unicorn leather jacket,  S China Sea

Red crab,  S China Sea

Shrimp,   S China Sea, China

Horseshoe crab,  S China Sea

Cuttlefish,  S China Sea

King mackerel, S China Sea

Mantis shrimp,   S China Sea

High-finned grouper,   SE Asia

Squaretail coral trout,  SE Asia

Camouflage grouper, SE Asia

Leopard coral trout,    SE Asia

Humphead wrasse, SE Asia

Orange roughy, Global

Chilean sea bass,  Global

Swordfish,  Global

Bluefin tuna, Global

Caviar (Sturgeon), Global

Hongkong grouper, China

Abalone, S Africa

And of course, sharks. WWF explains that shark fisheries are unregulated and many populations overfished. As shark species are difficult to distinguish, it is best to avoid all shark products.

Photos by WWF.

Related articles in Gaia Discovery:

Dr Lida Pet-Soede on inventive conservation methods used by WWF.

Why biodiversity and ecosystems are important.

Malaysian ecodivers, Reef Watch.

Reef restoration using Biorock.

Malaysian Eco Divers on Reef Check Mission

Mallika Naguran cruises to Pulau Tioman to dive and dine (hopefully seafood) with some volunteers bent on dealing with disappearing marine ecosystems.

Surveying against 100m line.

What lies beneath can be pretty scary.

Once resplendent, the colourful garden of hard and soft corals - necklace of the seas some say – can now be called a grey cemetery. Eye witnesses report dead, broken, crushed and bleached corals around the world, but some ordinary folks in Malaysia are not content to let further destruction go by, not on their shores.

Here, a group of volunteer eco divers fight sea currents, seasickness and fatigue to note changes involved in marine

 ecosystems over time through a comprehensive report to the authorities.

Julian Hyde trains volunteer divers on marine ecology.

Reef monitoring in Malaysia began in 2001. “Despite all the work that has been done to date, coral reef management in Malaysia could be more effective with better information,” says Julian Hyde, director of Reef Check Malaysia. Founded in the US in 1996, Reef Check is an international monitoring program that now conducts annual surveys in 86 countries.

Malaysia sits within the Coral Triangle. This is said to have the world’s richest and varied marine life encompassing Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Soloman islands, Fiji and Northern Australia.

Islands such as Pulau Tioman, Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Redang fringing West Malaysia’s east coast are names synonymous to top dive sites in the region. Or should I say, were.

Harmful fishing methods trap harmless creatures.

I was told over dinner with the eco divers that 42% of Malaysia's coral reefs are set for doom with increasing damage through coastal development, sedimentation, marine-based pollution, overfishing and destructive fishing methods. Not forgetting warming temperatures, which slow cooks corals to death.

In 2007, 33 Reef Check surveys were conducted in Malaysia, covering 21 sites on the east coast. The results revealed a number of pressures impacting coral reefs negatively. “These include rapid development of tourism facilities, principally resorts, which increases sewage pollution, leading to the spread of coral-smothering algae,” says Shafinaz Suhaimi, sustainability advisor with Wild Asia.

Wild Asia, a conservation organization, has partnered Reef Check Malaysia to sustain marine monitoring activities through 2008. Together, they developed the Sustainable Island Programme (SIP) with the financial support of Sime Darby Plantations’ three-year Adopt a Reef program.

Suhaimi dives for data.

Suhaimi, also a trainer and leader of eco divers, adds that increasing visitor numbers are causing significant physical damage to the reefs. She reckons that Perhentian island has a 30% threshold for coral survival, while Redang and Tioman islands have 50%. If you think those numbers are bleak, hang on. “Currently only 4% of the world's marine ecosystem is left undamaged by human impact,” she adds.

What the SIP designs is to outline the stresses faced by the reefs and thereafter produce a reef conservation management plan. “This inevitably requires monitoring the condition of the marine ecosystem by surveying more dive sites and correlating it with what is happening on the islands itself,” says Suhaimi.

Since its launch in March 2008, the members of SIP are on high throttle to cover as much ground during the favourable dive season (typically March to October). In just one month, 26 certified eco divers from Malaysian Underwater have surveyed 20 reef sites over the three main islands.

Eco diver Mohd wants results.

“We hope to eventually put up a report that will increase awareness of the value of coral reefs, its impact on tourism and on sustainable development,” says Mohamed Said, a keen volunteer diver with Malaysian Underwater, and a father of two living in Johor Bahru. Next weekend, he would drive up 300 miles to Pulau Redang for another underwater assessment.

One person who isn’t waiting for the report to be told what to do is Kaj, a dive operator and instructor at Tioman Dive Centre, a Reef Check partner. He and wife Barb stress care for the underwater life with students and leisure divers. At meals, Kaj opts not to eat fish as long as he lives on Tioman island.

“There’s no fish farm on the island, and there’s hardly any big fish in the sea here, so where do you think that plate of steamed fish comes from?” he asks pointing at the next table’s huge seafood fare. I order stir fried vegetables instead.

Marine ecosystems can be salvaged only with purposeful and immediate action by private and public sectors. Hopefully, Reef Check 2008 report is the last jolt needed to start concrete actions in replenishing the Malaysian coastline with vibrant reefs and hence, marine life.

Next: Stay tuned on how Biorock technology can help speed up coral growth, and possibly save the marine world.

Photos by Mallika Naguran, Ted Adnan and Izwar Zakri.

For more information, visit Reef Check Malaysia, Wild Asia, Malaysian Underwater and Tioman Dive Centre. 

Ecotourism Training Centre - From Dread to Dive Masters

Story by Mallika Naguran

ETC 2008 students get ready for a big feast

It is not everyday we hear stories of youths getting that golden opportunity to turn their lives around. One such story I picked up on the web made me pack my bags in a hurry to go and witness the miracle for myself.

Off I set from Singapore to Thailand’s idyllic Kao Lak coast in Phang-Nga province of Thailand. I gave just a week’s notice to Reid Ridgway, the founder of Ecotourism Training Centre, who simply emailed back, “Drop in and see us anytime.”

ETC, as it is known in short, found its roots just after the devastation caused by the Asian Tsunami in 2004 that claimed more than a quarter of a million lives. The centre helps rebuild lives of youths who lost their homes, parents or livelihood during the catastrophe. This through learning new skills such as English language and computer literacy, advanced emergency care and marine conservation leading to certifications as PADI master divers.

Students have done incredible work in marine conservation, coastal clean up, community building, with recent efforts to spearhead the use of bio-diesel fuel in dive boats. They have also taught more than 150 local youths to dive and care for the environment.

Considering that most of the students enrolled in ETC have not gone past primary school education, never used a computer before and could only manage spattering English, their personal accomplishments put me to shame. Not everyone can be a diver, let alone a dive master or an instructor (I should know - I dive yet can’t muster enough strength to tow an injured body against choppy water). It takes a whole load of grit too, as tests are conducted in English - a foreign language to Thais.

ETC 2007 students in a joint cleanup of Thai Muang Marine National Park with Green Fins

Masters of Sea

Three years since its inception, the centre has groomed 10 PADI dive instructors and 31 PADI dive masters. Typically between 17 to 34 in age, the graduates have found jobs that befit their newly acquired status: some with the Thai Royal Navy as rescue divers and others with scuba dive shops as instructors or dive masters, supplementing the ever increasing demand for qualified dive personnel. Thailand boasts many amazing reefs and coral pinnacles at Phi Phi, Sumilan and Surin islands, and as such, draws marine divers from around the world, as clown fish would to anemone.

Sarah Chernecki suffers the lack of nachos in Thai but loves her work

I had the opportunity of mingling with 15 youths currently undergoing ETC training who charmed me with their demeanour, between blushes and grins. “I am very lucky to be on this program,” says Ong, who is a divorced young father in his 30s, supporting three kids. This amiable man was orphaned at birth; he left school to earn scanty income as a tut tut (cabbie) driver on the dusty roads of Bangkok. Last year, upon hearing about the ETC program, he ditched his vehicle and headed to ETC to try his luck.

Ong was indeed lucky. With professional diving certification, he looks forward to a job that could potentially pay 50,000-60,000 baht (USD$2,500) a month. A waiter, I learned by snooping, earns a meagre USD $150 a month. With the costs of living on the rise such as rice, oil and property, it is no surprise that quite a number of Thais are in desperation.

Renewal Through Relearning

Troubled times can make way for opportunities. Only skills, knowledge and training can bring this about to match the rising wave of ecotourism. Plus, undying vision and commitment from people who run and fund the program.

Writer Mallika can't help giving Dach (left) and Ong (right) a hug

Sarah Chernecki, a Canadian who packed her bags and headed to Southeast Asia to help the impoverished in Thailand since 2007, teaches English and leadership skills at ETC. “As dive masters, they have to communicate well and exude confidence to win over tourists who seem to prefer one of their own kind to guide them underwater,” says Sarah.

Each year, more and more youths turn up at the doors to try getting into the program, but unfortunately, some are turned away. Funding aside, applicants are screened on their backgrounds as the centre strives to help only those who need rescuing from difficult circumstances. Fitness levels count too, as students have to undergo rescue diving drills, which can be strenuous.

Help Rebuild Lives

It takes only USD 2,500 to see a youth through this unique 9-month program. Do help to open more doors for the enthusiastic Thai youths who may otherwise be left behind, often times in deprived conditions and with a dim future. If sponsoring the full amount is beyond you, why not split the cost with family and friends?

On (left), female ETC graduate and dive instructor, cleans up Thai Muang Marine National Park

Read more inspiring student testimonies on www.etcth.org and support them by sponsoring a student or buying their merchandise.

Photos by Mallika Naguran and ETC.