Serengeti under the sea

Nov 7, 2012   //   by David   //   Bali, Blog  //  2 Comments

PemuTRAN, Bali 7th November 2012

Here on the north west coast of Bali, the sea is a balmy 27 – 31 degrees centigrade. We’re on the edge of the world’s most biodiverse seas. Indonesia has 581 of the world’s 793 species of coral. But fishing, weather, and crown of thorns starfish destroyed much of it in this area. Then 12 years ago the biorock project was formed (biorockbali.webs.com). It was found that by introducing a low electric current into a metal structure corals grow faster, larger and are more resilient.

Today we visited the biorock project which has seeded more than 500 meters of coral in an area of two hectares. This is the world’s largest biorock coral reef and nursery and restoration project. It is  larger than the combined sizes of all other ongoing projects in the Pacific, Carribbean and Indian Oceans.

Biorock works. We were overwhelmed by what we saw. Larger and more plentiful than Polynesia, we saw enormous coral, spectacular sizes. And along with the coral were schools of fish, more like herds of fish. In one school of snapper (pictured below) we estimated about 1,000 (yes one thousand) fish. Daniela says there were more than 1000. I counted 500 and had only included half the school. We saw a number of large schools of fish from tiny fish three centimeters long to the larger snapper.

On Friday we’re going diving at Manjangan Island. We expect to be overwhelmed again.

2 Comments

  • Sylvie and Russell November 7, 2012 at 10:03 am

    Wow – looks like you guys are having such a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing you soon and apologise now that we cannot offer the beauty of the South Pacific for your local sightseeing……..but if you need a new Rolex then you are in luck!

    • David November 11, 2012 at 3:09 am

      That’s for your message. We are unsure what time it is. David says it is because he doesn’t want his life to be governed by time. He was wearing a sarong when he said this. And thong sandals. Is it possible to acquire a Rolex with a plaited string wristband. It may improve our timeliness. Last month we arrived at the airport for a plane one day late. It has never happened before and I believe it is his fault. Looking forward to seeing you in the Big Rice Bowl (Hong Kong), Love Eva. (David has asked if Russell will join him for Tai Chi at 6:30am in the zoo before work)