Coral Planting Exhibition 31 May 2015

TRACC Coral Planting Exhibition 31^st May 2015

Emily teaching the next generation
about the threats facing our oceans.

With 75% of all coral reefs on our planet considered severely degraded, reefs are an ecosystem that need lots of positive human intervention.  There are many stressors facing coral reefs including climate change, ocean acidification, increasing amounts of persistent organic pollutants, overfishing, destructive fishing practices (including blast fishing and cyanide fishing) and coastal development. All of these, at least in some respects, are caused by human activity.

Coral reefs are the rainforests of the ocean, and, like the rainforests; they are shrinking at an alarming rate. They cover less than 2% of the oceans benthic environment but ¼ of all oceanic species depend on them. They are an important and fragile ecosystem which we as a species are having a negative effect on. It is for this reason why TRACC with support from the SGP/GEF/UNDP is holding a series of coral planting days open to the general public. Our aims are simple, to have the public actively involved with conservation, and, whilst they are doing so, educate them on the fragility of the ocean and how they can help. 

Visitors learning about coral planting and reef restoration

Todays exhibition was held on the 31^st of May 2015 and was second in our series of planned events for the Tip of Borneo. The team arose early in the morning to secure a booth on the beach. With thanks to the local police force we had a supply of electricity. Our booth (shown above and below) had many informative banners on coral planting, shark fin soup, ocean pollution and blast fishing as they are the main issues around this area. Here we presented what we know to be local threats affecting local environments and discussed it with our visitors. After showing the public about some of the threats facing their local environment, all were motivated to partake in some hands on conservation. At this stage we introduced them to our coral planting techniques.

What are Corals?

Large groups getting involved with the
important work of rebuilding coral reefs

Firstly to know about coral planting you need to know what corals are. Corals are animals like you or I. However, they grow like plants and also they get their energy from the sun.  They do this by having algae live inside them. The corals act as a landlord and the algae pay rent with food. This mutually beneficial relationship between two different organisms is known in the science community as a symbiotic relationship. Both corals and algae need to be in good health to produce a healthy reef. A healthy reef provides; hunting, grazing, breeding and mating grounds for ¼ of all oceanic species. Healthy reefs mean healthy oceans; this is why at TRACC we focus on these bio-diverse hotspots. 

Jason making artificial reef,
the foundations of coral planting.

What is Coral Planting?

As corals grow like plants, it is possible to plant coral. All you need is a piece of live coral and a hard surface for it to grow on. What we do at TRACC is collect corals from the reef that have broken off in storms or through anchor damage, these corals would normally die and so we call them corals of opportunity. We embed these corals of opportunity into cement. The cement then sets underwater and you then have a coral you now plant. We then use these embedded corals to add life to our artificial reefs, creating an artificial coral reef.

How did our event run?

Coral planting is hard work, as all who have volunteered at TRACC will know. [For more information on volunteering with TRACC click HERE]. It mainly consists of diving, collecting coral fragments,  making cement structures and lifting heavy cement blocks into place! To make this easily engaging for the public we had to do a little prep work.

Over the last four weeks, the entire TRACC science team has been preparing in Kudat for these upcoming events leading to World Environment Day and  World Ocean Day.  Firstly a large, stable underwater site had to be found, here we dropped our bottle reefs in a square fashion – these will make a large stable artificial reef which, after the event, will be where the corals are permanently planted. 

(Other reefs we made in Kudat 2014/15 within the proposed Tun Mustapha Park -->Here)

Keeping the corals in water
to minimize stress and
increase survival rates

Secondly we pre-made molds. These are small concrete disks, roughly the size of a coffee mug, with holes in (you can see them in the photo above). These provide the ‘plant pots’ for our live coral. The idea is that the small disks, which we have named biscuits, act as a base for the corals. The small holes in the disks have coral fragments put inside them and they are then cemented into place ready for planting.  

On the day of the event it was an early start for all. The team was split up into two group. One who set up our information booth, along with all the essentials for coral planting. The other team was in charge of collecting corals of opportunity. It is important to collect these on the day to minimize the stress facing the corals. The more stress the corals undergo the more they are likely to bleach and die.

Mixing the cement into a thick paste,
which is best for planting the corals

Picking which coral fragment
will grow well in her biscuit

All visitors who came were given a small cup sized container in which they mixed sand, cement and water so make a thick paste.  After this they would come to the area where the corals were being stored. Our staff would talk them through the biology of corals and help them choose suitable coral fragments. The public would then plant the coral fragments in the pre-made biscuits mentioned earlier, and help return these to the ocean ready for placement in our nursery the next day.

The finished product: a coral biscuit ready for
planting back in the ocean

In total, we planted three full boxes of coral fragments, a huge achievement in a days work. I’d like to thank all who participated in the days coral planting as well as my co-workers Kit, Jason and Emily - who have been working very hard to make these large events run as smoothly as possible.  Thanks also to the SGP/GEF/UNDP for assistance with funding these events.

More about engaging the community to protect reefs.


-----------------------
To know more about our coral planting techniques and our upcoming events  please like us or follow us on Facebook or google+ or read our tweets :-)


The Volunteers blog  for accounts of our conservation efforts, reef construction and surveys.


More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia.

Marine Science A Level at TRACC

Pom Pom Island is just magical

I have to start by saying it was with some trepidation that I decided to take part in the 2014 Marine science course at TRACC. Simply because it had been almost a decade since I had been at school studying. 

Within the first couple of weeks of classes, field trips and studying, my concerns had been replaced with excitement and curiosity. It is after all hard to be stressed on a beautiful remote tropical Island. I can’t think of a more suitable and amazing place to learn about marine science and the wonders of the marine world than the spectacular Pom Pom Island, surrounded by crystal clear water and white sandy beaches. Not to mention an array of sea creatures that are mind blowing.

Blue ring Octopus are common

Nudibranchs are my favourite

 Not only was the content of the course incredibly interesting and well structured, the field trips we were lucky enough to be a part of were amazing adventures.


These field trips included a hike up an extinct volcano to learn about atoll formation, a trek through a muddy mangrove to collect sediment samples and a trip to the local fish markets and docs to better understand fisheries management. Although, best of all was the awesome diving!!! Being able to observe for ourselves, symbiotic behaviour, biodiversity, food webs and much more at Pom Pom’s amazing dive sites, was just incredible.

Not only was the content of the course incredibly interesting and well structured, the field trips we were lucky enough to be a part of were amazing adventures. These field trips included a hike up an extinct volcano to learn about atoll formation, a trek through a muddy mangrove to collect sediment samples and a trip to the local fish markets and docs to better understand fisheries management. Although, best of all was the awesome diving!!! Being able to observe for ourselves, symbiotic behaviour, biodiversity, food webs and much more at Pom Pom’s amazing dive sights, was just incredible.

Fishmarkets

Rocky shore studies

The subject which affected me the most was human impacts on the marine environment. It really takes someone studying the topic to some degree to properly realise the enormity of the impacts we as people have on the marine environment. As shocking and frankly overwhelming as the module is, (covering topics such as; global warming, pollution and ocean acidification), being able to learn about them at a marine conservation centre from people who are actively making a difference, makes you understand how important education is in the fight for a sustainable future on earth.

Snorkel or dive with endangered turtles gives a new meaning to the study of conservation.

By exam time in Kota Kinabalu I was feeling as confident as a person can be before exam time! I may have even left a couple of the exams smiling 

 

All in all, I can honestly say not only was it an amazing experience but it ignited a passion in me and helped me gain confidence in my ability to return to studying even in my late 20’s after a long gap.

I GOT AN A ---  Wohoo

Flic - class of 2014

published on goabroad.com 

More about TRACC study abroad program

Parrotfish survey at Magic Rock

Firstly let me apologize for the lack of parrotfish on these photos, they are not the easiest fish to photograph cause they are a bit shy and I am not the best of photographers yet.
But I did manage to capture thing for all you fish, nudi, inverts and turtle lovers.

Pom Pom is not only an abundance of fish, it's also a haven for all you seaslug, invert and nudibranch lovers out there.

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

butterfly fish survey

To survey the biodiversity of fish around Pom Pom we have started doing surveys by family since we have such an abundant of fish species.

First one to go was Butterfly fish, the survey was done at the Northern Tip divesite.

We not only saw a good diversity of Butterfly fish, species to be published later, we also saw a big school of about 20 bumphead parrotfish with a clown trigger fish in the middle of the school, and so many other beautiful ocean creatures.
Maria

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

Fun diving

TRACC is not just conservation dives and diving courses, we also go fun diving. Myself, I love conservation dives, but sometimes it's nice to go out and just dive and appreciate all beauty around me.
Today was such a day, we got the privilage to see the beautiful ocean life and just enjoy.

The dive took place at a site called magic rocks which is in the south of Pom Pom island. Best time to dive here, in my opinion, is when the tides settled to avoid to strong currents. I like to do my dives slow.

Water temperature was 30 degrees, visibility about 17 metres and the sea was calm. Pretty perfect day here, nice to cool down in the water.

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

Razor fish

Rescue-unconsious, panicked and tired diver

Not bad for doing exercises

After yesterdays practice on land, today our Rescue students got to get into the water for their exercises.
So this morning they entered a perfectly calm ocean with a blue sunny sky above them.
They started in the shallows with a bit of practise, and then went out deeper for the different scenarios.

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

Unconscious diver

Our dive instructor Gon showing how to retrieve our unconsious diver

and then our students go to work

Notice the hand on the unconsious divers reg and inflation of her BCD

Octopus on a rock, Todays snorkelling's treat

What a treat I got today on my snorkelling clean-up, two beautiful octopus on the same rock, what a wonderful experience.
Maria

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

Rescue diver, search pattern exercise

Today we had the search pattern exercise on land for our three rescue diver students.

Tomorrow we will have a rescue scenario underwater, photos of that to follow, so stay tuned...

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 

Underwater art - The shark - 1

Dino and the shark, soon to be seen in the ocean (the shark that is, not Dino)

Imagine how this structure will look in a while with an abundant life of corals on it. It'll be the coral shark.

Coral Planting Day - 17th May 2015

    Corals, much like the trees in our forests, are one of the primary producers in the vast ocean. The reef is known to be the ecosystem which has the highest biodiversity in the sea. And every reef is different from another. Destroying the reef means des

tructing the ecosystem of the ocean, and a variety of lives can be wiped out from Earth. Besides acting as a habitat for a variety of marine creature, the reef also has high research value in terms of biomedical treatments (E.g. Many reef animals have been identified to contain anti-carcinogenic property). Losing them might mean losing cure to fight some of the deadliest diseases prominent to human.

   Coral reefs around South-East Asia are frequently bombed by local fishermen. Bomb fishing is one of the cheapest ways for them to get more fish. They are not aware that the activity could kill not only fish but corals and other reef creatures as well. This is why TRACC held “Coral Planting Day” in Kudat, Sabah to celebrate World Ocean Day. The objective of this event is to increase awareness regarding the importance of the coral reef and the need to protect them. We talked to the people about the reef condition in the sea at the moment, how human activities affected corals, and what we hope to achieve by replanting corals.

    Prior to the event, bottle reefs were made using cement and glass bottles. This is a relatively cheap way to build a base for replanted coral fragments to grow. Coral fragments were collected in the morning on the day of the event. These were usually large fragments found lying on the seafloor, knocked off by boat anchor or strong wave. During the programme, we used a clipper to cut them into smaller fragments that can fit nicely into the holes of the biscuits, and a mixture of cement and tile adhesive to hold the coral fragments in place. We waited until the structure became stable before bringing them to deeper sea where the bottle reefs sat. We put the coral biscuits on the bottle reefs, just as you can see in the pictures, with some coral fragments tied with cable ties onto the bottles.

Kit teaching volunteers how to cut big coral fragments into smaller pieces.

Kit transferring hardened coral biscuits from shallow sea to the boat. 

Putting coral biscuits onto the bottle reefs.

Job done!!