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| Bottle Reefs Drying in the Sand and Sun |
Days at TRACC are filled with work dives, fun dives, classes,
reading, species identification, and the inevitable hammock time in the heat of
the day to recover brainpower and refresh the senses. A few times a week, once
the heat of the day has diminished, the evening is filled with the communal
labor of creating artificial reefs. The steady sound of the gaping mouth of the
cement mixer turning and churning is the background to this labor, and the
majority of camp contributes as much as they can.
Some volunteers peel labels off glass
bottles and cut twine for handles; others dig holes in the sand and cut corners
out of cardboard boxes to create frames for bottle reefs. Still others bend PVC
piping and ball netting for a different type of reef or scour camp for useable material
and housing for sea creatures, asking, “If you were a fish would you live in
this?” Then, the cement gets poured and the reefs are left to dry.
All artificial reefs built at TRACC are created with a
specific biological niche in mind; for bottle reefs it is often the shallow
reef crest. After the cement dries, the bottle reefs are placed throughout the
various depleted reefs around Pom Pom Island, and in a twisted and spiny line
along the reef crest just outside of TRACC. Once placed, we plant them with
collected broken coral which immediately attracts a rainbow of little fishes
and crustaceans who come to check out a new coral home.
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| Sophie and Sophie Cleaning Bottles |
A little farther down the slope, nets are draped
and planted with the gentle pastels and sways of soft corals steadily in motion
like pulsating flowers in their filtering and feeding, and are already being utilized
by the sandy brown speckled moray eel that one must be careful to avoid when
planting with coral.
Bottle reefs are tipped upside down and sunk as to create
steps and niches at slightly different depths to attract a greater diversity of
species. Plastic crates combined and submerged to create the aptly named
“biodiversity reefs” – attract a great variety of magnificent sea life, ranging
from large brown and black spotted sweetlips hiding in the shadows, to cute
little candy crabs nestled in the nephtheidae soft coral reaching its pink
broccoliesque arms towards to light, and a whole spectrum of brightly colored
fish, crustaceans, and corals, as well passing fantastical visitors like the
grumpy frogfish.
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| Borja Helping to Build the Bottle Reef |
At
greater depths PVC pipes bent into igloos, tipis, and a swim through gather algae
and coral on their surface to create space for sea creatures seeking refuge
from predators. Tires sunk at an even greater depth are planted with deep water
gorgonian coral and black coral, which are beginning to spread their deep
purple fans ever wider and spiral ever farther upwards. These deep-water
structures are often inhabited by octopus and other burrow loving creatures
slinking back into the crevices of empty tire tubing.
It is so satisfying to participate in the whole process of
the artificial reefs – the making, the placing, the planting the corals, and
the intense satisfaction of seeing them populated by creatures in what was once
a depleted reef of mainly coral rubble.
More Marine conservation projects
More Marine conservation projects
Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from
GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities.
Coralreefcare.com
If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook. https://m.facebook.com/Coral-Reef-Care-106658702743344/
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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please
check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org
The main website is at http://tracc.org
Check out our posts on our activities
on fb tracc.borneo
on twitter tracc_borneo
on google + tracc
