Artificial Reefs Part 1 - Building New Habitats and Homes

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.  

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.

Borja Helping to Build the Bottle Reef

Still more artificial reefs are created as by pouring cement into flat circular “biscuits” with holes poked into them for coral planting in the shallows to be utilized as nurseries for creatures and coral alike. 

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

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/

--------------------------------------------------------------
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

Creature Feature - The Flamboyant Cuttlefish Spotted at TRACC

Photo by Basil Bohn

Sometime experiencing life in the ocean is like living in a series of Dr. Seuss books. Today with the sighting of the Flamboyant cuttlefish I feel like I’m in the Grinch – my heart grew three sizes today.

There she appeared, crawling and flashing her brilliant spectrum of colors – diver masks nearly pressed against the sand. The flamboyance of this charismatic creature apparent in the way she moves, the way she looks, the psychedelic flashings of her aposematic skin. She’s a teacup poodle of the cuttlefish family, and she hovers and twirls her tiny translucent ballerina skirt of a fin. She prowls and scours the sandy ocean floor, a small desert for her, and protrudes her many trunk like modified arms and tentacles searching for tiny crustaceans and fishes. When this charming predator spots her prey, her florescent hue turns to a sandy

Photo by Basil Bohn

camouflage and with lightning speed, a milky white tentacle shoots out to capture her unsuspecting meal. Equally awesome and strange in her mating rituals, this tiny tennis ball proportioned Cephalopoda, will dwarf her male be counterpart, before he injects her arm with his sperm packet. In turn, she will store the sperm to make eggs and spit them out of her squiggly mouth, hiding them one by one in protected recesses, before dying a selfless reproduction death.

Wonderful and strange is this ocean world, and some days, only the happy muffled squeals of a Sophie excited by sea life in a Dr. Seuss world can express the delight.

--------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please

Photo by Basil Bohn

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

or simply #tracc or #traccblog on Google, Facebook, twitter or instagram

Island Life Part 3 - What I've learned at TRACC

Underwater Construction

It’s been two and a half weeks since I first arrived at Pom Pom Island and the Everest of a learning curve I experienced in my first week has gradually leveled to that of a steadier linear climb up some Chocolate Hills.

I have learned – The underwater signs for nudibranch, grouper, mating, scorpion fish, and crocodile fish. How to make a hammock. The interesting and fantastically strange and beautiful anatomy of the nudibranch, with fluffy gills, spiky cerata, horn like rhinophores, and in some, a special ability to be “solar powered”. There are two distinct populations of Bajau people, land and sea, and that the sea Bajau make a yearly offering to the spirits of the sea through sending a boatful of land goodies down the river. Many words of Bahasa Malay including gila (crazy), ayo (oh my god - used as a general exclamation), and nakal (naughty). How to use a lift bag to move bottle reefs and crates of collected  

The Blue Dragon nudibranch
Photo by Basil Bohn

coral underwater. That planting coral and tending to artificial reefs is a bit like gardening, but you must plant coral with space in between the species so energy is not expended fighting, but growing. The basics of regulator servicing. How the local whiskey sneaks up to give you a bangin’ hangover. How to sit on the Flying Fish, the TRACC boat, a bit on the tip toes to protect the bum from the sometimes harsh motion of the waves. That although much of the coral is reduced to rubble, there are signs of regeneration everywhere throughout the artificial reef and surrounding area. How to mix cement and hammer underwater. Turtle eggs are surprisingly heavy for their size. A week of care and food can do wonders for a malnourished kitten. How to be a real life Baywatch character through the rescue diving course. There are 3 types of seagrass on the house reef and 1717 know types of seacucumbers in the ocean, some of which have teeth in their anus, and sometimes pearlfish live inside them. How fun and enriching it is to be in a place where everyone is passionate about the ocean in one facet or another. That simple living promotes freedom of time and mind. How small tropical fish will come to explore a freshly planted bottle reef within about 5 minutes.  That even those with 100’s of dives, that dive 6 days a week, are still easily excited and happy to dive everyday. That everyone has a story to tell and a bit of awesome strangeness inside of him or her. And that the life I was living three weeks ago seems like a dream light years away and eons ago.

A Storm Brewing in the Sunset

With such a wide world of ocean, practical skills and experience, and people to know and learn about, I don’t expect my slope of a learning curve will ever accumulate in descent.


Previous blogs Island life 1  -- Island life 2 -- More from Lark

--------------------------------------------------------------
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

or simply #tracc or #traccblog on Google, Facebook, twitter or instagram

Creature Feature - Spanish Dancer Nudibranch Spotted on the House Reef

The Spanish Dancer
Photo by Basil Bohn 

Awesome and strange sea creatures consistently populate the TRACC artificial reefs, but sometimes we get especially lucky. This week we spotted a Spanish dancer nudibranch on the algae crusted “swim through “ of the house reef. This domed structure crafted from bent PVC pipes and covered with netting is popular with a variety of fantastic sea creatures including octopus, many many types of tropical fish, and tiny crabs and shrimps hiding between the netting and crevices in the cement and topsy-turvy bottle reefs, among many other creatures both resident and visitor. Yet, news of this giant nudibranch, roughly measured at 40 cm, created waves through camp, with divers running to gear up and see it for themselves.

Peng with the Spanish Dancer
Photo by Basil Bohn

The Spanish Dancer is the largest of the nudibranch family and gleams its namesake from its resemblance to traditional flamenco dancers. Its bright red, orange, and yellow coloration are reminiscent of the costumes of the traditional Spanish costume. When threatened, it swims through the ocean, twisting, flaring, and undulating its wide ruffled red and orange underside in imitation of the flamenco dance. As an added touch, these twirling sea slugs are simultaneous hermaphrodites. They can not self fertilize and do require a mate in order to lay eggs, but once they mate, they lay their toxic and brightly colored eggs in an outwardly spiraling ribbon around the coral, creating a rose shaped offering to the reef and further fulfilling their namesake.

The Underside of the Spanish Dancer
Photo by Basil Bohn

This sighting was a special experience for us all, including many of our instructors and Divemaster’s who have logged hundreds of dives. After the sighting and the combined hours spent observing this rare creature, the atmosphere at camp was filled with a communal feeling of the privilege and excitement of seeing such a rare creature. The feeling was intensified through sighting this Spanish Dancer on a TRACC built structure, providing the added satisfaction of seeing the conservation work TRACC has completed being populated and utilized by the ocean creatures we all love and strive to protect.

--------------------------------------------------------------
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

or simply #tracc or #traccblog on Google, Facebook, twitter or instagram