Shocking news from the Bali reefs

Scientists are using jolts of electricity to hasten reef growth in
SoPac--and it's working!

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NYTimes.com > Science

Jolts of Electricity Reviving Coral Reef
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 22, 2004

Filed at 8:08 p.m. ET

PEMUTERAN, North Bali (AP) -- As the late-afternoon sun bathes the beach
with a soft warmth, gentle waves lap quietly at the shore -- and strollers
occasionally stumble over a thick wad of white cables embedded in the fine,
black sand.

The cables seem to disappear into the sea, where large blue plastic balls
bob in the waves. And they seem to come out of nowhere, sprouting like a
nasty growth on the face of this stretch of tropical paradise on Bali's
northwestern coast.

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The wires are part of highly original and ambitious underwater experiment:
the use of low-voltage electrical current to stimulate regrowth in a badly
damaged coral reef.

Conceived by coral expert Tom Goreau of the United States and German
architecture professor Wolf Hilbertz, the project began four years ago and
has already achieved remarkable results.

Covering a total length of nearly 1,000 feet, the Karang Lestari Project --
``coral preservation'' in Indonesian -- is the world's largest coral nursery
ever built using this technology.

``You can really see the difference in the reef in just a short time,'' said
Chris Brown, owner of Reef Seen Aquatics Dive Center, which co-sponsors the
project along with local hotels and shops committed to preserving the reef.

The technique is also being used experimentally in other tropical locations,
such as Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, but the project in Bali is the
largest and most ambitious of its kind.

Indonesia is home to 581 of the world's 793 known coral reef-building
species, and most thrive in Pemuteran Bay. The area has long been a favorite
among scuba divers, who will go elsewhere, affecting tourism, if the reef
dies.

On the sandy ocean floor 9 to 21 feet down are dozens of grids made from
welded construction bars. Seen from above, they look like some underwater
playground equipped with jungle gyms, monkey bars, upside-down cone and
other climbing apparatus for kids. One looks like the ribcage of a whale.

Wires carrying the electrical current are secured to the bars and are
plugged into onshore charging stations. Brown estimates the amount of
electricity used in a week is equal to burning a single 60-watt bulb for a
month.

Non-swimmers can follow the reef's renewal thanks to color photographs
displayed at Taman Sari Bali Cottages, a sponsor that injected some $15,000
in seed money to get the project started in 2000.

Brown, an Australian who settled in this fishing village of 8,000 people in
1992 and a co-owner of the cottages, said that within days of receiving
their first jolts of electricity, the bars grew a white limestone film. This
covering provides the necessary substrate for coral growth.

The grids were then seeded with small fragments of live coral, which begin
to grow ``between five and 10 times faster than normal, with much brighter
colors and more resilience to hot weather and pollution,'' said a co-owner
of the Taman Sari Cottages, an American who goes by the single name Naryana.

Some corals have been transplanted directly onto the bars, attached by wires
or wedged into specially designed spaces. Soft corals, sponges, tunicates
and anemones were also transplanted.

Vibrant colors and growth up to nearly a half inch in less than a month have
been recorded. Grids that suffered power failures saw less vigorous
development and duller colors.

``Today, the fish are back, including deep-water fish which come into the
reef to rest during the daytime,'' Naryana said.

The regenerated reef has attracted mobiel squid, cuttle fish, sea urchins
and starfish. Batfish, damsel fish and cleaning fish also have clustered in
the area, along with dense schools of snappers.

Divers also have noted the presence of large groups of young fish -- a good
sign of future self-sustaining populations and the long-awaited return to a
balanced ecosystem.

Naryana, who was born Randall Dodge in Nebraska, described the reef as a
``total wasteland'' when the project began. He said the El Nino weather
phenomenon bleached it in the early 1990s, killing most of the coral in
shallow water, and the 1998 Asian economic crisis forced starving fishermen
to adopt destructive fishing practices that caused further damage.

Another near-catastrophe came in the mid-'90s with the arrival of some
70,000 voracious Crown of Thorns starfish, most of which divers yanked from
the water before they could devour the reef.

Concerned citizens like Brown and Naryana have long supported community
programs to educate the locals about the long-term consequences of the
reef's worst enemy: fishing with explosives.

``Fishermen from Pemuteran actually went out and stopped the bombers,''
Naryana said. ``It took education, talking and demonstrations to convince
them that ocean conservation is the future.''

Naryana agrees with Goreau and Hilbertz that the reef project is not just
about jump-starting an ecosystem but rather an investment in the
preservation of rapidly disappearing coral species and the fish that breed
there.

Brown hopes the technique will spread to countries that lack the money for
more expensive methods to regenerate or improve their coral reefs.

``We find that electricity reinforces the coral that's already there, and
has a profound effect on the condition of surrounding corals,'' he said.
``It shows you can take good coral and make it better.''