The Coral Gardeners
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2007
1
46
47
Trip End
Ongoing
Pulau Weh,
Indonesia
Monday, August 18, 2008
Except now, in some places, only bald patches of bright blue remain where reef should be.
When the tsunami rolled onto the shores of Aceh on the morning of December 26, it killed almost 200,000 people. Banda Aceh suffered the worst toll. Hours after its inhabitants were shaken by an early morning earthquake, a 9 on the Richter scale, the wave came, breaking on the flat plain of the city and wiping thousands of people off the earth.
The tsunami also swelled through the 350-metre channel between nearby Weh and Rubiah islands, rolling car-sized boulders into a pile in the middle of the bay. The islands might have sustained worse damage had it not been for the mountainous landscape that prevented it from breaking onto shore. However, the swell ripped out portions of the coral gardens near Iboih beach, and sucked them, along with their resident population of sea life, out to sea.
"It is like a desert down there," says Andy, a scuba guide at the newly reconstructed Rubiah Tirta Divers at Iboih Beach . Behind him lies the twisted wreckage of the last dive shop, ripped off its foundations and crushed by the tsunami like a tin can. "Imagine. No animal wants to live in a desert. What can it do without food and shelter? Then imagine you plant trees to make a new forest. So all the animals come back again to live."
If parts of the coral bed are like the desert, then Rubiah Tirta owner Dodent Mahyiddin and his staff are the "tree planters," working to bring it back to life. After the tsunami struck, Pak Dodent, as he is known to his friends, surveyed the damage and decided to start his own restoration project and transplant coral from the healthy parts of the reef. Using the research he had already conducted in more than 30 years of diving and reef restoration, he set to work with his own money and the help of his sons, Ismayudi and Isfanudding, to start the coral garden project.
Today is a quiet day. It's Monday, and most of the post-tsunami NGO workers who come here for some R and R on the weekends have returned to their work on the mainland, a 50-minute ferry ride away. All week a steady stream of scuba enthusiasts from around the world have come to see manta rays, black tipped sharks, moray eels, hawksbill turtles, schools of tuna and barracuda, and, occasionally, whale sharks on their migration route through the Indian Ocean. But the stream has tapered off as visitors have left to continue their journeys.
While it may be tempting to while away the sunny afternoon in a hammock, there's time for that later. Andy, Yudi and the rest of the staff are going to spend their free time planting more coral. They suit up and climb onto the 16-metre wooden dive boat. One of the guys grips the tiller with his bare foot, swinging it across the deck to turn the boat towards Rubiah. Close to the end of the island, where the coral is healthy and flourishing, they jump in to make their descent, equipped with small saws and a blue plastic laundry basket. They work gently, cutting small branches of coral and placing them in the basket, taking care to harvest a variety of corals from different places so the reef will easily regenerate. First, green flowering branches of Acropora elsey. Then smaller pieces tipped in cornflower blue, like mountain flowers. Acropora puertoglarae. The brown coral, Acropora Formosa, resembles deer antlers.
A nearby bank of blue coral is so massive it looks like the surface of another planet. Among the deep, inviting caverns, fish of every colour and description gather in such large numbers it's like the downtown Jakarta of the fish world. Parrotfish swim past, sporting absurdly parrotlike faces and a riot of colours ranging from dusky purple to bright green and yellow. They flap their dorsal fins like wings, coasting on the current. A lion fish gracefully scales the side of one cavern, its long dorsal fins arranged in a showy array of white and brown "feathers" like the headdress of a First Nations chief. A clown fish, more vibrant than its cartoon facsimile in the movie Finding Nemo, tends to its eggs within a swirling purple anemone. Blue powdered surgeon fish with serious faces chase each other in circles.
Back on deck, the corals clink in the basket , fragile as china. In the sunlight they look less exotic, their colours subdued to a muddy brown in the glaring light of day. The effect doesn't last long. In less than 10 minutes the boat is at the other end of Rubiah, and the corals resume their luminous colours as they make their descent to their new home.
On the ocean floor, fragments of dead coral are strewn across the sand like bleached bones. Yet the desert blooms anew. Square beds containing rows of overturned cement pots-about 240 square metres in all, molded from actual flower pots-are transforming it into a coral nursery. Each pot has a post in the middle, made of metal or an embedded bottle.
The gardeners get to work. Two begin ahead on a new section of the bed, scrubbing the posts with small brushes to clear them of fungi and debris. Another diver holds the plastic fasteners, handing them to the next diver down the line as he needs them. He pulls a piece of coral from the basket and secures it to the post with the fastener. It's a tidy operation that will yield about one metre of fresh plantings per dive.
Andy points to some sections that are coming along nicely, sprouting cornflower blue, fresh mauve, baby pink, spring green. Others look at little sad and stunted, and may have to be removed for other pieces to be replanted. Dodent has found that between 80 to 90 per cent of the coral will take. Once it does, it takes only a couple of years for it to become large enough to shelter fish.
Already the growth looks promising, a reminder that life can survive and even regenerate in the wake of destruction. Gobies swim among the older plantings of Acropora elsey, nibbling at them and resting among them for shelter. Tiny fish fry alight among the branches like sparrows. Vagabond butterfly fish hover and feed, brilliant in their yellow and black stripes of tiger-like intensity. A nudibranch lolls, slug-like, on the sand.
While the coral gardeners of Pulau Weh are working to restore what nature has destroyed, they are also among the most vocal critics in the face of an even more ominous threat to the coral gardens. Multinational development is already putting the pressure on to transform this rare, pristine area of Indonesia into another overcrowded and polluted Bali. Aceh suddenly looks like a good place to invest, now that a post-tsunami peace deal has been signed between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Jakarta, ending a bloody 30-year civil war. New schools, roads and houses have been built to replace those that have been washed away, and NGO workers are starting to pull out of the area, their work near completion.
The province and its rim of pretty islands appears ripe for development. But despite their lives and homes being battered, the people here want a say in their future. Udi Djamil, a local diving instructor and project volunteer, is concerned over the future of the reefs. "I love this island. I was born and grew up here," he says. "I will not stand by and allow it to be threatened. We want tourism, but we want it to remain in control of the people who live here, who depend on the sea for their livelihoods. We prefer to have sustainable tourism development and eco-friendly tourism too."
Nature is resilient, when given a chance. The coral gardeners of Pulau Weh are doing everything they can to give it that chance.
* * *
TRAVEL TIPS
Air Asia now has direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Banda Aceh at a very reasonable price. Tourist visas are not yet available on arrival, so get one before you go. In October 2008, FireFly will start flying from its air hub in Penang directly to Banda Aceh
From Medan , opt for a comfortable air conditioned non-stop overnight bus (a 9- to 10-hour journey) from one of several ticket sellers on Jalan Gajah Mada (200,000 rupiah or approx. $20). Becak and taxi drivers will know where to take you.
Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air also fly to Banda Aceh from Medan (about an hour).
Tip: Once in Aceh, be friendly but firm when bargaining for prices, and tell the driver you are a tourist, not an NGO worker, to get a better deal. NGO workers are known to have among the highest salaries in Aceh, and prices for everything from transportation to accommodation have increased accordingly. Be very clear about the price before you get in a bus or becak, as sometimes at the end of the journey, the driver may suddenly jack the price and argue that's what you agreed on.
PLACES TO STAY
Iboih:
Iboih has numerous accommodations, though little contact information is available. On arrival, walk down the path of bungalows nestled in the trees and you will find a place to stay. Be prepared to bargain but remember that the locals need to make a living. The usual price ranges from 30,000 rupiah (about three dollars) per night for an older bungalow in the trees to 60,000 for newly built beachside bungalows. Longer stays also get better rates.
Erick Guesthouse: 0815-3382-8419
Yulia's Bungalow and Restaurant: 0813-6255-3561
O'ong Guesthouse
Ayub Guesthouse
Anna Bungalow
Fatimah Bungalow
Mamamia Bungalow
Gapang:
A short distance from Iboih and more expensive, ranging from $15 to $30 per night.
Leguna Resort: 62652-22799 / 6281-2695-1415
Flamboyan Gapang Resort: 6213-6027-2270
Dand Dang Na Restaurant and Bungalow: 0852-6041-8854 / 0852-6033-7436
Lumba Lumba Living: 62652 331133/62811682787
Ramadilla: 62852 6021 5720
DIVING
Rubiah Tirta is always looking for volunteers to help out with the coral restoration project. If you are a diver, lend a han!
Rubiah Tirta Divers: www.rubiahdivers.com
Lumba Lumba Diving Centre: www.lumbalumba.com
INFORMATION
www.pulauwehsabang.com
www.sumatraecotourism.com
