Day 23: Singaraja

I have been really looking forward to this day, it’s when we we are going to the Coral Reef Restoration Project in Pemuteran! This project was started by Agung Prana, who we met while staying in Ubud, and he had invited us out to his resort where the coral reef was being regrown.

Due to destructive fishing practices in the 1990s, such as dynamiting reefs to kill fish or spraying chemicals on coral to stun fish so they can be caught live for the aquarium market, the reefs near Pemuteran, and I think the rest of Indonesia, suffered significant degradation. Furthermore rising ocean temperatures increased coral bleaching, and as a result these reefs, some of the finest in the world, were dying!

Then some people stepped in, discovered they could build metal structures, charge them with electric currents in order to promote oxidation and kickstart coral growth (I couldn’t really hear the video at this point, but I think that was the general idea), create a little coral nursery and wait for the astounding growth that followed. A few national and international awards later (Agung Prana is going to Rio later this month to talk to the UN) and the reefs are doing much better, the electricity is provided by a sole wind turbine/photovoltaic cell and Eco-tourism allows us to go skin diving to see them!

It was an interesting experience to go swimming with part of our Balinese group, as the beach modesty differences are quite severe. I was happy I had brought a one-piece, but many of the other girls haphazardly covered up with shorts and tank tops since they felt rude. None of this really mattered to me since I had been focused on seeing some coral and wildlife since early this morning! Finally it was time for my group, we equipped ourselves and with our guide swam out to get a look.

My scuba class has really paid off for this trip thus far, and I was early happy that I have gained skin diving abilities from it! I also received an approving, ‘you dive well’ from our guide, a man who has been working on this project for over a decade and can probably swim laps on one breath. I was the only one in my group who was able to/felt comfortable diving down to the bottom, and since the water was a bit turbid and visibility was low that was fairly needed. I saw two bright blue starfish, countless fish, some pretty cool corals and also marveled at the structures that had made all this possible.

Putra, Me and Ary

Just made out of what looks like rebar, the structures have become more artistic as time goes on, so that I saw a Buddha in a lotus flower, a wavy elongated rectangle and what looked like half a soccer ball. Fish were all over the place, hiding in the structures, around the corals and even just swimming in schools in the open water. Overall very very cool and I thought about sponsoring a baby coral, and still may do so in the future!
Then back in our vans for a harrowing ride back to Singaraja. Although I am now comfortable riding on the back of an experienced driver’s motorbike, car driving here still results in widened eyes and shocked gasps at the dangerous passing we complete. I would say most of the ride we spent on the right side of the road, and since they drive on the left here that is not a good thing. This was both because of construction and also because our driver is insane and thinks his car is for racing. My group left a very dead last, yet we arrived second, mainly due to his aggressive passing of cars, motorbikes and even trucks with three cows tied in the back. Despite all this I have seen only one accident, and the anarchy seems to at least function as everyone just expects the worse.

Also after we were home and showered, I realized that I had inadvertently brought a guest home. While walking the beach I had found a beautiful tiny shell and thought it’d be the perfect souvenir to add to my rock collection. I checked it multiple times to make sure that nothing was in it, because as an educated environmental studier (??) I know all about invasive species and sometimes their accidental spread. Regardless I discovered that the shell was actually a home to a shy hermit crab, so I returned him to the ocean when we went to dinner. Quite a bummer since it was a gorgeous shell, but I wish him luck in his new home.

Lessons Learned:

Large white fish with a black spot is a grouper! Must work on fish ID.

Many Balinese don’t know how to swim, or they have never tried fins, which meant they went in the glass bottomed boat or strapped on life jackets.