Indonesian coral reef has 'potential to fail' due to sedimentation

Indonesian coral reef has 'potential to fail' due to sedimentation

Rehabilitation of coral reef ecosystems in the waters of the Sop Island, Sorong, West Papua has the potential to fail.

Potential failures were discovered by a monitoring team from the government, police, WWF and a number of academics after diving on Wednesday 24 June 2020.

According to Arief Reza Fahlevi, head of the program sub-section and evaluation of the Sorong PSPL site, the failure occurred because in an area of coral reef that has been planted by transplantation methods since 2018 then sedimentation was found.

Sedimentation is expected to occur due to the construction of a pier around the transplant site, which causes frequent sea vehicles to pass.

Not only that, the potential for damage is also getting bigger due to the presence of marine trash.

The monitoring team also found a number of damages to the coral reef, allegedly due to the use of fish bombs by irresponsible fishermen.

Coral transplants carried out around the island aim to preserve, even educate, research, and improve the economic standard of living of the community through the fields of fisheries and tourism.

The head of the rehabilitation program, Arief Reza Fahlevi, says in the video: "Our goal here is to monitor the coral transplant media that we installed in 2018 and see the health of coral reefs around this sop island.

"But with the times it turns out that this place has changed and is no longer natural due to the construction of the pier which causes sand deposition.“