10/12/2007

Bali shows how to make money from `fake' corals

BALI : Algae-covered lumps of cement would make a strange catch for mostfishermen, but they have helped revive a fishing village here devastatedby reckless tourist development and "mining" of reefs for buildingmaterials.

Seaside Serangan has become a modest centre for the unusualcoral-farming trade, with thousands of the formations growing in offshoreiron grids. They are sold for export or used to reconstruct reefs that nurture fishand draw diving tourists.

Beside the farmed coral, cement chunks that are shaped like the rocksthat line the ocean and reefs are picking up a patina of natural growththat turns them into valuable decorations for aquariums from Australia tothe United States.

Once a small island off the shore here, the area was claimed in the1990s by a developer who planned to build a huge resort, and set aboutexpanding it to six times its original size, and linking it to themainland.

To do this, giant pumps sucked filler from the sea floor, pulverisingcorals they vacuumed up with the sand, said Asyma Sianiapar, programmeassistant at the Global Environment Facility which is also supporting theventure.

Combined with traditional "mining" of coral for building houses andtemples, which was officially banned around 2002, and damaging fishingpractices, the reefs that supported the local fishing industry weredecimated.

The resort was never built, hit by the Asian financial crisis and thedomestic turmoil that accompanied the end of former president Suharto'sreign in 1998. But the damage was done.

Catches fell by half, and the seaweed banks that the women used to walkaround the island harvesting for food and to sell disappeared, fishermenand their families said.

Earnings fell and children were forced to drop out of school. Now, they have about 800 square metres of cultivated coral, includingthe farms and new reefs and sell around 20,000 pieces a year, for aroundUS$3 to US$5 (RM10-RM17) each. - Reuters