Blue Temple Conservation: coral

Showing posts with label coral. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science

So, 2016 is just around the corner and we are now looking at the future of Blue Temple in a whole new light. After two years running voluntourism in Pulau Perhentian, we have decided to step back and make some exciting changes!

‘Sustainability through Conservation and Research’ is the new tagline for the project. The data collected over the last two years has put us in a fantastic position to drive forward and start to make a difference on the island.

We believe there is nothing quite like science driven conservation and the facts speak loudly now and our hope is that we can expand that science with new research (Human-Environment relations, Coral Nurseries, into the Jungle surveys and maybe even some Shark genetics!).

All this research will be accompanied by our new sustainable tourism approach where we will be targeting a Plastic Free island through removing one use plastic bottle consumption (refillable bottles and stations anyone?), increased awareness and tourists who care!

We know it is a long, challenging road, and not everyone will get on board. But our focus will be targeting resorts and putting up banners and posters to permanently make people think before they buy that new bottle.

Every small act can make a huge difference if done for the right people. Let’s do something special.

#PlasticFreePerhentian

Saturday, 4 July 2015

Corals; Adapting to Change

Coral is a remarkable animal. Creators of some of the biggest and most valuable natural structures on Earth, they shape the environment around them to suit their needs, developing complex structures and harnessing support of algae to maximise their output.

Diving on a coral reef is an experience quite unlike any other. The variety of life surrounding you is truly astonishing, with as many as 3,000 different marine species living on one reef. Many of these species are cryptic, masters of disguise whilst others are brightly coloured to ward off predators. Whilst many divers visit the reef to witness these more cryptic or colourful fish, the corals themselves provide an opportunity to be rightly amazed. The variety of shapes, sizes and colours of just Genus is enough to confuse even the dedicated spotters, but their beauty lies in their complexity and simplicity combined. Within their structures live tiny polyps, little more than small stinging tentacles connected to a mouth and stomach.

It is fantastic to think that such tiny, simple creatures have created structures such as the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and are the foundations for the Coral Triangle, an ecosystem that is home to over 2,000 fish species as well as six out of the seven Sea Turtle species and upon which over 120 million people rely on in their daily lives.

Of course, as a race, we have over-exploited our oceans and planet to such an extent that corals are in constant threat of destruction and harm. From fish bombing in the Philippines and Malaysia to tourism and pollution in the Caribbean and South America and even climate change in our atmosphere, corals are in danger of harm from all angles, and that isn’t even mentioning the constant battles they face against each other on the reef!

Corals however, are not just going to roll over and give up. Once again, they continue to amaze and have begun to show remarkable signs of recovery and resilience against our many actions. Already in 2013, NOAA released a study that commented at present levels of CO2, Corals have the potential to evolve and adapt genetically to warming temperatures, potentially allowing longer survival until 2100. Of course, not all species are expected to make the necessary adaptations, and Darwin’s survival of the fittest will again be prominent, but that some corals may adapt is fantastic news.

More recently (this month!) NewScientist release an article stating that not only are some species able to adapt to warming temperatures, they are able to pass this trait genetically to their offspring, showing relatively rapid evolution in the face of threat and change. There is even evidence to suggest that by choosing the right algae (Zooxanthellae), adult corals can increase their heat resistance by 1.5degrees! They also found evidence that some corals in Palau, living in acidic waters have also shown no signs of detrimental change, though they are yet to identify the reason for this.

We, as a race, continue to bombard our environment with plastic, pollution, oil whilst simultaneously over-exploiting and over-extracting. Yet nature will continue to fight back, we may destroy 90% of it, but at some point, we will fall, balanced so precariously on a knife edge, and destroy ourselves in the process.

The evidence is building that coral is more resilient than we first thought which is awesome. Coral and nature, is amazingly fantastic, showing signs of evolution even in our short time on this Earth. It is wondrous and beautiful and we need just to open our eyes and marvel at it and maybe, just maybe, our actions would change, for the better.

Monday, 8 June 2015

Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet; World Oceans Day Celebration

In the year 1992, the Earth Summit in Rio heralded a motion from the Government of Canada for the introduction of a day designed to celebrate and raise awareness for our oceans, 16 years later it was finally official and World Oceans Day was acknowledged by the UN and is celebrated annually on 8^th June each year.

The theme for the year 2015-2016 has been chosen as ‘Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet’, a theme dedicated to highlighting the importance our oceans have in our everyday lives, they are life-force that maintains balance to our planet.

We, amongst with millions of others focused on what actions we, as individuals and societies, can take to protect and safeguard the oceans for future generations of both humans and nature. We took a specific look at Plastic and its impacts on our beloved oceans.

Celebrating our Oceans in Pulau Perhentian

Some of you will already know that we are surrounded by stunning, tropical waters full of coral, fish and exotic species. So it should come as no surprise that we were keen to celebrate our oceans, and the importance they have with anyone and everyone we could get involved.

Due to the Department of Marine Parks event on the 7^th and 8^th June, we chose to set up our own event outside of the village, and head out to interact with tourists and resorts on the 6^th June, instigating a three day Pulau Perhentian celebration!

Working together, Blue Temple Conservation and Ecoteer set out to provide both formal and Informal awareness, education, fun and games to tourists on Long Beach and Coral Bay, both on the small Island.

We arrived on Long Beach at 11:15(ish) and the team immediately split, with half heading over to Coral Bay for the first of the day’s presentations at Maya Chalet, whilst the remainder stayed at Long Beach to get the awareness Booth up and running.

Xuen, Shauna and Janneke all beautifully completed their presentations to a group of Malaysian students before heading back to Long Beach to set up for round 2 at D’Rock Gardens, where Xuen, Brian and Janneke were due to do their presentations for a modest group of interested tourists and staff.

Meanwhile, back at Long Beach, the team had instigated a 15 man tug of war in the shallows. I wasn’t there to witness it, but I hear they will write songs about Brian’s strength and ability to defeat the Long Beach Fifteen…or something. Much fun was had by all.

After the second round of presentations, the team united at Matahari Divers to commence an epic clean up. We were joined by a whole load of tourists and staff from the beach and quickly amassed a mighty quantity of trash. In only TWO HOURS, the team collected 3,925 individual pieces of rubbish, of which, a staggering 54% was plastic waste. Further evidence that our work and focus on plastic was important in our day!

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What happened in the Clean up?

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Whilst most of the team counted the trash, the rest visited Matahari Divers for round three of the presentations, this time Xuen and Neil led the talks to the collected divers, staff and clean-up crew.

After a quick round up at Matahari, the whole team, united again packed up the awareness booth and presentations and walked the short walk to Ombak for the grand finale.

More presentations from Xuen, Neil, Brian and Shauna was followed by the closing Prize Draw, where all who had attended the presentations throughout the day were entered and drawn out, prizes were (seemingly) well received.

Hopefully, our efforts helped to raise awareness and maybe teach some people a little bit about our planet and it’s amazing ability to still survive after so many threats and impacts continue to strike out.

We really are blessed, our planet is so unique and fantastic that we often forget to celebrate its beauty, instead focusing on our desire for money, success or the negative impacts we are having. The oceans are huge, magnificent and so amazingly beautiful that it is hard not to love them.

If you want to do your part and protect the oceans, check out our Presentations at the links below, or visit World Oceans Day online and participate in their ‘Take the Better Bag’ challenge, and join the movement for Healthy Oceans.