In the afternoon I joined them at a flower building workshop. I was feeling kid again for a few hours. Bending metal, sculpting with chicken wire and “paper mache’ing” with concrete and cloths.

After the workshop Frank an I started chatting. I wanted to know more about coral and artificial reefs. I just had no clue yet what I could offer the project. Time passed by. Frank and Vera went back to Holland to raise money for the project. I started doing my instructor course and we kind of lost touch. Till in early February Frank and Vera came back to the island and I bumped into them again during another Eco Day. I joined another workshop and I guess I had some smart ideas how to improve the project. That’s when things started to roll.

Since then I started to become more and more part of CoralGardening. I have a background in Engineering and Frank and Vera on regular basis throw constructional problems at me what is fun for me to solve. We have hours long brainstorm sessions about how we can improve the project and what we can change. At the same time Frank and Vera educate me more about coral and building artificial reefs.

But not just that. Frank and Vera inspired people to think further. Building an artificial reef is cool and fun to do, but it is very small scale. In my opinion this is not the only solution to solve bigger issues like coral bleaching and climate change. Inspired by the flower building project, I started thinking about what I can do to improve our ocean. Personally I think that awareness, educating people about what is happening to our ocean and our world is important. Based on that thought I’m now working on setting up a presentation for Thai school kids to educate them what is happening with our ocean. And hopefully soon I will be giving this presentation throughout different cities in Thailand!

What inspires you? What can you do to improve our ocean? Think about it for 5 min. Talk about it with your friends. It doesn’t have to be big, every little bit helps!!

Thanks Frank and Vera for all the fun and inspiration so far. Hopefully much more to come!!

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Ninja is running around at the workshop area, she is a red cat. Are you curious how she helps us in her own way creating artificial reefs? Then look at our YouTube channel. And give us a paw by subscribing to our channel.

Ninja, the CoralCat

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But, what can you do as a single? Then you come across two hyper enthusiastic types on the DuikVaker 2015 that tell you exactly how you can help. Initially only as a donor but when Frank and Vera asked for volunteers later that year, I could of course do nothing but take that next step. So far, I have become involved with the Dive Professionals of 2016 and 2017 and a few other events. In addition, I’ve een sparring with the rest of the team about entering into partnerships and setting up efficient communication methods.

Now a short trip to Koh Tao is on my schedule, to actually learn how to grow reefs and breed coral. And yes, maybe I will start a project somewhere. There are already several organizations that have shown interest and I’m looking forward to a potential project in Indonesia. Hopefully later more on that.

Back to work, but hey, someone has to do it! ????

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We’re joining Blue Immersion and get some guidance from Jakob. The view is good, definitely about 15 meters. I’m doing well with my ears and with the Free Immersion technique (pull yourself down along the line) I easily get to a depth of 10 meter.

The bar is raised, or in this case lowered. The weight is moved down to 15 meters. I go down the rope again and reach my personal record: 15 meters. In the freedive world, this depth is nothing because, for example, Nanja van den Broek has reached 130 meters. But to me, being able to clear my ears and reach that depth means the world. It is possible thanks to the good instructions we had training with Nanja in the Netherlands. After reaching my lowest point, it’s time to practice other things. Constant weight: without hands. With a beautiful duck dive we go down into the depths. Well, diving or even swimming in a swimming pool has never been my strong suit and the duck dive still can be improved somewhat. Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I won’t break my record anymore.

Freediving in the ocean is a lot different than in a swimming pool. It’s nice to see the fish and you’re secretly hoping for a whale shark. According to the stories, such an encounter can really happen, but I have experienced that yet. But you would be surprised by what you see floating in the open ocean in terms of plastic. We take out as much as possible from the water and put the dirty plastic in the buoy. The diving school will be happy with us.

We are happy with Oliver Heldens, who together with Mission Live Foundation organizes the first underwater performance in the world: Dance from the Deep. They do this to raise awareness for the plastic soup. Plastic soup is the most deadly soup there is and yes, that includes Frank’s coconut soup. Oliver will give a show at 40 meters depth! What a hero! With this performance they focus your attention on the fact that something really has to be done on the plastic soup. The solutions can be very simple. E.g., the introduction of deposit money on all kinds of plastic packaging can already prevent a lot of waste production. And there are sufficient reusable alternative products available. We can get our living environment clean again, if we really want.

We wish Oliver a lot of luck! Unfortunately, I can not be in on the action, it’s still too deep for me.

Watch the video of this adventure on our YouTube channel and subscribe to the first to see our newest videos.

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Do you also think that healthy coral reefs are important? Do you want to join us with building and restoring coral reefs? You can!

We can use all the help we can get. You can contribute by donating your time and skills. We are looking for people who are good at setting up a webshop, networking and recruiting donations. Get in contact with us by sending an email.

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Contact us here

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My sister Vera tought me more about corals, reefs and other underwater life. Frank, Vera and I mapped an underwater playground for divers. Sadly, divers often are also (accidently) a cause of reef degredation, regardless of their intentions. An underwater playground or CoralGarden can help you improve your diving skills.

That is why I am impressed by and like to volunteer for the CoralGardening. Besides my job as a teacher, I am also a ceramist. By assisting children in their designing process with clay I can contribute to creating awareness about marine life in their minds. They are the future after all. Their creativity provides plenty of inspiration for the real life statues at the same time.
Besides those activities I produce the ceramic CoralGardening hangers some of you have seen before or maybe even own. All profits made from those flow to CoralGardening. I also function as some sort of walking helpdesk for the other members and like to help shape this initiative into a worldwide phenomenom.

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My love for nature, especially the submerged kind, grew not only through my studies and watching nature documentaries, but also one of my hobbies: diving. CoralGardening and I actually came in contact through that hobby. Coral reefs are some of my favourite things to see during a dive. And of course all the life that can be found on and around it. I wanted to get more involved in reefs in my gap year, so I looked out for organizations that work on restoring corals and reefs.

Vera and Frank advised me to follow a course on marine conservation on Koh Tao. It involved recognizing corals, their diseases and predators, how to reproduce and grow corals etc. It is too much to describe everything in detail. I learned a great deal and got even more excited about corals! That’s why I keep supporting CoralGardening from The Netherlands by organizing our recent crowdfund campaign and maintaining our social media accounts.

I tried to focus as much as I could on marine biology during my studies. In high school I did a small project on the intelligence of dolphins and their use by humans, for example in therapies. My Bachelor’s degree culminated in a study on foraging behaviour by a small shell (Macoma balthica) which is found all over the Dutch coast lines. Additonally I’ve made it a habit to support the annual field work by NIOZ, which includes sampling many different organisms from the Wadden Sea. This annual work has helped us towards a much better understanding of the benthic fauna of these important breeding grounds for many European species.

I dream of starting a new company in aquaculture in the future. It will focus on implementing innovative and sustainable methods in the culture of marine organisms. But until that moment comes, I’ll keep helping CoralGardening save and restore corals!

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I’m from the Jacques Cousteau and Bert Haanstra generation. Watching nature documentaries in black and white. Somewhat “forced” because my mother used to live nextdoors to Bert Haanstra when she was young.

But these afternoons were when that little seed was planted that has now grown out to my appreciation of and respect for nature. It surely has had some consequences.

I got my diving certificate about 10 years ago prior to a vacation. I have dived in many places in the Netherlands and abroad ever since and am no stranger to the Vinkeveense Plassen, Oosterschelde, Norwegian fjords, Austrian mountain lakes and even Malawi, Chinese and Ecuadorian waters. It is beautiful everywhere! Diving is like being in a pure world where you have a complete freedom of movement.

Running is another passion besides diving. It’s great to go outside and keep in shape by just walking or running. It’s like diving; you start with too much air and end with too little ;).

My days are not only filled with my “normal” job, but also tasks for my “owners association” and some diving instruction work. And because we have recently started teaching deaf people, I have begun an introductory course Dutch sign language. My evenings are spend reading and listening to all kinds of books and music, interspersed with theatre and the occasional movie. Karin and I recently visited the “David Bowie is…” exposition in Groningen. While I’m not a big fan, it was a somewhat sentimental journey.

The next moment, you’re asked to take upon you the honorable job of the CoralGardening treasurer. It took some consideration, but it feels like one giant “YES” for my passion for nature and the responsibility for financial organisation of CoralGardening ánd for Vera and Frank, so that they can make their (and our) dreams come true in Thailand. It feels like the right thing to do, it is an important job and I will just go for it. Together with Vera, Frank and all other volunteers I work towards a fantastic goal!

See you soon!

Steven

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