Suara Pulau educates local communities about the importance of coral reefs and restores coral reefs around Bangka Island. They organised a fundraising event to raise money for the Marine Protected Area on Bangka Island, and Kaka was present for three days to generate more awareness.

The first evening there was a meet and greet diner with Kaka Slank at the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center in Bitung. The whole fundraising dinner was vegan and really delicious. Afterwards Kaka gave an intimate acoustic performance.

The city of Bitung wants to build an artificial reef together to attract more divers. Kaka Slank and the Suara Pulau team went diving to the place where they think a new reef can be build. There was a lot of Indonesian press with us on this trip. We found the dive a lot more quiet.

The same evening there was a talkshow about the importance of a healthy ocean and what action Suara Pulau and Bitung’s government are taking. Kaka gave a concert and here we noticed how popular he is in Indonesia. Everyone wants to make a selfie with him!

The next morning we had breakfast at the house of the mayor of Bitung, to talk more about the artificial reef. Afterwards some fans were allowed to go diving with Kaka Slank on the house reef of Mimpi Indah on Bangka Island.

The fundraising event was a great success. Thank you Ulva, Owen and Kaka that we could be part of this event. For those who want to know, Kaka is a very humble and friendly person. And a question to the real Marco Borsato: do you want to be the ambassador of CoralGardening?

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With a trusty team of enthusiastic volunteers, we managed to educate countless visitors about the CoralGardening vision, and the three pillars thereof; Educate, Protect, and Restore. There was once gain a well attended workshop about CoralGardening, where in addition to children, many parents were creating artificial reefs out of clay! We received multiple entries for a new slogan in addition to ideas for a new t-shirt, and, most importantly, we welcomed more than 60 new members into our CoralCommunity!

The project on Bangka Island attracted a great deal of interest (more about this in the coming newsletter), both from possible volunteers and from divers who would like to take a course on coral reefs (particularly regarding restoration). And as if that was not enough, Veran gave a well attended presentation highlighting the work of CoralGardening during both days!

As a result of the many enthusiastic meetings, a goodly number of people have decided to support CoralGardening on a monthly basis. You can also contribute: be our Buddy and donate a monthly amount for a healthy ocean, for all of us, and especially for future generations!

It was an exceptionally successful installment in the history of CoralGardening, Thanks to all who made it possible, and

See you next year!!

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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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EcoDay starts with a number of presentations in the morning. Frank gives a presentation about the importance of coral reefs and what you can do to protect these. The audience reacts enthusiastically to the presentation. After the presentation, a large group of people are inspired to participate in the planting of the flower in the afternoon.

After Frank, Mathieu, of the organization Blueming, gives a short presentation about reducing the use of single-use plastic. How can you contribute to this? This is often part of our presentation. It is interesting to hear this from someone else sometimes.

The last presentation is by Marcel of Get Involved. He talks about the use of social media in major cultural changes. It is important to have a positive attitude. “Blame and shame” does not work. The effect of blame and shame it creates a negative atmosphere, people will not like you for it and eventually people will not want to work with you anymore. In addition, subsequent messages are often not very constructive. The trick is to focus more on people who already made a positive change. When you put them in the spotlights, social media often gives you many more positive and constructive responses. Plus that people who want to change can see that change is possible. This creates a platform for these people to ask questions to those who have already made positive changes.

The last point is: Walk the Talk! People do not do what you say, they do what you do! Be the change you want to see and inspire others.

In the afternoon we get started with the flower. We have about 20 people to help us to plant the flower. Vera gives a briefing on how to put the flower together. Also the task of who does what is discussed and last who takes what part of the flower under water.

Due to the waves on the west side of the island, we go by taxi to Hin Wong Bay, the east side of the island. The roads are constructed differently here than in Europe. Here are no hairpin bends to steadily climb the hill, the roads go just straight up. A steep and challenging road, a roller coaster is nothing compared to these rides. The car stales a few times before we reach the top of the mountain. Safe at the top we drive down the other side of the island.

On the other side of the island we load all the stuff from the taxi onto the big boat that brings us to the divesite. With the small boat of Davy Jones Locker, the different parts of the flower are brought from the big boat to the Coral Garden. The parts of the flower are sunk 1 by 1 to the bottom. The small parts are simply taken by divers to the bottom. The heavy parts are brought down with liftbags or ropes. For most divers, this is a new and interesting experience. But equally exciting. Most divers are not used to diving with their hands full. Does no one drop a part unintentionally? Or does no one forget that if he/she lets go of a part, that he/she suddenly has a lot more positive buoyant? Fortunately, everyone is well instructed and everything goes well!

The only thing that is less fortunate is the visibility underwater. As the flower is placed on a sandy place, it is difficult to not disturb the soil. The water is getting a little more silted around the flower. This is not a problem for planting the flower, but unfortunately, this is not good for making pictures.

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, the first flower was thrown over by the strong currents and landslides that occurred close by last January. During this dive we will also try to restore this flower again. The flower is firmly nailed to the ground with a number of anchor hooks. In this way she will definitely be ready for the next monsoon season.

The operation goes smooth! We are proud of all our volunteers and want to thank them for their efforts. We also want to thank our donators who have made this wonderful result possible by their donations. Without donations for the materials we could not realize this flower. Check out the video of placing the flower here, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to receive a notification when we made our next video.

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