When developed countries (UK, Aus, USA, the EU) send their waste to Malaysia (after china imposed a moratorium on accepting foreign waste) is it at all fair or realistic to expect their waste management industries to be more effective than our own? Many modern developed countries are dumping their trash in far less developed countries, with great risk of trash ending up in rivers and the ocean. Then issuing the blame for global pollution to those countries, even though it is our own trash!

We need to drastically reduce our own use and consumption of plastic products! The current model is utterly unsustainable, we need to be conscientious and innovative in our approach to waste management, and not just “sweep it under the rug!”

Many plastic products are pushed on the market in order make a profit, when really another solution would be better for everyone. Cheap plastic parts have become normal, and are often prone to failure, when a higher quality part made from another material will last far longer, meaning you have to buy less! Buy less is not what big business wants. Take a look at excessive packaging, shrink wrapped cucumbers, bananas in bags. We can easily do without these packagings. How about bottled water? Most of the time it’s just water that has been filtered, bottle after bottle filled with water and used one time. Each time another bottle, another sale, and more plastic in our oceans. It’s both more cost effective and sustainable to use our own water filters, and refill high quality bottles again and again!

It’s high time to step up and take responsibility for ourselves, as a species, as nations, and as individuals; this is where the most quick and effective change can occur, the individual! Hey You! Think about using less plastic! Think about where you put it when you’re done! What can you reuse or repurpose of the plastics you already have and how? How can you drastically reduce the amount of plastic you use? There are a great number of ways to do this in daily life, for example: a stainless steel straw or a reusable fabric bag or three could save hundreds of single use items from being produced each year! There are so many sustainable products available for higher quality and lasting re-use! Think about that!…Now don’t just think, Act!

See also: World’s plastic waste being dumped in Malaysia

The post Out of Site out of Mind? appeared first on CoralGardening.

Nothing is more fun to notice that it actually exists. On Koh Tao there is a so-called co-workspace, the Tao Hub where digital nomads come together and can work. It is an office, including large outdoor terrace to work. It is more than a workplace. There are cozy couches for chilling, friendly faces and some pets to de-stress. In the afternoon lunch is served and you can eat together good homemade Thai delicacies, and if there is something to celebrate, the barbeque is taken from the shed or wraps are being made. The manager, Moe, knows how to make a party every time.

It is the ideal place to meet people who travel the world and work at the same time. It is not only programmers who do this, but also trainers. We meet Ryan and Kim from CodingNomads. They organize a Coding Bootcamp where people in 2 months time will be trained from “nitwits” to become programmers. In a third month they work together on a project to convert the learned experience into practice. Check their website and read about their experience with the Tao Hub.

As said, it is the place to meet people. We are happy that non-divers are also interested in the story about coral reefs. We give the programmers a lecture about the importance of coral reefs and the work of CoralGardening. They are very inspired and a number of young programmers and their trainers come to the workshop on their day off, to roll up their sleeves.

The post CodingNomads and Tao Hub appeared first on CoralGardening.

The forecast for the coming decades is very somber. If we predict the future, based on current scientific data, more animal species will die. Not only animal species, but also entire habitats are threatened. One of the most endangered areas are coral reefs, with all the marine life that lives in it. Due to climate change, the temperature on earth rises, which will make the seawater warmer. Coral is sensitive to a few degrees rise.

An increase of 2 degrees Celsius can be deadly to coral. Compare this to a human, who has an average temperature of 37 degree Celsius. If your temperature rises to 39 degrees you are sick and have a fever. If this is temporary, you will survive, but if it takes a long time, you may die.
Due to warmer seawater temperatures, coral will bleach. You can compare this to fever in humans. If the situation does not take to long and the temperature drops, then the coral can survive and get its color back. If the temperature stays too high, the coral will die. The warmer seawater has already caused mortality. Over the last few decades, there have been more mass bleaching events than over centuries before. Over the last 30 years, about half of the corals worldwide have died.

When you know that only one quarter percent (0.25%) of the ocean floor is covered with coral, while a quarter (25%) of all marine life is directly dependent on the reefs, you realize that coral reefs have an essential function in keeping the ocean healthy.
If the current water temperature rising continues, the expectation is that more corals die, the entire Great Barrier Reef will disappear in the next two decades. Nobody knows what the effects of the collapse of such an important ecosystem are. The combination of temperature rise and the fact that we empty the ocean with overfishing, make some scientists predict that there will only be jellyfish in the ocean in 30 years. This has disastrous consequences for human beings, because one thing is certain: without a healthy ocean, no healthy life on earth!

Be the change you want to see and inspire others.

The first simple action you can take for a healthy ocean is to eat less fish. Nobody stops fishing until you stop eating fish. Every plate counts. Imagine we all stop eating fish in the same week, the ocean will be left in peace for one week.

The second action is to reduce your CO2 emissions. Take on the challenge to start with one thing and do the footprint challenge.

More info about corals and how a bleaching event was captured on camera, see the beautiful film Chasing Coral.

The post Are we the next dinosaur? appeared first on CoralGardening.

What is the political reaction?

The responses vary from the politically correct “we will study the verdict” to audacious comments the judge is wrong. Pretty strange when you consider these comments were made an hour after the verdict and all reports combined total up to well over 5000 pages. Talk about speedreading. Another nice reaction: “The Netherlands is already well on its way, concerning the climate.” In an European context, we only leave countries like Malta and Luxembourg behind us. Do you believe you will ever hear a coach of the national team say that after we finish second to last in a UEFA championship? Sadly, statements like these make it so that the average citizen will have difficulties taking politicians seriously.

The real question is of course: what will our government change now? Will they finally re-invest the 4 billion euros of coal subsidies in sustainable energy sources? Or will they continue their business as usual?

Is mismanagement the only effective environmental management?

If you look at worldwide CO₂-emissions from the past decades, you will see two short, downwards trends. One when the Soviet Union collapsed and the other when the last financial crisis occurred. Might we conclude that changes that are negative to our economy have a positive influence on the environment? Why? The biggest problem is that companies that profit the most form the current economy, will risk making less profit in a more sustainable economy. Think for example about oil producers. What can they deliver if no more oil is burned? They will protest change, a.o. by denying the seriousness of climate change and by lobbying against laws and policies that threaten their profits. They will claim sustainable development is bad for the economy, but what they really mean is that such development is bad for their sales. Our government pays too much attention to those claims.

The goal of the climate case is forcing our government to abide to made agreements on the climate and to motivate her to give a positive spin to the current policy. Precise investments in new, sustainable techniques and changing to a carbon free economy is the big stimulant that will improve our large scale economy. And a big step forward into a healthier society!

What has this story to do with corals?

Simple: increased atmospheric CO₂ will lead to more CO₂ in the oceans. This makes seawater more acidic and that has huge consequences for all marine life that grows cartilage and carbonate based skeletons, like coral. In more acidic water this growth is more difficult and takes more energy. This makes corals susceptible to disease and death. Acidification can lead to the extinction of corals.

On behalf of CoralGarderning, future generations and many others, from the bottom of our hearts:

Thank you, Urgenda and judges for this historical verdict!

This climate case, filed by Urgenda and Roger Cox, is picked up in other countries as well. For example, a new case was filed in Belgium and in Australia work is done on the preparations for another case.

The post Judge saves corals! appeared first on CoralGardening.

There have been encounters with whale sharks at various locations for several weeks. A mother and young, or two at the same time, that also “talk” to each other and even one shark with a rope around his tail, which was removed by a brave diver. In short, we also wanted to see a whale shark. We took a day off and went on an excursion. It’s always a gamble, we did not count on actually seeing one, as the encounters are rare. In the 13 years I’ve been diving, I’ve seen just one.

At 6 o’clock we left on a fully loaded boat. We arrived on the dive site after about 2 hours. There is another boat present. We tie our boat to the boat line, and immediately a small group of divers jumps overboard.

When everything has come to a rest, we enter the water. We are not the only ones who have come to see if the stories about whale shark sightings are true. There are dozens of other divers. It’s a real whale shark Mania. But I cannot deny participating myself, otherwise I would not be here.

I enjoy the beautiful coral and the many fishes, until somebody pulls my fin. I look around and it appears to be Vera. She points upwardsenthusiastically . And yes, it wouldn’t have been the first time to happen, but I almost missed the whale shark that swam over me. It’s a small one. Men usually have some difficulty assessing sizes, but I try nonetheless: 3 to 4 meters. It is an amazing view seeing him / her swimming on a light background and accompanied by a lot of remorse / suction fish. You become quiet and before you know it, he / she has passed you. We continue with our dive.
As mentioned, there are quite a lot of divers. You may have seen a group of fish or birds that suddenly change flight or swimming direction. Well, the divers act like that too. Suddenly they all go to the right, a little less coordinated than the fish, but still. You start to suspect another whale shark. And indeed, he appears between all the bubbles and divers. Divers respond in different ways, some spear forward with their GoPro on their selfie stick, as if they want to pinch the shark. Others keep calm in their place and just look. I choose for the last, not wanting to interfere with this mighty beast. I wonder what the whale shark thinks about all the divers and their bubbles. He swims right towards Vera, she moves aside and the shark calmly passes. So there’s at least 2 whale sharks! And one of them was rescued from that rope on his tail recently. The scar is clearly visible. I’m happy knowing that he survived. A tribute to the responisble diver, removing that cannot have been easy.

When we emerge, we see about a dozen boats have arrived. A couple of diving boats but also some speed boats. While we rest on ours, we suddenly hear a scream! One of the whale sharks has emerged and swims on the surface. The boat next to us almost rolls over, as everyone hurries to the side to get another glimps of this animal. It’s intereseting to see how the shark behaves. It’s going straight towards the divers and snorklers, which of course bolt away. Then it turns towards one of the boats, and in his curiosity almost hits the camera of a guy on the stern. What a sight.

We can enter the water for a second dip after an hours’ rest. And we meet him again! It’s a great dive: great clarity, beautiful coral, many beautiful schools of batfish, baracuddas, groupers and of course, at least 2 whale sharks! It could not have been better. Isn’t diving great?

The post Whale Shark Mania on Koh Tao appeared first on CoralGardening.

Great news for sharks and rays, particularly Thresher Sharks and the community of Malapascua. People on Malapascua (Daanbantayan, Cebu, Philippines) depend on income from dive tourism. Divers come to the small island mainly to dive and see the Thresher Shark. The Thresher Shark, amongst other sharks and rays, come to a nearby seamount to get cleaned.

The post CITES saves Thresher Shark and income local community appeared first on CoralGardening.

His idea is to cross the North Sea form the Netherlands to England on a kite surfboard with a homemade hydrofoil. The board is again made of plastic litter. A trip of 178 km! They made it, unfortunately not in the time they had hoped for.

This “Message on a bottle” is specifically to draw attention for plastic bottles polluting the environment. Merijn challenges everyone to contribute and sign the petition for the extension of deposits on 500 ml. bottles and encouraging the use of refillable bottles.

A great initiative, because as you maybe know plastic pollution is also harmful for the coral reefs. Wouldn’t it be great if a deposit occurs on all beverage containers including beverage on cardboard, bags and cans.

Research shows that waste is not always visible and causes harm: it has been found on the bottom of the deepest oceans.

Building an Ocean Cleanup device is an expensive and time-consuming solution to collect waste out of the ocean. The machine is able to clean the upper layer of the ocean. It is nevertheless no solution for the pollution in the deeper parts of the ocean. So again, prevention is better than cure. The solution is cheaper and faster: the introduction of a deposit on all beverage containers. If there had been a deposit on this packaging it would have been recycled instead of polluting our nature.

The post Message on a bottle appeared first on CoralGardening.

On coral reefs you can often find a lot of fish, solitary or in schools. They hang around the reef because they receive food and protection from the reef.

Unfortunately, too much fishing in these areas, has an impact on the reef. The big fish are killed and taken, so a lot of nutrients will disappear. The reduction of nutrients can be up to 50% and affects the growth and recovery of coral reefs. Particularly at this moment it’s very important…

So, for a healthy coral reef fishes and their excrement are essential. To find out more visit: Phys.org

The post Fish Urine important to coral reefs appeared first on CoralGardening.

In Finding Dory, Dory and the octopus Hank escape an aquarium. Meanwhile in New Zealand, another octopus decided to be a copycat. Inky managed to escape the New Zealand’s National Aquarium by squeezing its body through a small slit in the tank’s lid and then through a very narrow discharge pipe into the ocean, despite Inky being the size of an American football.

We hope Inky enjoys his new freedom. Are you wondering if perhaps a Blue Tang went missing from the aquarium as well?

The post Finding Dory based on a true story? appeared first on CoralGardening.

Koh Tao currently does not face closure. There are some discussions going on about temporarily closing off a bay for divers and snorklers (to give nature some time to recover herself), but at this point in time we do not yet expect any  negative consequences for CoralGardening and the building of the first CoralGarden. We will study the situation in the coming weeks.

This situation does not only show us that we do not travel alone on our journey to better reefs, but also that many roads can lead to Rome.

A view of the Similan Islands, located off the coast of southern Thailand Photo: Hendric Tay

The post Thailand closes off tourist islands appeared first on CoralGardening.