In order to increase our knowledge, we have invited Nicole Helglason of ReefDivers.io to give a presentation to us and also to the Volunteers of Suara Pulau (the NGO that placed the Pyramids here on Bangka Island). Nicole is a specialist in the field of coral identification, she assists various coral rehabilitation projects around the world, and she has developed a teaching method to impart this knowledge gracefully unto others.

In the morning Nicole starts with her presentation “See The Reef with New Eyes” which is about how one can recognize the different species of coral. Coral is divided into different classes, called genus, and each genus can contain dozens or even a hundred different species. Each individual coral can have different forms and colors, which can make identification especially difficult. For example: one coral species can grow in a branching form (such as the branches of a tree), a tabular form (as a table), or encrusting (over an object), depending on conditions such as depth, temperature, and sunlight exposure. The presentation is a brief summary covering the basics of recognizing and identifying coral, the official course takes a number of days to complete. After the presentation we went diving on the pyramids and the surrounding area. Nicole is pleasantly surprised by the amount of healthy coral around the reef damaged by dynamite fishing.

In the afternoon we dive at the rehabilitation and education project of Murex, another resort on the island. They specifically seek out coral species that are threatened, and when they find one they will split fragments off of the mother coral and place them onto a table in their nursery, once the corals are large enough they are placed back on the natural reef.

Today I learned something new: mimic anemones are not coral, they are an anemone that can appear to be coral, in fact they are nearly indistinguishable from coral. During the night, however, it becomes apparent that the anemone is not coral, it looks rather different. Now here is a question: are you going for a night dive, or are you going to look at the stars instead?

Nicole, thanks for the instructive day!

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GBCC is the Global Biodiversity Conservation Conference organised by the University of Life Sciences in Prague. It was held for the 5th time, previous conferences were besides in Prague also at collaborating universities in Mexico (2016) and Indonesia (2014).

There were 225 participants, mainly Czech students and university staff, as well as several Czech Conservation Organizations. The international participants where mainly from Mexico and 11 of the 24 speakers were from abroad. One speaker from Slovakia was likely to be the oldest and most opinionated participant, he was not shy and challenged speakers after each presentation, in Slovak… luckily, he did not have any questions for me

The presentation of CoralGardening was remarkable in the sense that it was one of the few about marine conservation. A lot of topics were about forest conservation and terrestrial wildlife. The themes of this year’s GBCC were really interesting: day 1 was about human transformation of ecosystems and its effect on biodiversity (in temperate and tropical regions); day 2 was about wildlife crime; and modern technologies in biodiversity conservation (remote sensing, drones, telemetry, night vision camera’s). Although the 3D printing of an artificial coral reef would have well fitted the latter theme, CoralGardening was invited to give a presentation in the afternoon at the 1st day, as part of the theme human transformation of tropical ecosystems. The invitation came from a network contact of Veran, and I was asked to go in her place.

For me an honour and very nice to do, as I have some experience in speaking and attending conferences with my background in applied science and tropical marine ecology. Besides representing the work of CoralGardening I included a summary of scientific knowledge on coral restoration techniques based on lessons learnt of other projects worldwide. My aim was to get in touch and share knowledge with other participants of GBCC, by addressing our own research projects and the research questions and needs we have. As mentioned there were few marine conservationists, one speaker was working with turtles in Cape Verde. I did establish contacts with Czech people who apply genetics in their work, which is definitely a hot topic and more and more applied in conservation projects to give insight in the DNA of an individual, which provides information about population structure or species evolution. In coral restoration it is promoted as a means to establish a resilient artificial reef which has genetic variability. This makes a coral reef more resilient to threats than a monoculture, as one genotype will be more resistant to for example disease than another. The DNA of the photosynthetic algae (zooxanthellae) living in the tissue of coral polyps is also important, as it determines their resilience to the major global threat: coral bleaching. Although it is not at all easy nor cheap to establish genetic research, it is worthwhile to investigate and consider incorporating genetic sampling in the mobile lab project of CoralGardening.

For me it was inspiring to attend this conference and to dive into scientific papers. If you are interested to learn more, please have a look at the program and presentations at the GBCC website.

Ingrid van Beek

Photo’s GBCC

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Mankind is facing many global threats these days, those can not be solved neither by governments, scientists, businessman nor public society, if working independently. Only together working side-by-side we can make a change. The aim of the conference is to raise efective dialogue among academics, non-profit organizations, government agencies, private sector and public from all around the world to come out with sustainable solution for biodiversity conservation. GBCC, with its fourth year existence, become respected conference held on three continents, presented by Czech republic, Mexico and Indonesia. Many respected universities, government and non-governement agencies are already partners of the conference all around the globe, it gives us a unique opportunity to talk about the most alarming issues and to strike various potential solutions.

GBCC connects people with different backgrounds and conceptions to come out with sustainable solution for biodiversity conservation. Let´s talk to find the best solution to solve biodiversity issues together.

Ingrid van Beek from CoralGardening will talk at September 25 about Coral Reef Restoration.

The conference is on September 25 and 26 in Prague.

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