Surfer Girl & Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara: Coral Reefs (part 1)

SUPA = Save Underpriviliged Precious Animals

Hey Greensters!

Patricia here :) Today, I’ll be talking about my day with Surfer Girl. As we all know, Surfer Girl is a lifestyle brand for young women. It has core values of Love, Nature, Friends and Fun. It's an honor for me to be the Surfer Girl's Green Ambassador for 2012 - 2014. Thank you, Surfer Girl. 

On June 26th, 2015 we went to a Surfer Girl event. This was one of the campaigns held by Surfer Girl and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to protect endangered animals, such as Orang Utan, Anoa, Slow Loris, elephant, Sumatran Tiger, Javan Rhino, Shark, hornbill, Cendrawasih bird and some more. The event took place at Kuta beach. Oh by the way, TNC in Indonesia comes with the name of Yayasan Konservasi Alam  Nusantara (YKAN). 

Mr. Jaka Setia and Miss Sutra Anjani from TNC

After half-an-hour of beach clean up (we found so many cigarette stubs and of course: plastics!!!), Mr. Jaka Setia from YKAN explained about the foundation. So, YKAN is a foundation that conserves nature. They have been here since 25 years ago. They’re based in America.They first came to the centre of Sulawesi then came to Bali, Komodo Island, Nusa Penida, Derawan island, Wakatobi and Raja Ampat.

By the way, Mr. Jaka explained a bit about Nusa Penida. This is a small island close to Bali island. The unique thing about this island that no other islands have is that there is a typical endemic animal around the island named Mola-Mola. Its English name is Ocean Sunfish. Don't be surprised because this fish has 5 meters in diameter and categorized as the heaviest known body fish in the world (it can exceed 1,000 kilograms!).

Then, we had a talking session with their marine biologist named Ms. Sutra Anjani. She talked about coral reefs and the different animals living there. The coral reef is a habitat to a lot of marine animals which makes them very important. Coral reef is an animal itself which gives another reason to why it is important. It is a community where lots of marine organisms gather. There are algae, fish, crabs and many more. You only can find corals where the water is shallow because it needs sunlight to grow.

Beach-clean-up with Surfer Girl teams

Corals are found only in tropical places or in seas where the temperature is warm. There are lots of animals who have a relationship with these corals such as the Mola-Mola fish. The Mola-Mola fish migrates to the coral reef area and the small marine animals that live in the corals will clean off the parasites that sticks on the Mola-Mola’s skin. They have to get rid of the parasites because parasites aren't good for them. If there’s too much parasites, the fish will get sick. Manta rays also comes to the coral reef to get ‘cleaned up’. Other animals that live in the coral reefs are turtles because they find food there. Marine mammals also come here (for example: the manatee).

Corals affect on us and for its surroundings are to filter out the dirty water such as the acid from farmer’s fertilisers. Corals will filter the water so that it is much healthier for the marine animals to live in. Healthier water, more fish will live there. Corals can act as a shield to the coastal area shores from being damaged by breaking the big waves.

Corals can be damaged by getting hit by big waves, fish bombs, plastics and many more. Plactics can give out chemicals when decomposing in the sea and can pollute the water. Plastics can also prevent corals from getting sunlight which makes it die easily. Plastics are also dangerous to marine animals such as the Mola-Mola because the Mola-Mola eats jellyfish and what else looks like a jellyfish? That’s right: P-L-A-S-T-I-C! The Mola-Mola fish will think that these plastics are jellyfish and will feed on them and choke.

Corals are also mined for decorations and also to get fish. Fishermen nowadays still use fish bombing which damages the corals. They poison the fish with potassium so that the fish will faint and will be easy to grab but this is bad for us humans because we eat these fishes which means we are eating the poison.

You can make a "fence" out of used glass bottle!

Did you guys know that Manta Rays are actually not that dangerous? This plankton eater is still a wild animal who though so you should still be careful when you see one. Around its body, there’s slime that coats its outer body and prevents bacteria from damaging its health. If these slimes are gone, even just a part, this will make the manta rays get infections easily. So don't touch them!




Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

Love,

Patricia Cornelia xx