Indonesian conservationist Nyoman Sugiarto has been working for 16 years to preserve corals on Bali’s reefs, but he says the frequency of mass coral bleaching has now become devastating.
Ninety percent of the corals that Sugiarto nurtured on reefs near his village in Bondelem on Bali’s northern coast lost their colour last December.
“It was all white. We were shocked and of course, it also had a negative impact on the coral we had planted. It wasn’t just the natural corals,” Sugiarto, 51, told Reuters.
When Sugiarto began coral conservation projects in 2008, he was told that corals can retain living algae, which gives them color, for 10 to 20 years.
Yet, he says coral reefs near Bondalem were destroyed in less than 10 years, and blames rising sea temperatures caused by climate change.
Coral bleaching occurs when a coral expels the colorful algae living in its tissues. Without the algae, the coral turns pale and becomes vulnerable to starvation, disease, or death.
In April, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said more than 54% of reef areas in the world’s oceans were experiencing bleaching-level heat stress, the fourth global bleaching event in the past three decades.
According to data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism, there are about 5.1 million hectares of coral reefs, accounting for 18% of the world’s total coral reefs.
Marthen Welly, marine conservation consultant at the Coral Triangle Center, said the coral bleaching in Bali in late 2023 was mainly caused by rising ocean temperatures due to the El Niño event hitting Indonesia.
Indonesia experienced its most severe dry season since 2019 last year, caused by El Niño.
Although Indonesia’s corals are more resilient and recover faster, Marthen said this would not be enough to withstand rising sea temperatures.
“It is predicted that with current temperatures coral bleaching events will occur more frequently, within one or two years,” he said, citing the latest research from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
However, Sugiarto says he is determined to continue his campaign to protect the reef and is advocating for coral conservation to young Indonesians and seeking funding to set up a village community to monitor illegal fishing.
“We believe we have an obligation to protect the sustainability of underwater life, especially corals,” he said.
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