Exploring the ocean coral scene
Two hot summer months spent scuba diving in some of the most spectacular seas surrounding the Indonesian island of Sulawesi: how do six students justify this to potential sponsors of this Oxford University expedition?
The aim of Sulawesi 2000, a marine conservation project, is to begin to assess the health of coral reefs in specific dive sites around the island, with respect to tourism. Divers come from all over the world to experience the seas crowded with wildlife, including megamouth sharks, poisonous sea snakes, tiny sea horses and deep-sea coelacanths. Bunaken Marine Park was set up in 1991 in order to protect the delicate marine ecosystem. But there remains a great need for further preservation of this area. Coral bleaching, a sign of severe stress, was recently detected there for the first time. This is just one of the ways in which tourism, which is encouraged because of its potential to boost the local economy, affects the reefs.
A research expedition requires a great deal of funding and many hours are spent organizing fundraising events and trying to persuade companies and grant-giving trusts that the proposed research is valuable.
This year, all ten proposed expeditions were approved by Oxford University Expeditions Council (OUEC). Proposals submitted involve subjects as diverse as animal behaviour, conservation, geography and ecology in countries as far-flung as China and New Caledonia.
"University approved expeditions have to complete a tough set of criteria to ensure validity of their proposed project, involving the production of a lengthy proposal and a series of interviews," explains Lydia Williams, an Expedition Advisor of OUEC. Although rewarding for the individuals involved, expeditions involve a large amount of work throughout the year, through fundraising, planning and the endurance during the expedition itself. They are of valuable importance and should be considered anything but a holiday!
Because the Sulawesi Sea is unique in its diversity, specific conservation methods for this area will probably be more effective than methods employed elsewhere. Sulawesi 2000 aims to begin a long-term research programme, to enable students in future years to collect more data. In this way, a more detailed picture of the cumulative effects of tourism will be seen. The Oxford students will be working alongside international scientists in Sulawesi. Indonesian students will also be getting involved.
Unless a lot of time and effort is invested in studying and conserving the unknown oceans, some species may be lost forever, before they have even been identified. Dr Mark Erdmann, who discovered coelacanths in the Sulawesi Sea in 1995, explained that 'research that would be directly applicable to management activities in the park would be extremely worthwhile, as there has really not been a lot of research done in Bunaken Marine Park to date.'
Solid statistics compiled by the students and researchers will be presented to the Indonesian Government and relevant conservation authorities, to try and reinforce the protected status of Bunaken. One of the key obstacles in this project is the need for the Indonesians to boost their local economy, resulting in the government 'turning a blind eye' to these problems.
The Rough Guide to Indonesia states "All of Bunaken's accommodation is illegal...Marine Park Status means that there should be no tourist facilities at all on the island. Accepting that locals need to make money, however, the government looks the other way, providing only the budget market is catered for, and the official businesses in Manado are not challenged."
The Sulawesi Sea attracts thousands of tourists every year, who, often unknowingly, cause irreversible damage to the stunning reefs. Once coral has been destroyed, the rest of the complex food chain is disrupted, so fish, for example, become depleted. This will eventually affect the fishing industry worldwide. Damage and disease can be caused by the anchors of boats, the fins of unsuspecting divers brushing past the delicate coral, the removal of coral for the ornamental trade and even by tourists walking across coral at low tide. The illegal development of more hotels and dive-centres on the tiny islands of Bunaken Marine Park also increases pollution of the environment.
Sulawesi 2000 should produce valuable and valid results which will be useful for the future management of Bunaken, and perhaps will be applied to other marine parks. But even if things go wrong, the expedition will provide a rare and valuable experience of "real" research.
Dr. Barrie Juniper, a senior member of OUEC, has been involved with Oxford University expeditions for over forty years. He agrees that "expeditions teach and provide valuable 'real' training, because they frequently do not work, unlike course practicals, which have often become very formalised and bear no resemblance to real life."
27th Apr 2000