Let's learn about coral reef

Saturday 18th October marked the last of three lessons on coral reefs for the students of Lihunu Junior High School. To reward their hard work and put it into practice, we bought them to Coral Eye to snorkel our home reef. Of course the students swim in the sea all the time but without a snorkel mask they don’t usually see the incredible amount of life beneath the surface. 

Why are coral reefs so important?

Coral reefs are invaluable to the health of our planet, and are often a measure for it; they are home to many thousands of plant & animal species and protect coastlines from sea and storm erosion. However many of the worlds’ coral reefs are under threat from human activity: Global warming has raised the temperature of the sea which can be fatal tiny animals called polyps that make up a coral. Marine litter, careless fishing and diving practices and pollution all add to the strain.

Building up to this, the students have been studying the importance of coral reefs and the different types of coral that can be found here on Bangka island. The lessons, taught by the Sea Soldiers from Manado, were interactive and fun; In preparation for jumping in the water we headed to the beach with a huge ‘coral reef’ printed on reusable laminate. Students laid a grid  over sections of the ‘reef’ to then workout the percentage of dead and alive coral- which is not as straight forward as you might imagine!

By the end of the lessons students were able to identify laminar, encrusting, branching, foliaceus, columnar and free living growth forms of coral. We taught them about the different coral reef types found in Indonesia: how they’re formed from volcanic activity to form fringing reefs- like here on Bangka, to barrier reefs and atolls. 

Our aim with all of these lessons is to sew the seeds of good stewardship in the next generation, we enable them to see for themselves how incredible their reefs are, arming them with knowledge so that they may care for their own natural environment. We also aim to have a lot of fun in the process :)

With many thanks to the Sea Soldiers, the brilliant students, and to anyone who’s been kind enough to donate to the No-trash Triangle Initiative that keeps this work going! 

You can donate to these lessons here. And follow us on Instagram @notrashtriangle for regular updates on our work.