Pemuteran, on the north-west coast of Bali, is in the news again. After receiving many awards for the protection of the local reefs, including the “Kalpataru Award” handed to the Village Elders by the President, Pemuteran has continued it’s important role as a leader and role model in protecting the marine environment. Working with the leaders of the local fishermen, Pemuteran’s pioneer dive company, Reef Seen Aquatics, owned and operated by Australian Chris Brown, managed to secure funding from AusAID/Bali Rehabilitation Fund to develop local area diver skills and to create three new dive sites in Pemuteran Bay.

Reef Seen Aquatics has trained a number of local fishermen to PADI Rescue Diver standard and employed them as “Reef Gardeners” to maintain reef health by collecting crown-of-thorn starfish, parasitic drupella snails and reef refuse. The Reef Gardeners also help maintain the world’s largest Biorock installation located in Pemuteran Bay.

The new dive sites on Tankad Jarang are model examples of responsible reef restoration. Many Bali dive sites were badly affected by the 1998 El Nino warming, and the resultant reef damage was compounded by destructive fishing practices. Add an outbreak of crown-of-thorns and you can imagine the existing state of some of the reefs.

The AusAID funding also allowed Reef Seen Aquatics to purchase over a dozen local wooden ships and scuttle them on two sites on an off-shore reef - Tankad Jaran. The local effort created two excellent dives – Canyon Wreck and Ships’ Graveyard. At the first site, a massive 30m Bugis wooden schooner rests at 28 meters in a natural coral canyon. While bottom time passes quickly at this depth, the return to the surface includes the best and most extensive hard coral cover to be found in Bali. At Ships’ Graveyard another 24m Bugis plus nine prahu are sunk in depths varying from 25 – 14 m.

Ships Graveyard also includes two “Bio Wrecks” on either side of the largest single species coral (povaris sp.) “bommie” in Bali. A 9 meter long Madurese prahu is at the shallowest depth, and at low tide its distinctive curved prow is only 3 metres below the surface. The other “BioWreck” structure is made from pre-fab building steel and is 12 metres long by 3 metres wide, shaped like a boat and sits on the sand between 7 and 10 metres deep. Power for the biorock structures was originally provided by a generator on the Reef Gardeners workboat which docked alongside a raft permanently anchored on the site. Now, solar panels have been installed on the raft to provide a cleaner and environmentally friendly source of electricity. There are now future BioRock structures planned for this location, all to be powered by solar panels. The site is suitable for snorkellers and gaily decorated jukung sailed by local fishermen will provide transfers out to the raft rest station.

The third new dive site in Pemuteran is the aptly called Taman Pura – Temple Garden. A dream of Chris’s since 1992 that he has finally been able to make true. It is somewhat of an engineering feat with over ten large stone statues resting on stone plinths and a 4 metre high Balinese candi bentar gateway. Found at a depth of 29 meters it also incorporates a cleaning station with schooling baitfish. The “garden” is covered in gorgonian fans and must be seen to be believed. In 2006, a second stage to these Temple Gardens was constructed at a depth of 15 metres to allow less experienced divers to be able to dive the location.

These combined projects were the brainchild of Chris Brown, The success of the project is due to his tireless energy and the hard work of his well-trained staff and the crew of the Reef Gardeners. Throughout the project he was supported and assisted by other local-based expats including Instructor Paul Turley and long time dive buddy, Cody Shwaiko.

The work done here with the Reef Gardeners was not the start, nor the end, of Chris’s efforts here to protect the reefs of Pemuteran. Since coming here in 1991, Chris and his staff have worked hard to protect the reefs and educate the local villagers as to why, and how, they need to protect the reefs for their own survival. Often putting themselves in possible physical danger, they chased off, and had arrested by the local police, fishermen from other areas collecting aquarium fish with cyanide, dynamite fishermen and boats that used illegal “jaring macan’ (tiger nets) that took almost everything off the reefs. Between 1996 and 1998, Chris and his team of locals removed over 75,000 Crown of Thorns starfish from the Pemuteran Reefs and repaired and saved what would probably add up to thousands of years of coral growth. This not just saved the remaining corals and life in the area but helped to enable the amazing “comeback” of many of the onshore and offshore reefs of the area in a totally environmentally friendly way.

The work done by some of the dive operators and hotels of the area to protect the local reefs was designed to be simple and, although needing lots of man hours in, and out of the water, easily affected. It is hoped to be a shining example for other dive locations and communities, not just in Bali, but around the world, to be able to follow.