Purple Dive's Coral Restoration Day

Here at Purple Dive, we are very passionate and committed about being eco friendly, helping the environment and assisting in conservation efforts. We are proud members of 1% for the planet, and work hard to maintain our Green Fins silver rating. Now, we are taking another step towards our conservation efforts and will start working with Living Seas Foundation and their outstanding Coral Reef Restoration program. We spent our first day planting corals with them, here's how it went....

Living Seas Foundation: Who are they?

The Coral Reef Restoration Site run by Living Seas Foundation was set up in 2019. With their highly experienced and passionate team, they have created the largest restored coral reef in Bali and is the second largest of its kind in Indonesia. Their reef, located in Padang Bai is 5 hectares in size, and they have planted 216,394 coral fragments with 5,936 structures deployed.

Their Method:

The project uses hexagonal steel structures, which are coated with sand. Each one can hold 18 coral fragments, which are held in place with cable ties. The structures are then anchored to the sea bed in close proximity to each other. The project plants predominantly Acropora Corals, known for their speedy growth rate. Once planted, after approximately 6 months, the coral fragments will have firmly attached themselves to the structure and after about 2 years, the coral will have grown so much that the structure will barely be visible.

In order to facilitate this impressive growth, there is constant need for maintenance and upkeep, which is done by their dedicated staff and the help from volunteers.

Purple Dive Gets Involved!

Purple Dive were keen to donate to this project and purchased 8 steel structures. We collected a team of enthusiastic divers, including our staff, and our Divemaster and IDC candidates, packed up our dive gear and headed off to Padang Bai. Our boat moored up next to their floating pontoon and we climbed aboard to meet the team.

We started off with an informative and interesting teaching session by Leon, the founder of the Dive Education Centre for Living Seas Asia. He gave us an introduction to Living Seas and the Coral Restoration Project and explained how the restoration site was grown and is maintained. Using a map of the dive site, he showed us how the site was expanding and where the coral would be planted. We then moved on to learning about the corals, how they grow and the vital details of how to attach the corals correctly to the structures.

Setting up the Structures:

Then it was time to get our hands dirty! We each popped on a pair of gloves and started to carefully attach the coral fragments to the structures. Each coral had to be attached securely with 2 cable ties, to give them the best chance of forming a firm attachment to the structure. They also needed to be positioned correctly, making sure the right side was facing up allowing for adequate photosynthesis to occur. Before long, all the structures were full and it was time to deploy them. We had an in depth briefing, explaining where and how the structures would be anchored before having an explore around their beautiful restoration site.

The Dive:

We geared up and each buddy team was given a structure to bring down. With the help of the team, we securely anchored our structures before heading off for a tour of the site. The sheer abundance of coral was a delight to see! It was inspiring to see the growth that they had achieved, with vast areas of planted corals that had grown far beyond the structures, and had created a home to such a healthy variety marine life. We had the pleasure of seeing sharks, cuttlefish, nudibranchs and much more.

After a little tour around we circled back to one of their larger nursery structures and set to work cleaning and attaching some of the corals. When we hit our reserve, we headed back to the surface.

Back on board, we enjoyed a delicious lunch provided by Living Seas, and chatted about the dive and the corals. All in all, a fun filled day of learning, helping the corals and beautiful diving.

A special thank you to Leon and the team for having Purple Dive join them for the day. It was a privilege to help and dive in their spectacular restoration site. We are so proud to be a part of the fantastic work of Living Seas Coral Reef Restoration and look forward to a continuing partnership with them.