After an extraordinary voyage
from Singapore to Bali, Mir is finally moored in North West Bali. With a lot of time and effort we helped
the Biosphere Foundation establish an inland field station at Ketut Astawa's
home. From this base, many projects, which have been developed over the years, will
be worked on and monitored. Agriculture, forestry, and conservation work
on Menjangan Island are just some of the projects that we are leading and
participating in. Recently on January 21st, 2014, myself, some
other members of Biosphere Foundation and The Friends of Menjangan teams have
collaborated to take a boat out to Menjangan Island and with the use of a GPS
system have managed to map out all thirty-four mooring buoys around the Island.
It was fascinating watching Gede, one of the team members of Friends of
Menjangan, taking old red bottles and stuffing them with Styrofoam as a
flotation device for the moorings rope. He began showing us how to tie the red
bottles together with an intricate pattern that resembles a fishing net. The
difference was that this time the net like pattern was weaved both literally
and metaphorically to protect and attempt to give back to the island, its life
and beauty. We discovered two buoys needed to be replaced, and four buoys
needed new red bottles which help incoming boats see their location. The rest of the mooring buoys were in good
condition. The Friends of Menjangan have also been consistently removing two
invasive species, Drupella snails and Crown of Thorns starfish which have been
a detriment to the coral. Our efforts are improving the conditions of the coral
and its inhabitants in subtle but impactful ways.
