tyre reef wrong ?

Michael Risk riskmj at mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca
Fri Jul 3 10:58:55 EDT 1998


Thank you for your reply. My reply may have been a bit strong, but it was
nonetheless correct. (I have since received feedback from my good friend
Tom Tomascik as to Dr. Collins' reputation-maybe you should not listen too
closely to what he tells you.)

I understand that there are enormous problems in Riau. In fact, everywhere
in Indonesia. The pressure for a "quick fix" is enormous, because people
have to eat. So let me suggest some things that might help:

1. first, Evan and I will send you the information/papers we have. They
will convince you that tires are bad. (Gila sekali: "tyres" in Britain,
"tires" in North america.)

2. *IF* there are unexploited fish stocks in an area where corals would
never grow normally, for example deep sand flats, then tires are OK as
FADs. (Fish Aggregation Devices.) If there is coral anywhere near, even
200 m, then make your reefs out of rock/concrete: use some of the designs
in my Atoll Res Bull paper. You will then find baby corals growing on your
"reefs" within a few months, beginning the process of converting the reef
to a real reef.

3. My marine project in Semarang is working to try to solve some of the
problems you mention. We are trying to get the Canadian development agency
that funds us to agree to a reorientation of the project, to value-added
sustainable marine exports, such as coral and fish farms. There will
shortly be pilot projects underway in the Karimunjawa Islands, involving
artificial reefs, cultivation of "jamur", etc: you are very welcome to
visit, just contact Dr. Llewellyn (Gilly).

4. Gilly and one of my students plan to come to Riau soon (August?). We
have a project under way to evaluate the effect of the "haze/smoke"
problem on the metabolism of corals. It should be possible for you to meet
with them in Riau, to discuss some of these matters. Their plans aren't
set yet: they want to sample corals that were worst hit by the smoke, and
(if I remember correctly) Gilly was planning to fly into Bintan, take a
ferry down to Lingga or Sengkep...

Sampai nanti.



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