Buona Vista Coral Reef

[Rohan Harindra Wickramasinghe]

The town of Galle is situated on the southwestern coast of 
Sri Lanka. Galle harbour is several centuries old and has 
played a very important role in the foreign trade of the 
island. 

It is proposed to extend Galle harbour and this is expected 
to greatly benefit the economy and employment generation of 
the region and thereby the country as a whole. 

While the economic and employment generation benefits arising 
from the increased shipping etc are essential to the economic 
and political wellbeing of the country, a problem which will 
arise when the project is implemented is the envisaged impact 
on the Buona Vista Coral Reef. 

The Buona Vista Coral Reef at Rumassala, Galle is small 
(500 by 200 metres; within the 8 metre contour) but is extremely 
rich in both fish species as well as invertebrate forms. It 
would be a great pity if it were to be lost. 

The purpose of this posting is to inquire whether: 

1) If it is possible to avoid the harbour construction from 
   physically damaging the reef, would it be possible to erect a 
   " curtain "-like structure to isolate the reef from pollution 
   caused by increased operational activity in the harbour ? 

2) Have similar structures been successful anywhere else ? 

This is just a preliminary (and naive) inquiry but any information 
would be greatly appreciated - particularly any references to 
published material or relevant reprints. 

Thank you. 

Rohan H. Wickramasinghe, Ph.D., 
Institute for Tropical Environmental Studies, 
41 Flower Road, 
Colombo 7, 
Sri Lanka 
(email: rohan at ites.ac.lk)