Mooring buoys project in Komodo

I received an email from Graham at Diving4 Images, a charter operator I dove with on a Flores Sea liveaboard in 2004. Helen was the organizer of the recent Bali Buoys operation, which Scubadrew and I supported and documented in 2004. As all of us know, anchor damage is terrible and mooring buoys provide one of the best alternatives and it's permanent infrastructure. A good investment, nay, the best! Please make a donation quickly, if you are at all able, the project commences in July.

Best regards,

Scott

http://www.diving4images.com/conservation_komodo.html

This is a good project. More mooring buoys are needed in Komodo National Park for sites that don't currently have them, as well as locations where the existing buoys put in by The Nature Conservancy over the past ten years need to be replaced or upgraded to handle some the larger liveaboard dive boats that are coming into the park.

Helen Newman is a brilliant, experienced, marine biologist who designed and managed the very successful TNC supported program to install permanent mooring buoys around Bali and Nusa Penida a few years ago. These are excellent buoys, consisting of very heavy steel cable threaded through a sealed fibre-glass float and shackled to a heavy stainless steel mooring ring. On the bottom, the cable is attached to a long molly (I think that's the correct term) which in most locations is permanently fixed into in a narrow hole drilled (using an air-operated percussion drill) directly into the dead coral substrate under the sand). This is a difficult operation. (I know that Dr. Alex, Scubadrew and some other wetpixelers have dived with BIDP, who installed many of the buoys around Bali.)

The heavy cable is unfortunately necessary to ensure that the buoys and hardware are not stolen by fishermen, who recognize their quality. (The end result is an overbuilt mooring probably strong enough to take a US navy frigate in a good blow, but the good news is that the mooring will still be there a year from now, and two years after that. (There had been mooring buoy installation programs in Bali before, but the moorings never stayed in place longer than a year.)

I don't know if the Komodo moorings will follow exactly the same design and specs as the Bali moorings, but I'm sure they will be of comparable quality and security.

We divers who visit the park (or who will ever visit the park in the future) are the biggest beneficiaries, as we get to enjoy dives and look at corals on beautiful sites that haven't been torn apart by damage from anchors and anchor chains (see below), so I think it's only appropriate that we all contribute to support this important project.

The images below shows what happens when there aren't enough mooring buoys.

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)

Thanks for the endorsement Robert, I always try to support infratructure building projects and other permanent programs which benefit the reef sustainably.

Are those anchors abandoned? Awfull stuff. I saw an abandond block of concrete (w/ mooring ring) in Wakatobi that had danced around on top of a large bommie for years, that was awful too.

Still longing for BAli - ScubSkeet

I've been in touch with Helen Newman, who confirms that the project is moving ahead.

I'll be in Komodo next week (from 8-15 July) on the Seven Seas with Mark Heighes, Jos and Lida Pet (plus the adorable Eva and Lara Pet), and a great group of friends and interesting new people - I should be able to find out more about the status of the project then.

Meanwhile, here's one of the older dive boat mooring buoys in Komodo that needs to be replaced. The diver is Maurice Knight, who works for USAID in Jakarta.

Frogfish

Arrrggghhh, there's a salty mooring matey! Have a great trip Robert, hope to see a short report when you return.