KBR?

Hey everyone!

Im relatively new in these parts (been lurking for a long time...), absorbing information and just learning from a wonderful cross section of people who seem to be pretty friendly!

Anyway, I wanted to ask about KBR, specifically about the house reef!

I was in Lembeh recently and staying with another resort. We tried to do a dive on the KBR hose reef and we were told that the resort "rents the bay" by one of the staff there, that we werent allowed to dive in the straight out in front of KBR- and we were turned away. Ive never had any other problems at other resorts but I was just wondering if this was something that resorts in Lembeh are starting to do, and the "legality" of it all? ...it seemed to leave us with a sour feeling thats for sure!

(Our guide seemed puzzled and wondered when someone would come along and rent the shoreline close to hairball or TK!)

Thanks!

As I understand it, the property leases, or at least some of them, permit such. Only surprised that the guide was unaware.

Hey everyone!

 

Im relatively new in these parts (been lurking for a long time...), absorbing information and just learning from a wonderful cross section of people who seem to be pretty friendly!

 

Anyway, I wanted to ask about KBR, specifically about the house reef!

 

I was in Lembeh recently and staying with another resort. We tried to do a dive on the KBR hose reef and we were told that the resort "rents the bay" by one of the staff there, that we werent allowed to dive in the straight out in front of KBR- and we were turned away. Ive never had any other problems at other resorts but I was just wondering if this was something that resorts in Lembeh are starting to do, and the "legality" of it all? ...it seemed to leave us with a sour feeling thats for sure!

 

(Our guide seemed puzzled and wondered when someone would come along and rent the shoreline close to hairball or TK!)

 

Thanks!

Hi Drone415,

Sorry you were left with a sour feeling. I'm the Dive Manager at KBR.

KBR was the first resort to open in Lembeh. Our owners bought the entire bay when they started the resort, over 16 years ago. Even though it is not possible to 'own' the water in front of the resort, the owners did manage to rent the bay from the Bitung municipal. We pay a yearly rent and it gives us control over the water in the bay. The biggest benefit to this is that we stop anyone fishing in the bay. The locals respect this and it means that we are able to preserve a little of Lembeh Straits in pristine condition.

In order to keep the reef pristine it is important to us to ensure that there is not uncontrolled diving on the reef by resorts we have no control over. Unfortunately many divers buoyancy is not great, and we have masses of hard and soft coral in the bay. This would be affected if we had 6 dive boats a day visiting. We would also have to worry about any of our guests who were snorkelling, and the peace and quiet we have.

All our guests are allowed to dive our house reef for free, and this is one of the 'extras' you get when diving with KBR.

Again, apologies for any sour taste. It has always been like this in Lembeh with the KBR House Reef and is not a new trend or something that has just started.

Best regards,

Kaj Maney

Hi Drone415,

 

Sorry you were left with a sour feeling. I'm the Dive Manager at KBR.

 

KBR was the first resort to open in Lembeh. Our owners bought the entire bay when they started the resort, over 16 years ago. Even though it is not possible to 'own' the water in front of the resort, the owners did manage to rent the bay from the Bitung municipal. We pay a yearly rent and it gives us control over the water in the bay. The biggest benefit to this is that we stop anyone fishing in the bay. The locals respect this and it means that we are able to preserve a little of Lembeh Straits in pristine condition.

 

In order to keep the reef pristine it is important to us to ensure that there is not uncontrolled diving on the reef by resorts we have no control over. Unfortunately many divers buoyancy is not great, and we have masses of hard and soft coral in the bay. This would be affected if we had 6 dive boats a day visiting. We would also have to worry about any of our guests who were snorkelling, and the peace and quiet we have.

 

All our guests are allowed to dive our house reef for free, and this is one of the 'extras' you get when diving with KBR.

 

Again, apologies for any sour taste. It has always been like this in Lembeh with the KBR House Reef and is not a new trend or something that has just started.

 

Best regards,

 

Kaj Maney

Hi Kaj,

Thanks for your reply!

... Im not sure I understand though. Its not possible to "own" the water, however you do "own" the water?

How far out does this extend? How deep?

Sorry, Im a little perplexed still. I have been to many diving destinations where resorts let others dive on their house reefs and share the experience even in high traffic areas without any ill effects above what might have happened with only one resort diving there...

Do dive trips from KBR restrict their presence at other high traffic sites in the straight in attempt to keep the reef (and muck) pristine as well?

Drone, are you the same person as the one, OralDouglas who posted this report on SB:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/indonesia...house-reef.html

Your IP is the same as another member, OralDouglas, same as the one who posted on SB. I don't mind if you have a legitimate question about KBR, but why sign on a new membership just to ask this question?

AFAIK, KBR has been doing that since new resorts started popping up in early 2000. If it was illegal, I'm pretty sure they'd be stopped by now. KBR had issues with the locals about the beach access as well.

I'm moving this topic to the appropriate forum.

Hi Kaj,

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

... Im not sure I understand though. Its not possible to "own" the water, however you do "own" the water?

How far out does this extend? How deep?

 

Sorry, Im a little perplexed still. I have been to many diving destinations where resorts let others dive on their house reefs and share the experience even in high traffic areas without any ill effects above what might have happened with only one resort diving there...

 

Do dive trips from KBR restrict their presence at other high traffic sites in the straight in attempt to keep the reef (and muck) pristine as well?

Hi Drone,

I do not want to get into a protracted discussion about this.

We and, as far as i know, all the other dive resorts do not dive on each others house reefs at NAD, Lembeh Resort, Bastianos, Lembeh Lodge, Lembeh Hills or Two Fish Divers. They all offer House Reef dives on their resorts. We do not dive them.

The only others resorts whose 'house reefs' are dived could be Kasawari (Jahir) and Black Sands (Hairball). These dive sites were established years before there were resorts in front of them.

All dive resorts in Lembeh 'restrict our presence' on other dive sites, by restricting numbers on any dive site to a max of 15 divers (including guides).

I would also go on to say that all the dive managers in Lembeh get on very well together and we frequently meet to discuss ways to ensure that we minamalise any damage to our sites (usually by trying to work out ways to stop our 'guests' kicking the s**t out of the sites). I have received absolutely no complaints about our 'exclusive' house reef from them, or their wish to dive in KBR's bay.

As the poster in response to your post on Scubaboard in October last year pointed out, our reef is nothing special, so why are you so worried about not being able to dive it?

If ever you come back to Lembeh, drop me a line and we'll work something out so you can come and do a dive on our House Reef.

Best regards,

Kaj

Interesting...

Would Jahir not be considered Kasawari's "house reef" as it is directly off their dock? They don't restrict diving there, at least not when I was there.

Interesting...

 

Would Jahir not be considered Kasawari's "house reef" as it is directly off their dock? They don't restrict diving there, at least not when I was there.

Hi Allison,

As I said in my previous post:-

The only others resorts whose 'house reefs' are dived could be Kasawari (Jahir) and Black Sands (Hairball). These dive sites were established years before there were resorts in front of them.

Also, Kasawari could hardly be said to be in a private bay, whereas KBR is.All the other resorts 'share' their bays with villages or other resorts. Jahir is in fact named after 5 KBR dive guides (the first initials of their names, Jandri, Ade, Hengky, Iwan and Robin), though they have now all left (apart from Ade).

We also have cases here where other dive resorts have 'discovered' good mandarin dive sites and do not let other resorts dive them without permission. We control this ourselves, between dive managers.

Again, as said before, it has always been this way in Lembeh. This is nothing new and KBR has always had the House Reef as an exclusive dive since the beginning.

This may all seem strange to guests in Lembeh, but it's how we do things here. It may be different to other locations, but again we (all the resorts here) are happy with how it works for us.

Best regards,

Kaj

As a visitor since the 90s, the Lembeh Straits diving situation isn't all that strange. KBR had the foresight to try control the water in the bay. However, even they had issues with locals accessing the beach area, since they want to walk past to get around. I can't remember how it was finally settled but obviously, the locals aren't exactly prancing along the beach.

I'm assuming the newer resorts couldn't negotiate a deal to pay for the area off the beach. Anyone who's been there will know that Jahir and Hairball are in a much bigger bay than KBR. Plus I can imagine the fallout if anyone tried nowadays with so many resorts around.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound aggressive- honestly its a genuine curiosity.

I was considering staying at KBR at the time, and I thought that it would have been nice to check out the dive site before doing so. (KBR does push my budget a little...but unlimited house reef dives sounds good if its worth it!) - which is why I was interested in diving there.

I just wrote a half page of really poetic stuff, but the internet ate it so hopefully I can reconstruct what I wanted to say without too much madness….

Speaking from the perspective of a guest, I have been used to being able to explore places that traditionally couldn't be owned by anyone. I can't imagine what it would be like if resorts started popping up all along the strait and were restricting access to their chosen areas. Perhaps it's just a little more than communist of me to say that I don't believe we benefit from people claiming ownership over things that traditionally couldn't be owned. It is the ocean afterall! Who knows, maybe this is something that has a potential to become common practice in business realms where there is a substantial capital flow and bendable local laws?

Please understand I don't mean this as a direct attack on KBR or Kaj. Generally speaking there are similarities in what I experienced as an outsider and changed my feelings about the operation at the time. Realistically I can also understand how ALL businesses might tend to horde their gems in such a place as well. As far as protecting the reef, I completely agree with the idea of restricting access, however from a conservation and business perspective I don't think that anyone benefits from hiding their assets either.

I'd thought that perhaps there are other ways of going about protecting the house reef? Allowing other guests to dive with your guides for a small fee or offering a sort of co-operative program with the other resorts so that no one is left out? Perhaps it would be beneficial for people to experience the restrictions on their dive behaviour and see the positive results on your reef?

Either way, I am big on exploring and would have loved to check it out. Perhaps you'll be hearing from me next time I'm in Lembeh!