"Johnny Coral Seed" Empowers Costal Communities

NADI, Fiji  - Coral reefs, so often associated with the world's most desirable travel destinations, are also key to food security and the economic well-being of developing countries, asserts a marine scientist who dedicates his life to regenerating coral.

Dr. Austin Bowden-Kerby, senior scientist for Counterpart International, said pollution, climate change and over-fishing by locals and tourists have caused widespread degradation of the coral reefs, one of the world's richest sources of biodiversity, all of which is well known. But the much-awarded scientist who launched Counterpart's Coral Gardens - Living Reefs initiative said what is less known is the effect of dying coral on the health and livelihoods of coastal communities.

Featured on the BBC TV documentary, "The Coral Gardener" which started airing this month, Bowden-Kerby highlights the vital connections between Coral Gardens, biodiversity conservation, food security and wealth creation.

Tourists flock to places like the Pacific and the Caribbean to witness the multitude of exotic sea life that resides in these underwater habitats, and Bowden-Kerby reminds us "between 20 to 30 percent of all species of the planet are found on the coral reef. They represent a treasure house of medicines for biodiversity."

For more than 30 years, Bowden-Kerby has studied coral reefs and their effects on local habitats and economies. He adds that in addition to providing quality snorkeling and fishing, popular activities for resort guests, corals are the beach makers. "A typical reef produces between one and three tons of sand per mile, per day, if it's healthy." However, he cautions, "If the reefs die in a particular region and the beaches start to erode, it can undermine the entire tourism industry."

Beyond the health of the tourism industry, Bowden-Kerby points to other forms of life dependent on healthy reefs: "Corals build the reef and provide homes for these fish. (Likewise,) fish are essential for the health of corals because they clean the seaweeds and dust off the corals with their tails - communities rely on those fish and lobsters and conch and clams, that's their food source and that's their income. They sell those things. When coral reefs are healthy and full of these organisms, people and communities are healthy." He adds, "the people here, they don't grow vegetables. It's not traditional. Their vitamins come from fish eyes and fish liver."

Though coral degradation can seem an insurmountable problem, Bowden-Kerby, by combining his scientific training with listening to local community elders, has adapted indigenous knowledge to develop simple restoration methods which simultaneously benefit the tourism industry and the local fishermen.

Living in Fiji during the 1970s, Bowden-Kerby discovered after a storm that corals will sometimes tumble in and plant themselves on these shifting rubble beds and would start growing. This discovery led him to experiment with replicating these rubble beds by "planting" bits of coral onto stones and then fastening them to underwater metal grids. With regular maintenance and a little patience, Bowden-Kerby found that corals eventually grow large enough to be transplanted back to the sea floor. "And so, it was a very slow process and I took corals and I threw them down and they grew and became an instant reef."

Through his research and implementation of the Coral Gardens - Living Reefs Initiative, Bowden-Kerby has empowered communities to successfully replenish degraded reefs in the South Pacific and the Caribbean. "The secret is to set aside 25 percent of the reef and let that be the nursery for all the species of fish, lobster and so forth." Designating one fourth of the reef to regenerate coral "will produce up to 10 times the resources typically of an unmanaged reef system."

The effects of the program have been profound according to the scientist dubbed "Johnny Coral Seed" for his seeding of coral reefs in the Pacific and Caribbean islands. And, healthy reefs mean more fish for all: "There are fishermen now in Mexico who are getting over a ton of lobster a season and that's enough to pick them out of poverty and put them into the middle class where they have good houses. With their nice boats now, they are taking tourists out and the tourists are paying them even more money and they're doing fly fishing and snorkeling - they're getting involved directly in the tourism industry, where before, their boats were so un-seaworthy, they were actually just a public health hazard."

Bowden-Kerby stresses the importance of involving the locals as well as visitors in the restoration efforts because he recognizes "increased levels of involvement within the marine environment brings greater satisfaction to the guests - and increased business for resorts." Thus, Bowden-Kerby has been working to partner local fishermen with resorts to designate newly formed coral nurseries that double as non-destructive marine parks for hotels. He explains how guests feel a stronger sense of connection to the reef when they assist in the coral restoration and are more likely to become repeat visitors and pass along their positive experience to others.

In helping people generate these emotional connections, Bowden-Kerby believes by helping to restore balance to the reef, hope will be given to those suffering under this danger in paradise.

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