Tracc has a limited number of marine conservation opportunities for 2013. We normally choose interns from volunteers who have been with TRACC for 8 weeks. The volunteers who are selected have normally reached rescue diver and are keen, enthisiastic and committed. The internship is usually 12 weeks. The interns devide into two groups diving interns [...]
We need volunteers to monitor our replanted reefs for larval fish settlement during the summer months ( March – Oct 2013). We have lots of planted reefs with healthy growing coral. These planted reefs attract existing adult fish very quickly. This is very satisfying but doesn’t actually increase the number of fish on the island. [...]
The turtle bottle reef was cute rather than accurate – after all how many turtles have bottles growing out of the shell. The turtle was made with bottles collected from the beach and was an excellent way to recycle plastic bottles which would otherwise washup on beaches for years. The basic structure was added to [...]
The devil ray bottle reef was assembled on the Northern Tip of Pom Pom Island in the summer of 2012. The bottle edging frame was filled with bottles washed up on the beach. The bottles were then covered with broken coral fragments from a bomb blast site. Success, within 2 weeks of the bottles – [...]
The shark bottle reef at the end of construction, Filled with bottles and then hard corals planted on the top. The fish moved in very quickly – especially a school of blue devil damsels. x x x x x x x x Shark reef Construction 1 — Placement 2 — Planting 3 aug 2012 – [...]
The shark was taken apart once the cement had set and reassembled underwater. This is the true measure of your peak performance buoyancy, can you lift and move a large concrete block underwater while taking care not to damage any living coral. The basic shark sculpture was an outline made in old beer bottles. [...]
The beach on Pom Pom gets lots of bottles washed up with the tide. We created a shark sculpture from bottles with a base of cement. (Click here for volunteers making bottle reefs) The shark was taken apart once the cement had set and reassembled underwater. This is the true measure of your peak performance [...]
Lots of coral planting This was a very active month with lots of excellent volunteers all helping us plant coral. See the facebook page for many photos and activity updates. We made several trips to the nearby reefs which are being blasted by bomb fishermen and brought back large numbers of fragments. [...]
Coral reefs produce much of the food for coastal people all around the tropics. Unfortunately other human activities have damaged the reefs. In SE Asia the impacts of blast fishing have been severe. Around the world, coral reefs have drastically declined due to coastal development, increased water temperatures and storm frequency, global climate change, disease, [...]
TRACC and members of JCI Luyang went on a coral planting trip in Kota Kinabalu Bay. A disaster trip, we all learnt firsthand the pollution problems from plastic bags. We set off over a beautiful calm sea and after 20min of driving the boat motor just stops. A plastic bag has wrapped itself around the [...]