Our Philosophy: If we can’t culture it, then we have to respect it !

In order to cultivate all the different species and varieties that the hobby demand, we need different sites of different biotope, different current, wave, plankton…

Bali has an outstanding marine coast with huge diversity in fauna and flora. It’s where 2 oceans meet: The great Pacific Ocean, and the Strong Indian Ocean. Located in Between the islands of Java and Lombok, the south of Bali is all year long attacked by important Indian Ocean swells that come directly from the Antartic and it’s also where “up-welling” currents, bring back from the deep all the minerals necessary to coral growth.

Also it’s where the fish population of the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean overlap, so it’s where for example you can find the Indian Ocean Naso elegans next to the Pacific Ocean Naso litturatus.

One other very important phenomenon is what is called the Indonesian through flow. In the western Pacific, trade winds blowing west accumulate water in the north east part of Indonesia. This creates a level difference between Pacific and Indian Ocean of around 30 cm. The consequence of this is a tremendous current that flows through Indonesia. The biggest way of this flow through the chain of Islands from Java to Timor is the Lombok Straight between Lombok and Bali. And the current in this strait is one of the strongest in the world, bringing not only water but also all the larvae, plankton… to the waters of Bali.

 

Finally, the third important factor is that Bali is one corner of the coral triangle. It’s the world highest marine biodiversity. It’s the center of the ocean, where everything started.  

 

All these three factors summed up: A huge intake of plankton, larvae… into a zone with high mineral contents brought by the up-welling, high water flow, oxygen… it creates all the perfect condition for a bloom of life.

Also, the North of Bali, with the Java sea is a calm sea with patch reefs, atoll and coral islands spread all over it. That is a completely different Biotop than the southern coast barrier reefs with strong swells and strong currents. It gives a great diversity of sites with different condition for the culture of all different species of corals. And most important of it, most of these sites are easily accessible directly from the land.

Then Bali is never on the road of tropical typhoon that crosses over islands more to the east, and is home to an important international airport.

All this cumulated makes it the coral farmer paradise.

diving spot

CULTURED:

Map of Bali: 14 sites on 7 locations around Bali

1. Serangan : 2 sites, located in the south of Bali, behind a barrier reef, accessed at low tide only

  • Depth : shallow water  

  • Current : high  

  • Waves : high  

  • Turbidity  : Up welling area, very high mineral content, big waves and high tidal amplitude.

  • Temperature : 22-26 °C

2. Candidasa : 2 sites, located in the south east of Bali, behind a small barrier reef, in a black sand lagoon, accessed at low tide only

  • Depth : shallow 

  • Current : high 

  • Waves : high 

  • Turbidity : Up welling area, very high mineral content, high tide amplitude.

  • Temperature : 22-26 °C

3. Karangasem : 2 sites, Located in the north east of Bali, in a black sand bay, just under a fringing reef

  • Depth : 1 site site 5-8 m deep, 1 site 18-22 m deep;  -

  • Current : Medium 

  • Waves : Medium 

  • Turbidity : 5-15 m visibility, moderately turbid.

  • Temperature :  24-28 °C

4. Gerokgak : 3 sites, located in the north of Bali, in a large bay protected on one side by a small barrier reef, and patch reefs on the other side.

  • Depth : 1 site 16-18 m deep, 1 site 10-12 m deep, 1 site 4-6 m deep;

  • Current : Medium 

  • Waves : Low 

  • Turbidity : 5-10 m visibility, turbid.

  • Temperature : 24-28 °C

5. Sumberkima : 3 sites, located in the North west of Bali, in a large bay, very protected by a wide barrier reef. It is warm, very turbid and very calm.

  • Depth : 4-8 m deep;  -

  • Current : Low 

  • Waves : Low 

  • Turbidity : 5 m visibility, turbid.

  • Temperature : 26-30 °C

6. Gilimanuk : 1 site, located in the North west of Bali, in a large bay bordered by mangroves and receive a very high water turn over from the very cold Bali strait, high tide amplitude, very turbid waters.

  • Depth : 4-6 m deep;  -

  • Current : High 

  • Waves : Low 

  • Turbidity : 5 m visibility, very turbid.

  • Temperature : 22-26 °C

7. Ketapang : 1 site, located in the strait between Java and Bali, on west side of Java, it is located on the fringing reef slope in front of our Java Branch. This site can only be worked at slack, lateral current is very strong.

  • Depth : 6-20 m deep; 

  • Current : High 

  • Waves : Medium 

  • Turbidity : 5-15 m visibility, turbid.

  • Temperature : 22-26 °C

 

METHOD:

The technique is very simple and adapted to developing countries. It consists of gluing or attaching buds of coral, into an artificial concrete base and to place these supports on immerged racks. Two components epoxy glue or fast drying cement is used to seal the corals.

The difficulty is to find the correct location for the correct coral species, and maintain it. Finding the right site in term of water quality, wave action, current, depth, accessibility, ease of maintenance, protection to theft and bad sea conditions… and corresponding properly to each species in term of health, growth rate, coloration… is not an easy task and requires many surveys, trials and errors.

Before being able to sale one species, it is requested to produce only brood stock from the first “generation” of fragments. Then it’s only from the second “generation” that we can start selling some pieces. But not all, a large percentage of even the second generation is also used to produce brood stock. It’s only from the third “generation” that all the frags can be marketed.

Depending on the location, and the species, we keep the brood stock on special, larger base, and or special tables or on artificial rock boulder, in order to look more natural. Then it looks more like a “garden” than a “nursery”.

All corals are tagged; given a number corresponding to the company, the genus, the species, the generation, the date of planting… it is embedded in the glue fixing the fragment on its base. Sites are inspected every two years by the Indonesian Scientific Institution, fisheries department, management authority. It’s only if the result is good that export license and quota are given.

Growth rate depends on the species and sites, but the majority of soft corals and SPS corals reach their commercial size in between 4 to 8 month. For LPS, it can be much longer, but most of the species that we start producing reach their commercial size in between 2 to 3 years. It takes then minimum 4 to 6 years to sale the first frags. The first 2 to 3 years are used to produce the lineage, mother colony or brood stock, and then it takes another 2 to 3 years to get the first frags for sale.

Growth of an Acropora robusta:

Day25    D45   D67   D98

  D110 D128 D170 D195

 

CULTURE OF LPS:

We use the most recent cutting technology for cutting our frags. After cleaning most of the dead skeleton using conventional tools, we use wet band saw machine to preserve as much as possible the tissue intact. This allows us to cut smaller frags that will recover faster from the cutting. After being cut all frags are disinfected with Iodine bath to avoid infection, then fixed to their artificial base and brought back to the ocean as soon as possible.