I have been interested in nature conservation, and marine conservation in particular, for a while. After finishing my bachelor, I decided it was time to join a marine conservation project to figure out if this is something I would like to do more often.
After arriving, it became clear to me that if requested every volunteer is allowed to design their own projects, so that everyone can make the most out of their stay. Since I have been working with corals and in projects on corals, MCC gave me the opportunity to build an artificial reef.
The idea was to start a path at the natural reef which you can follow while diving, and in which every volunteer can add their own creations. With the help of a lot of people we started bringing rocks from the beach to create a path and that will function as substrate for corals. After a few weeks of building the start of the path, we began collecting broken and damaged corals from the natural reef and put them into the path. Within a few days fish and invertebrates started to find their way to the path, and even squid eggs were found. By doing maintenance we are now trying to make sure the path stays clean from algae, corals recover and the path eventually will be overgrown by corals to form a beautiful reef.
Bas Wolkenfelt BSc (Animal Sciences) MSc student (Aquaculture & Marine Resource Managment)
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