Guardian of Aceh's corals

Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post 4 Nov 08;

Acehnese across the province gathered in October to catch a glimpse of their legendary leader Hasan Tiro. At 83, the former leader of the Free Aceh Movement is dubbed the "Wali Nanggroe", or guardian of the Aceh state.

A 45-minute ferry ride away from the capital brings us to another "guardian" from a younger generation -- though his hair is also graying. Mahidin, 57, known here as Dodent, is leading a different movement, a post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction of another kind -- the healing of coral reefs.

The work he leads around Iboih, near the tip of Weh Island in the Aceh province, needs heaps of patience, and is based on coincidence, experiments and knowledge, which he sources from books and friendly experts.

Weh is famous for the beauty of its beaches and marine life, and is about the only tourist destination in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, which has now applied sharia law.

After a three-decade war and the 2004 tsunami, Aceh could greatly benefit from tourism -- and from a revived fishing industry. Other Indonesians don't even know Weh -- they are only familiar with its capital, Sabang, the country's farthest western tip.

And Dodent wonders aloud why his is a lonely job.

His boat captain also laments the lack of attention given to restoring the marine habitat, despite the fact that Acehnese, "from the mountains to the coasts", are among Indonesians who eat the most fish, and who "won't eat when they see no fish".

In the replanting of reefs, "for every two meters we need two hours and two people" in order to plant concrete structures on the shallow seabed, Dodent said. A pile of these structures, molded around buckets and containing used bottles, cans and pieces of coral thrown ashore from the tsunami, stand outside the remains of his family's dive shop, which was wrecked in what Dodent described as a giant "washing machine" of waves and volumes of mud.

A new shop called the Rubiah Tirta stands next to the ruins, and its few employees are all involved in the ever so slow process of replanting coral reefs.

Why not just throw in a few old cars and other scrap metal?

In the wiping out of pedicabs in Jakarta in the early 1990s, the becak were plunged into the sea to extend their use to stimulate coral growth off the capital's north coast.

"We've found that you can't just throw them in," Dodent said. Potential sources of toxics such as the tires must be removed, he said. Besides, he added, he tried looking for old cars already in Banda Aceh, but in vain. "No one wanted to give up old cars for reef construction," he said.

In 1973 Dodent said he was trying to move coral to make space for his boat and ship repair shop. He said he noticed that months after he had reinforced the coral with concrete, growth could be detected on the structures as they lay in the sunlight below the surface.

"I thought about that experience when the tsunami occurred," he said. After two years of efforts to stimulate coral growth, he said, "I'm sure that in five years natural coral would mix with our concrete-based structures."

Thomas J. Goreau, president of the U.S.-based Global Coral Reef Alliance, said Dodent "is doing the best he can, but is unfortunately forced to use obsolete methods."

In an e-mail interview he said the Alliance has sought to work with Dodent, and has helped restore coral with the "Biorock" method which he said had yielded much faster results in Bali, Lombok, Flores and Sumbawa, among other places. But he said the Alliance had failed to gain funding to work in Sumatra.

Yet after the tsunami Goreau said it was a "sad thing" that funds had been given to fishermen for new boats and engines, "to chase fish that are no longer there because their habitat is gone."

Dodent's sons who run the dive shop and guide visitors around the beautiful waters say it makes perfect sense to restore the corals, the focus of the Aceh Coral Conservation organization which Dodent has set up.

"Visitors have spent so much for their air flights and everything else to come and see the coral and fish," says his elder son, Ismayudi.

"We take so much, we don't realize we have to give something back," added Isfanudding, Ismayudi's brother.

A visiting diver from Switzerland, Hugo Sager, blames such "ignorance" from the top. "We have a saying," he said, "that when a fish stinks it is foul from the head".

To foreigners with even a little understanding of conservation, he said, "it was shocking" that shark fin soup, for instance, is sold at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport, when it was known that Indonesia desperately needs to protect its remaining resources and use them for its millions of poor people.

And divers today can now only imagine the tales of veterans who cite red corals in the waters of Sangiang, near the Ujung Kulon National Park in Banten, or the big fish off Makassar in South Sulawesi. Such scenes now barely exist in those areas.

Dodent has nevertheless gained some support from the local administration and NGOs such as Flora Fauna Indonesia.

However with only his sons and employees to rely on, he said he needs volunteers to help the corals grow to attract fish.

Until he can find faster yielding methods within his available resources, those with little perseverance need not apply.

"After a year," he says with gusto, "you can see growth as big as a toe nail."