Coral bleaching at Indonesia's West Nusa Tenggara

West Nusa Tenggara`s coral reefs damaged
Antara 24 Sep 10;

Mataram, W.Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - Most of transplanted coral reefs in Jambianom sea waters, Mendana village, Tanjung sub district, North Lombok district, West Nusa Tenggara were damaged or died due to hot sea water, a local fisherman has said.

Suasto of the Lestari Bahari fisherman group said here Thursday besides coral those transplanted, some of natural ones in Jambianom sea waters were also damaged.

"We don`t know exactly the cause why the sea water was hot that damaged both transplanted and natural coral reefs. When checking the coral growth on 25 March 2010 we found many corals dead," he said.

His sides have reported the damage of the transplanted and natural corals to North Lombok district`s marine and fishery office but there was no response until now, Suasto said.

He said rehabilitation of damaged coral reefs needed much cost while assistance from the local administration until now had yet been available.

"We will keep trying to rehabilitate the coral reefs with funds available to help preserve marine environment because if they are left in damage conditions fishermen will have difficulty catching fish," Suasto said. (*)