Perama Island

More photographs from the RCWR Archive...

I took this photograph on Perama Island (off the coasts of Lombok and Sumbawa in Indonesia taken in November 2007). It makes me smile for a number of reasons. Firstly because my friend The City Worker was running around trying to get some good photos, and I got the best one of the lot, and secondly because It was the first stop off in a highly memorable 5 day boat trip to Komodo Island.

Perama was actually the name of the tour company who had commandeered the small island (really just a sand bank) for sitting around singing 80's cheesy rock songs, and taking part in their coral reef repair program.

The really depressing thing about visiting this part of Indonesia was the state of reefs. Whilst snorkeling we saw vast craters in the reef floor where it had fallen victim to certain (minority of) fishermen who still participated in 'reef bombing'. That is, blowing up the coral reef and collecting the dead fish as they float to the top. Not a sustainable livelihood.

Much of the rest of the reef hadn't been bombed, but was heavily bleached - apparently due to changes in climate over the last couple of years killing off the coral, which is extremely sensitive to climatic changes. Those reefs that the locals said had the best snorkeling, were probably 50% bleached. The locals were almost completely unaware of this thing we call climate change and the effect it may have on their means of making a living. It was quite a sad moment for me.