Building an Underwater Coral Village: Deploying Artificial Reef Structures to Restore Marine Bio

We are building something new at our coral restoration site because even though we have turned this into this, it still feels like there's a lot of structure, a lot of three-dimensionality missing compared to the healthy reef in the surrounding areas. So, we are deploying these new structures to improve our oldest sites and to build ourselves a brand new fish village. But we decided to do so in a particularly rough week in the rainiest and stormiest month of the year. So things got pretty interesting in these first one. All right, welcome back to Indonesia where we are kicking things off with the building of our fish village. We've been waiting for this moment for a while now.

So Yudi and Pakad are loading the first structure into the boat. We're going to aim to deploy two structures today to get things started and wrap our head around the process of getting these beasts down there. So, these structures are inspired by a reef ball, but the shape is more like a belt. So, we're going to call it a reef belt. And the purpose is to encourage fish populations in the project site and at the same time to create more surface for a diverse uh coral recruits in project site. And we are going to surround one of these uh reef belt with a slightly modified structures that we have here. It's also have more surface on the top for the same purpose. In total, we have produced 10 reef bells for this test,

and we will be deploying them all in this video. But before we get to that, let's just check in on these two points that UD made. The progress we have made in these rubble areas means our reef is looking amazing, and it is already providing a lot of habitat as exemplified by all the marine life that has moved in. However, there are two things we could improve here. One is making this look more like this. just more structure really, more place for marine life to do its thing and a better shortcut towards a more mature and structurally complex reef because research clearly shows that these more complex reefs are more biodiverse and more resilient to any stressors that might come their way in the future. Then

the second is a new idea. You see, we do our best to try and make our reef as diverse as possible. even going to the extent of using some difficult to attach species or rescuing large corals that got loose during storms. But still, we are giving priority to species that fragment a lot, which neglects all the other ones that don't, or at least it biases our reef towards those species. So, we want to give a chance to all corals to spawn and land on one of our structures. And we've observed this with coral recruits popping up on the empty parts of the structures where we attach the coral. But we would like to make this a much bigger opportunity by increasing the available surface area.

Hence, we have the bells and the large surface on these new structures. Okay, so now let's go deploy these things. And let's just say we picked a bit of a rough week to do so. I going? Hey, Jensa, is it floating? So, as you can see, we don't really have the uh the best conditions for the deployment of our structures for the first time, but we're trying to get the job done. So, um Chance is already floating there with uh two uh she's got two of the inflatable bags that are holding up the structure. So, now it's about finding the position to be able to get them down. So, Yudi, you're going to head down now to try to help her.

Yes. Control the back. control the lift bag. Yeah, the lift back for good conditions. Best conditions. Good conditions. Good job. Underwater, things are calmer on these stormy days, and it felt really nice to get some shelter in the warm tropical water. But managing these big bells down there is still not an easy feat. And in the confusion, we ended up dropping this bell more than 100 m away and quite a bit of current. So, it took a fair bit of kicking and pushing to get it to its place. We're bringing this bell to the end of area 6 where we will be deploying structures later this year. And after

setting it down, we got another one from the boat. This time a bit closer. So, that by the end of the dive, we had two deployed bells at our project site. What' you make of the experience? It was a workout. It was cool to see, but uh yeah, pretty stormy conditions above the water at least. How did it go for you? I don't think I'm going to do that again in this weather. You were going to wait for a sunny day next time.

I think so. Yeah, that's a good choice. It's a good decision. It was tricky. We haven't have anything with a leaf bag before. So, it's also I don't know how to deploy it like the best way to do it. And then I was trying to deploy that to the surface, but it's not working, of course. So then I have to hold the structure, the bell, but I have to hound so I can feel the lift back. That's how it works. So what's the plan now? Now we go uh get the rest of the So we're going to go uh place these structures near the bell or surround it. And then I will also take some of the structures that already down there in area five, the empty one and move it to area six where we put the bell. We came up with the following

pattern to deploy these structures in a mix of bells, flat structures, and the classic structures. Once in the water, it was a matter of dropping down the flat structures from the boat and bringing them to the site and then going to area 5 to collect some already deployed regular structures. For this task, the lift bags came in really handy. And it was actually quite fun to push such a large payload around so easily. Then after arranging this first deployment, it looked like this. And it was really cool to see that we had barely stopped working and fish were already exploring the new accommodation, including this large group of red tooth trigger fish that frequenc this part of

the reef. Now, when we got out, we immediately got reminded of what we had left behind. Poor Captain Bakare up there had been battling quite a bit of a storm while we were enjoying the warmth and quiet of the reef. And I can promise you, even though this is the tropics, you still get pretty damn cold in the rain. Thankfully though for us, we were rather well equipped to deal with water. Now, you might wonder why we were in such a hurry to deploy these structures that we went out in this weather. Well, the answer is that it was our last chance for about a month or so because Yudi and Chansa are embarking on a bit

of a mission. You see, our project here will continue for a while longer, but we are looking for a new spot in Indonesia to restore. And as I'm editing this video, Yudi and Chansa are on the first tour of potential sites. Ideally, this new place should combine a bit cooler water so it is resilient to bleaching with year-round diving access so we can progress at a good pace and with a large area that has been destroyed in the past by human activity such as blast fishing but where it is no longer occurring so there is no danger of destroying the new reef. So we are essentially looking for a big large and secure long-term project to bite into. So, we would like to put a call out to anyone in Indonesia who

knows of a good potential site we should consider. We have added a link with a form in the description where you can get in touch with us. Your help would be really appreciated. Now, this core restoration project has been running for a bit less than 3 years and has so far cost us around £37,000, including all the paperwork and licenses, the boat and the diving gear, the production of metal structures and the bells, and of course, all the salaries for the crew who plans and builds this reef day in and day out. And the only reason we are able to sustain this project is because of our Mossy Earth members who support us with a monthly subscription. By becoming a member, you'll be empowering this team

and all our other teams to continue their hard work. And I can promise you they do work really hard because they have a passion to see these places restored. And I'm really proud that through you, through our members, we are able to employ such smart, dedicated, and of course fun people to do such important work. It is a really big deal and somehow I feel we are just getting started. So if you're not yet a member, you can become one at mossi.ear. The impact is real. The link is in the description and in a pin comment down below. And you can also just scan this QR code here. Okay, so for the next few deployments, we had a bit more luck with the weather, although there was always a

scary cloud on the horizon. The second deployment was early in the morning and it was just me, Yudi, and Pakar. This time we brought four bells and with a bit more training and slightly calmer water, Yudi was even able to handle two bells at once. Then we got a bit more current, so it was harder to be precise. So we dropped these in the water and instead of pushing, we just used a boat to pull them into position before going down. This became the new technique for any deployments in the future, which actually saves us a lot of time and effort kicking these things around down there. We dropped all of these in area 6, which now has a cluster of six bells. Then in the afternoon, we came back with

Julia and Chansa to start arranging all of this, as Chansa is the boss when it comes to the compositions and aesthetics of our fish village. And she also figured out a new way for us to use the liftbacks. Show us what the lift bag can also be used for. Okay. What did you say? The lift back can also be used for. Yeah, maybe if you're not going to the water like in a good day, you can use for cooking right here. It's a good food for me. Over the next few dives, as the main fish village was coming together, we also deployed some bells to add a bit of variety to our older restoration sites in areas one and two. In area two, we put them in a shallow part that had some

gaps in the structures. And quite quickly there were plenty of fish exploring the new facilities. Then in area 1, our oldest site where we have all the big shos, we deployed two more bells, a bit apart from each other in the deeper section of the site. And sorry to take another detour, but how incredible are these shos? I mean, it's just so lively and we could not get enough of filming them. And now I feel like I want to show you all the shots that we have that I can get away with in this video because I'm so proud of these results. And so yeah, in amongst this frenzy of life in area 1, we immediately noticed that some fish started to claim their spots. As you can see, these blue green chromies that usually come

together in the big shs together with the sergeant major and the gray chromies, they decided to quickly conquer these bells as their new home. and they got pretty feisty with all the other fish chasing them around when they got too close. So, this belt design is already doing its job when it comes to providing a new type of shelter in this part of the reef, which is really cool to see. Over the next few dives, we finished our main fish village, and we immediately got a wide range of visitors there as well to check out the new three-dimensional habitat. We got curious groups of neon damsel fish eyeing up the site. There were reticulated sand perch chilling on the new flat structures, which was quite a

fun and a new one for one of our projects. There were brown tang and blackback butterfly fish among many, many others. And towards the end of this dive, the large group of red tooth trigger fish came out again to envelop the fish village and see if it will make a good extension to their otherwise healthy coral reef. And I think this part we always knew would work out. I mean, fish love new three-dimensional habitat in whatever shape it comes in. But now the interesting wait begins to see which corals will land the first settlers to colonize this brand new fish village. But for that, we're probably looking at least a few months of waiting, if not longer. So, in the

meantime, if you're keen to learn more about the marine life that now lives on the reef that we have created, you should consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. I know only about 30% of you watching are actually subscribed, so it might be worth you checking because in the next episode, we will follow all the curious creatures that have moved into our reef both during the day and at night when all the really weird stuff comes out to play. And finally, if you like the work that we do, if you like these reefs that we create, and you have five bucks a month to spare, then please consider signing up to become a Mossyear member. You can always cancel later and every bit helps to fund our ambitious rewalding

projects. Again, a huge thank you for your support. Until next time, cheers.