...more Gili Eco Trust

Education is a very valuable tool in the Eco Trust arsenal of conservation. Where the locals are concerned, sometimes our efforts fall on deaf ears. We are Westerners. We will never be Indonesian therefore we should not tell them how to do things. Fair enough. But, if you can teach the elders of tomorrow while they're still young and impressionable then perhaps they will be the ones to make the BIG changes. One very simple exercise is to show them how to plant and care for a garden. In this case we used vetiver, an incredibly durable plant that is very good against erosion because the root system can measure up to 2 meters deep! As the torch will be passed to these kids, this is a very relevant lesson because there is no spring water here (all the fresh, non-salinated water has to be brought in by boat) and much of the island has already been overgrazed or deforested for construction projects so there is already a need to firm the topsoil to keep it in place during rainy season. The kids had a blast even refusing to let a little thing like a torrential downpour ruin their fun!

I saw one of the hotels that supports the Eco-Trust renting out spearguns, so I decided to make a sign to inform people of the island's preference for no spearfishing. It's simple, if the fish go, the divers go, then the almighty tourist dollar/euro/yen/rouble goes. Well, my little sign turned into an island wide campaign in English and Bahasa Indonesian against a lot of things. Here are just a few of the signs that were done. If anyone out there needs these please email me and I'll be happy to send you the vector based artwork.

Then Helen was recruited to paint a 6x3 foot sign aimed at all tourist and locals who stampede their way across the coral, especially when touring on one of the many glass bottom boats. The poster was also aimed at the boat captains who tend to be a bit lackadaisical when it comes to the enforcement of pretty much anything.

Naturally, we couldn't leave the island without making one last Biorock reef structure. This time the design was a whale and it was about 10 meters long! Yes, it was big and it was very difficult to deploy. I was underwater so I don't know what happened on the surface, but I only saw the massive rebar sculpture come crashing to the ocean floor upsidedown. We tied a rope around one of the gigantic fins and the surface support yanked it up on its side while we maneuvered it over. Needless to say, it was a very stressful situation and a lot of beer flowed afterwards. The last 2 images are links to movies showing the whale in its new underwater home in front of the Gili Eco Villas.

Part of our job on the Biorock was to clean algae, fungi sponges, and other unwanted underwater growth that would inhibit the expansion of the coral on the structures. To do this we use hard plastic bristled or steel brushes. As I rarely wore a wetsuit I'd always end up creating a cloud of muck which sometimes caused pretty bad rashes that became welts before turning all kinds of strange colors. Of course, the constant exposure to salt water didn't help too much either. Then I'd wake up one morning about 3 weeks later and there would be no trace of anything. The other pictures are various unjuries incurred doing other eco-type things (gabion project, building the structures, cutting rebar, pushing moorings, etc).

Now it is time to say goodbye to everyone at Big Bubble Dive. Anna your generosity has been deeply appreciated. Helen and I are both very sad but it is time to explore other countries, work on other projects, and learn just a little more in the school of life. And now we say auvoir to Gili Trawangan, the Eco Trust, and our fearless leader and good friend Delphine who I will kiss on her 34th birthday – you are amazing, you are inspiring, and you are among the handful of people I call my heroes.