Making the reef dream a reality

Bula Reef, a rescue nursery, is alive and written in the ink of super corals.

Fiji played a major role in changing the course of Austin Bowden-Kerby’s fate when he first visited the country in the ‘70s.

A biology student at 21, he came to Fiji when his father was the head of the first United Nations Development Programme mission. The year was 1975.

“I stayed for a while, went snorkelling as a university student,” he said.

It was in that snorkelling experience in Fiji that he had flash backs of a similar encounter in Saipan.

But because Saipan was often flooded, Mr Bowden-Kerby said to himself, “This is the system I love the most; why should I study biology.”

He left Fiji to further studies as a major in marine biology, and “rushed back to Fiji in 1977 in hopes of getting a job”.

But there were no “jobs” suited to his qualifications.

“I was disappointed,” Mr Bowden-Kerby said.

“I had to get my Masters, and now, PhD. “I came back to Fiji with my family in 1999, because Fiji is my home.”

A TABOO

In 2002, Raffe Hotels and Resorts and Musket Cove Island Resort, called Mr Bowden-Kerby to work with i qoliqoli owners in Malolo, Mamanuca, to bring back the taboo on fishing ground. The move followed the success in Cuvu in 1999 which countered overfishing.

“At the time, climate change was not an issue,” Mr Bowden-Kerby said, as he likened the taboo to a resurrection of some resources. “In 2000, we had our first bleaching event; no one had seen the corals turn white before then, where about 90 per cent of corals in southern Fiji died in hot water.

“That same bleaching came back in 2014, just as strong, but 60 per cent of the coral died.

“It came back in 2023, where about 30 per cent of the coral died.

“In 2024, it came back, but it was less.” Corals are learning quickly that there is hope, Mr Bowden-Kerby said.

“In March, the corals here got so hot, they bleached; 80 per cent in this shallow water (Malolo Island) died, but not the corals on Bula Reef,” he said.

“Bula Reef is a rescue nursery, the first of its kind in the world.

“It’s huge with 1300 corals; we took them from reefs so shallow and hot, sometimes sticking out of the water at low tide.”

The same corals now dead were alive last year, Mr Bowden-Kerby said.

“The heat at low tide killed the corals,” he said.

“We rescued those corals that are still alive now at Bula Reef.”

The corals in question are of importance for being the strongest, Mr Bowden-Kerby said.

“They adapted to very hot water and they can lead the way towards living reefs into the future,” he said.

“This has never happened - removing coral from hot water to cool water.”

In February, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation endorsed a historic coral focused coral reef adaptation programme. “They didn’t give any money, but they honoured us with scientists who examined and said it was good, based upon good science,” Mr Bowden-Kerby said.

“They love that it involves tourism, communities, and puts them in the forefront. “We’ve been waiting too long for help from overseas.

“As the world mobilises to save the reefs, we’re trying to get the communities and resorts at the forefront with coral gardening; but not just any coral gardening.”

NO FREE FOR ALL

Bula Reef was built by trained iTaukei

ssionals who were university Degree uates, to avoid a ‘free for all’ scenario, owden-Kerby said. oes not give people the right to break d remove corals,” he said. if they are interested, we will do our raining by September and another in uary; we can train in villages.” s of Hope’s first project, Bula Reef, is rst of many projects to return power to ople to help save Mother Nature at a when the world was destroying itself, owden-Kerby said. oral reefs were to die, our culture d too,” he said. he corals are dead, where will the fish

d if the fish go, how will the people sur” tation Island Resort carried the prohen no one else would, Mr Bowdeny said. had no funding, just crowdfunding of 5,” he said. ey don’t pay me; I’m not a resort staff; ey provide fuel, staff housing and a hings.”