INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Up until recently, not much was known about the Bar Reef in Kalpitiya
But by the time we learned of its value, we&d nearly lost it forever
The Bar Reef, located 2 km off the coast of Kalpitiya, is in fact the largest coral reef and the largest protected marine area in Sri Lanka
While it was declared a marine sanctuary in 1992, the reef remained relatively unexplored or otherwise affected by human activity due to the
However, the reef has since taken a dramatic turn for the worse owing to the effects of human activity both on- and offshore as well as
natural causes.
Today, the reef lies in an area surrounded by 4 buoys, one on each corner, marking it as protected sea space by the Sri
What more, a community effort with support from various national and international organisations is underway to help save it before it is
too late.
&Yes, the reef was almost completely destroyed with only about six percent of it left alive,& said Director of Planning at the
Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment, Sandanayake
&UNDP got involved straight away, utilising professors and scientists who have studied this subject in detail
All stakeholders involved were informed of the situation after which we all came to an agreement to protect the reef
We even got the fishermen to stay away from the area, and it was reinforced by the navy, police, and the pradeshiya lekam, who do not allow
anyone to cross those waters.&
A Reef under threat
But what exactly is Kalpitiya Bar Reef recovering from
According to ranger Morathenna
who is in charge of Kalpitiya marine sanctuary, the reef was &isolated for a long time because it about 300 km of sea space and not easy to
After a while the communities started using it for fishing and other activities
It came to a point where everyone was overusing it instead of protecting it.&
However, it is not only direct human interaction that has
caused the reef to deteriorate so severely
Another major threat to its survival comes from inland
&This reef is connected to the Kala Oya,& Morathenna explains
&So the mud from the Oya and the Puttalam lagoon falls into the Bar Reef and harms it as well
We need to address this issue at the source.&
But the Kala Oya and Bar Reef have coexisted for hundreds of years with neither one posing a
significant threat to the other
No damage to the reef as a result of sediment flow from the river has ever been documented until recently
The reason for this is that the point where the Kala Oya meets the Indian Ocean was very heavily occupied by a mangrove swamp.
&The
mangroves near the Kala Oya are endemic to that area,& says Morathenna
&They are identified as a threatened species
The mangroves in this area were cleared in the past few years for development and cultivation activities
When released, the pressure from the river mouth water increased due the lack of mangroves
This could also be a threat to biodiversity because the other flora and fauna in that space were extracted, too
The mangroves were initially removed to make space for prawn farming
Sometimes people clear out when their prawn farms suffers losses and then we see mangroves slowly regrowing in those spaces
But it never grows back to its previous state.&
&Coral is very sensitive and needs sunlight to feed
Mud from various other locations spill into the ocean and end up blocking the sunlight
This is why mud is harmful to coral.
It very hard to control these factors because the current changes often.&
Moreover, coral reefs are
also vulnerable to changes in ocean temperature
&Climate change is one of the main reasons for reef death, and next to it would be fishery activities,& said Morathenna
In addition to rising ocean temperatures and sediment from nearby rivers, other human activity has had a more direct impact on the Bar Reef
Morathenna explained how illegal fishing methods such as dynamite fishing and the use of Laila or Surukku nets are problematic
Of these, Laila nets have been particularly devastating to the reef
&Laila requires four to five boats, where one has the net and the other boats have three to four divers
They hunt fish in schools
The divers get in and signal towards where the net should be cast
Sometimes, if the fish put too much pressure on the net, they use dynamite on them, too
This method not just affects the fish in the net, but also harms the surrounding fish within the blast radius
This method is very dangerous because it blasts away parts of the reef, too.&
Sandanayake also pointed out a curious habit of the fishermen
when it comes to their disposal of plastic waste
&The fishermen have a habit of throwing their plastic water bottles into the ocean
But since it floats, they have gotten used to filling the bottles with water before throwing it out
This means the bottles then sink to the bottom and affect the marine life near the reef
It is because of issues like this that we need to create awareness.&
Raising awareness
With only five other people on his team, Morathenna
office alone cannot fulfill the task of spreading awareness and committing the resources necessary to save and rehabilitate Kalpitiya Bar
Hence, it was necessary to recruit the help of other individuals - divers, fishermen, snorkelers, hoteliers, and tour guides - to execute
the Bar Reef Management Plan
To this end, the UNDP has been instrumental in working with local authorities to spread awareness about the reef and its value among the
locals, who pledged their support to save it.
Forty -year-old W
Maduraj Fernando (known as Raju) has been a fisherman in Kalpitiya for over 25 years
In that time, he gained a thorough understanding of how fishermen here think and operate
&Fishermen are like the ‘veddas& (indigenous people) of the sea,& he says
&They catch whatever they can as they are a hundred percent reliant on the catch of the day.&
Today, Raju is a dolphin and whale watching
tour guide based in Kalpitiya
Raju works as a mutual contact between divers, fishermen, snorkelers, hoteliers and tour guides as part of the Bar Reef Management
Plan.
&Together, we protect the reef, not because of any law, but because we love the ocean,& he says
Back when I was a fisherman, I too didn&t know the value of the reef
But now, through the UNDP supported project, I know the cost of not protecting it
So, now we are rallying everyone together to help them understand that without this reef there will be nothing left for us.&
&At the end of
the day I want my younger son to see what my older son saw at the reef years ago
It like a cemetery now & completely dead
I remember what it used to be like back in the day & a magical world!&
Raju and his 18-year-old nephew, Nimesh, now run the dolphin and
whale watching tours together
Every time, just before they ride into the open waters of the Indian Ocean, they stop and take a few minutes to pray
We pray that we come back safe
After all, we&re in His hands.&
Operating dolphin and whale watching tours has become a lucrative business for Raju and other marine tour
As a fisherman, Raju would make approximately Rs
Now, during peak seasons, he makes more than double this amount.
When it is off season, Raju and the other tour guides volunteer to clean
the reef, plant new corals, monitor the regeneration of the reef, assist in setting up the buoys that mark the no-go zone, and keep watch
over the reef to ensure no one trespasses.
Like Raju, many others have turned to marine tourism as an alternative source of income to
But there are others who have been diving instructors from the start
Shanaka Dilshan Perera, 33, is one of them.
&I used to dive even during my O/Ls,& he said, &I looked forward to the weekend to dive with my
dad because those days, fishing for bello and muhudu kudello was high in demand
Kalpitiya used to be the number one area for this kind of industry
Tourism wasn&t popular in these areas back then.&
Shanaka also pointed out that since tourism has picked up, it has proven to be a healthy
&I opened up a site called ‘Scuba Diving Kalpitiya& during this season for six months and I have about 120 google reviews—I get a lot of
business through google reviews
This site focuses only on diving.&
&This program has been good, we have quite a lot of work
We have about 80 hotels in the area, so this means that there should be at least two people in each room
I have all these records from 2012 to 2019—ones that I&ve updated myself—and each year shows an increase.&
According to Shanaka, the
Bar Reef Management Plan members met him and the tour guides not only to explain what needed to be done for the reef but also to come up
with ideas on how to manage it as a sanctuary
Having lived most of their lives in and around Kalpitiya waters and witnessing the Bar Reef deterioration first hand, their input to the
They even volunteer each year to clean up the reef before their tourist season starts.&
Unfortunately, not everyone in Kalpitiya fishing
community has taken kindly to the Bar Reef conservation efforts One scuba instructor who does not wish to be named, spoke of a harrowing
&One time, I spoke out against spear fishing
If spear fishing is stopped, then the reef can be saved
Every official came and spoke to us.
They wrote down pages and pages of information but ended up doing absolutely nothing about it; and
once an officer is replaced, all that information is lost
After passing on this information to the minister representing the fisheries sector at the time, the minister immediately put a stop to
After that, people started calling me and coming over to the house saying ‘You aren&t the only one who has a family to feed,& and ‘Is it
only your children that get to go to school& The reality is that I don&t want to lose my children trying to save the ocean
After this incident, I personally went to the minister and told him that spearfishing doesn&t harm the reef
I really had no choice.&
However, the overwhelming majority of Kalpitiya fishing and tourism community regard the Bar Reef as a national
treasure and marine sanctuary that needs to be protected.
Their efforts combined with support and instruction from UNDP, the Sri Lanka
Navy, ORCA, World Vision and other organisations have, over time, made a remarkable difference to the health of the reef
&We are currently guiding the community on what they can do to preserve the reef,& said Morathenna, &The community has been very helpful and
They are also very experienced because they have lived by the sea for so long, making it very easy to work with them
It not just conservation, it conservation and protection because we believe in protecting what left of it and developing it further.
&When
it comes to protection, it usually related to the law
Conservation involves the reef and its marinelife
This reef almost died a few years ago and was announced dead, but we managed to bring it back to life.&
The Bar Reef off the coast of
Kalpitiya is the most bio-diverse coral formation in Sri Lanka, home to 156 species of coral and 283 species of fish
It has survived two major bleaching events, poor fishing practices, pollution, and natural disasters, and is still one of Sri Lanka most
valuable natural resources.
With the reef at the centre of a conservation effort through sustainable development and community
participation, perhaps it can finally be restored to its former glory.
Courtesy: UNDP
