Halmahera Dispatch, April 26, 2008

Went for another dive in Buli Bay today, and found a reef that seems to have escaped the crown-of-thorns starfish outbreak. In the shallows there were many large table corals and good coral cover. These corals are among the preferred food for the starfish, so it was great to see them flourishing in the bay. Andreas Muljadi and I also found a remarkable colony of Porites rus, with 3m high spires. Emre Turak and Lyndon Devantier estimated that this colony is over two hundred years old.

Joanne Wilson also made an interesting discovery. She found eggs in some of the branching corals. This is exciting because very little is know about coral reproduction in Indonesia. Stay tuned for more on this in the next few days as Joanne investigates this further.

– Ali

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