Quarterly Report Bira Project March 2025

Grégoire Bouillon – Bira Project Manager

A special thanks to our partners, Daughter of the Deep, SSI and  Fishmongers’ Company’s FIsheries Charitable Trust for making these scholarships possible. Their support continues to help aspiring Indonesian marine conservationists gain the experience and knowledge they need to make a lasting impact.

And a big round of applause to Yuly Vernilianty, our exceptional Research Assistant, who has now officially become a Divemaster! Her dedication and passion inspire us all, she is always bringing some laughs around and enhancing our bond with the local community.

Challenging Conditions and Marine Sightings

This quarter, the seasonal winds have made access to House Reef, Liu Kang, and Kambing challenging. Despite these conditions, our team remained committed to collecting essential data every month. As the winds shift, these sites will soon be more accessible, allowing us to park our boats back at House Reef instead of making the journey to the harbor which is logistically challenging. The staff is especially happy about this change, as it will make daily operations smoother and more efficient.

Looking ahead, as the wind moves to the east, access to those dive sites will become more difficult, but we will make the most of every opportunity. The eastern side remains a favorite spot, home to incredible marine life such as Spotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari), Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and a stunning variety of nudibranchs from different genus, especially on night dives – a personal favorite of mine!

Mangrove Nursery Expansion

In our continuous efforts to restore and protect coastal ecosystems, we have built a new mangrove nursery, allowing us to nurture even more young mangrove saplings. Soon, we will be planting around 200 new mangroves, reinforcing our commitment to habitat restoration and climate resilience.

Community and Cultural Awareness

This quarter, we also recognize and support our crew, interns, staff, and the Muslim community in Bira as they observe Ramadan. This is an important time of reflection and togetherness, and we stand in solidarity with them during this sacred month.

Sudaryanto – Marine Biologist and Project Coordinator

The past three months have been packed with so many exciting research and conservation activities. Even though we’ve been in a transition season, that hasn’t slowed us down one bit! Super proud of my awesome interns for their energy, dedication, and all the effort they’ve put in.

With the west monsoon still affecting conditions, we haven’t been able to reach all our science sites as evenly as we’d like. So this quarter, we focused on collecting data from the east side of Bira, where the waves and wind were calmer. But of course, we couldn’t forget about our island star, Kambing! Whenever the wind looked safe, we made a run for it to hit our science targets. And toward the end, the conditions finally started improving, and we even made it back to Liukang, not as often as we’d like, but still a win!

In just three months, we covered 12 dive sites and pulled off 33 roving surveys, all thanks to our dedicated survey divers.

After a bunch of fish ID dives and passing their exams, they helped us track fish diversity and abundance like pros. But the best part? The incredible megafauna sightings! Some of the highlights included Longhorned Pygmy Devil Rays (Mobula eregoodootenkee), Bentfin Devil Rays (Mobula thurstoni), Marble Rays (Hypolophus seminudus), Cowtail Stingrays (Pastinachus sephen), Mangrove Whiprays (Himantura granulata), Blacktip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus), Whitetip Reef Sharks (Triaenodon obesus), Blue Marlins (Makaira nigricans), Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas), Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), and Spinner Dolphins (Stenella longirostris).

Out of all the moments in the past three months, one that really stuck with me was spotting a Mangrove Whipray and a Cowtail Stingray on the House Reef, the first sightings of the year, and also my first-ever Mangrove Whipray!

Meanwhile, we deployed 12 BRUVs (Baited Remote Underwater Videos), and as usual, Kambing stole the show, though Bira East gave it some serious competition after a Longhorned Pygmy Devil Ray sighting. Reviewing the footage was like watching our own private underwater documentary, featuring Bigeye Trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus), Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), Whitetip Reef Sharks (Triaenodon obesus), Honeycomb Moray Eels (Gymnothorax favagineus), Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas), Shortfin Devil Rays (Mobula kuhlii), and, of course, Longhorned Pygmy Devil Rays (Mobula eregoodootenkee). Seriously, BRUVs never disappoint!

On the coral restoration side, we planted 149 coral fragments onto spider frames to give them extra protection during the monsoon. Our restoration area now has 30 coral spiders and two tables, and we’re already seeing signs of growth. Even better, reef fish are starting to use them for shelter! Right now, we’ve got 928 coral fragments on permanent structures and 151 in the Coral Nursery. Huge shoutout to our 15 Ocean Gardener coral diver students who made planting coral so much easier!

Keeping up with weekly maintenance has been a big part of making sure these corals thrive. We’ve been clearing algae overgrowth, removing sponges (Porifera), and dealing with coral predators like Drupella snails (Drupella spp.) to give the corals their best shot at growing. Luckily, we also have some natural helpers, Rabbitfish (Siganus spp.) and Parrotfish (Scaridae family) that munch on algae and keep everything balanced.

All these efforts are starting to pay off. Seeing these corals grow and knowing that marine life is returning to these areas makes every bit of hard work worth it.

And it’s not just underwater, we’ve been busy on land too! Our partnership with Mangrove Luppung has been going strong, and together, we collected 193 mangrove propagules in the field. Right now, our nursery is home to 410 baby mangroves, with 200 ready to be planted. These little trees are going to play a huge role in stabilizing the coastline and supporting local biodiversity. Just knowing that each one we plant is making a real difference feels incredible.

Yuly Vernilianty – Research Assistant

Coral Watch is one of the methods we use to monitor coral. We have an area in Blue Planet House Reef for coral watch. We are always looking for coral boulders, coral branching, coral plates, and soft corals. However, this month, we found that the soft coral (Sarcophyton) in these areas is dead. We also discovered that our coral branching and coral boulders are half-covered by algae and sponges.

The good news is that we found propagules of Rhizophora and Avicennia seeds that landed on the shore and we planted them in our mangrove nursery.

The school visits to Tanjung Bira Kindergarten are something we look forward to. The kids are very nice and always excited to learn about sea creatures. If we revisit a subject and ask them something about the sea creatures, they always remember and know the answer. Step by step, we teach them about marine ecology because they are learning quickly, but with simple subjects. We try to make the lessons fun so the kids don’t get bored while learning about marine ecology. After the lesson, we give them paperwork to count or just draw and color. Their English has improved, they now know the colors and numbers in English (1-10), even if it’s just the pronunciation. The kids in Dego-dego need to be more active in speaking with foreigners (IOP Interns) and I always tell the interns to teach the kids so they can have conversations with them. It’s one of the methods we use to help the kids become more confident in speaking English with native speakers.

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