Yaf Keru: an update, and a milestone!
With September having come and gone, Yaf Keru officially turned 1! It was in September 2016 that we put our first structures in the water, and transplanted the first coral fragments… and so much has grown and changed since then! There’s more structures, coral fragments are growing steadily, and abundant marine life is now habitating the new environment – all very positive signs for this project.
The past few months have also seen some exciting progress and development in a number of areas, for both Yaf Keru and Raja Ampat SEA Centre. We conducted our first ever Coral Explorers Trip, transplanted more new structures (with help from resort guests), established a new method of restoration and are now looking towards expanding our project to another village jetty. The whole team is excited by the current interest in Yaf Keru, and the opportunities to restore even wider areas of damaged reef in the region. Please read on for a current update on all things Yaf Keru!
Enjo naboer!!
First 12 months
It is now 12 months since we installed our first structure, and the restored area is remarkably different to is pre-restoration state. The area has been transformed from a desolate rubble covered area with life limited, to an ecosystem containing everything from macro life, to grazers to large predatory fish. Additionally, Yaf Keru it is not only restoring the reef, but proving to be an extremely valuable education and research tool for everyone that comes into contact with it: from staff, resort guests, village children to scientists.
THE NUMBERS:
AREA RESTORED: 500m2
NUMBER OF STRUCTURES: 32
NUMBER OF CORALS TRANSPLANTED: 5000+
