Sand Dollar Bonaire Lends A Helping Hand
with Coral Reef Expansion
Sand Dollar Condominium owners, hotel staff, dive staff and marine enthusiasts
on the island of Bonaire have joined forces to institute a pilot program
dedicated to the production of artificial reefs.
Although Bonaire lays claim to one of the most healthy fringing reef
systems in the Caribbean, it lost some of the hard coral formations that
thrived along its shallow terraces in a storm surge six years ago. To
help speed up the regeneration of this coral, a process that if left
to nature would easily span a human lifetime, Sand Dollar is now building
and will shortly place a total of twenty, 600 lb. Reef Balls as part
of a pilot project with the Bonaire Marine Park. Most of the reef balls
will be placed immediately in front of Sand Dollar adjacent to Bari Reef.
The
three-foot high structures, which resemble upside down tea cups, are
made of a special concrete mixture whose Ph levels are closer to that
of the ocean, thereby stimulating early marine assimilation and growth. These
reef balls contain series of eight to thirteen holes that make them especially
attractive to Bonaire’s diverse marine life. The surface of the
Reef Balls have also been designed and prepared to encourage the adhesion
of new coral polyps. Sand Dollar expects to place these reef balls directly
in front of the resort in 10 feet of water in late January or early February.
This artificial reef project will probably rank among such significant
and positive interventions by humans on Bonaire's marine life as the
sinking of the Hilma Hooker, the Sponge Reattachment Project of 1989,
carried out on the pilings under the Town Pier and the fish management
practices that have preserved the parrotfish.
Private
citizens are sponsoring individual reef balls for $300 and will be identified
on a plaque mounted in the Sand Dollar lobby. Every reef ball will
be identified with a number stamped on a brass tag affixed to each ball. As
part of the project, both snorkelers and divers will be able to log the
different marine species they find on each ball in logs books kept at
the dive shop.
The Reef Ball project is being executed with the full support of the
Bonaire Marine Park. Jorgen Weterings, a Sand Dollar condo owner and
head of the project stated, "the pilot project will be monitored
for two years with assistance from local naturalists Dee Scarr (Touch
the Sea) and Jerry Ligon (Bonaire
Dive & Adventure). Everyone who
has heard
about this project has been willing to sponsor a reef ball. The
maintenance workers at Sand Dollar who are helping to build these reef
balls have really embraced the project and the opportunity to make a
positive contribution to the marine environment."
Bonaire
may be best known for the diving, but this project will directly benefit
snorkelers because of the shallow placement of the reef balls. If this
pilot project goes well, Weterrings hopes to see a bigger second project
in the future.
Supporters who are interested in aiding the project can buy a reef ball
t-shirt at the Sand Dollar office or sponsor a reef ball by contacting
Weterrings at jweterrings@yahoo.com or
checking this page for details. You can learn more about reef balls at
www.reefball.org. General information and reservations:
1-800-288-4773.
The
Reef Balls Are Here! 
The
three-foot high structures, which resemble upside down tea cups, are
made of a special concrete mixture whose Ph levels are closer to that
of the ocean, thereby stimulating early marine assimilation and growth. These
reef balls contain series of eight to thirteen holes that make them especially
attractive to Bonaire’s diverse marine life. The surface of the
Reef Balls have also been designed and prepared to encourage the adhesion
of new coral polyps. Sand Dollar expects to place these reef balls directly
in front of the resort in 10 feet of water in late January or early February.
This artificial reef project will probably rank among such significant
and positive interventions by humans on Bonaire's marine life as the
sinking of the Hilma Hooker, the Sponge Reattachment Project of 1989,
carried out on the pilings under the Town Pier and the fish management
practices that have preserved the parrotfish.
Private
citizens are sponsoring individual reef balls for $300 and will be identified
on a plaque mounted in the Sand Dollar lobby. Every reef ball will
be identified with a number stamped on a brass tag affixed to each ball. As
part of the project, both snorkelers and divers will be able to log the
different marine species they find on each ball in logs books kept at
the dive shop.
