Climate change to affect marine tourism

Antara News, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 05:20 WIB

Foreign tourists at Kuta Beach in Bali. (ANTARA)

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - Sea and Coastal Areas Director of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Subandono Diposaptono said that climate change could affect the marine tourism, particularly natural tourism in coastal areas.

"When the climate changes as a result of global warming the sea surface would rise so that white sand will disappear because it is submerged with water," Diposaptono told a seminar on climate change here on Tuesday.

He said that the increase in global warming would also bring impact to tourism as it would cause inconvenience in the natural tourism areas.

For marine tourism, the impact of global warming would be the whitening of coral reef and if this happened the condition under the sea would no longer be attractive to tourists.

Besides, this condition will also cause extreme waves that would change the environment into a situation which is not safe or dangerous to the visitors of a beach.

He said that at present the sea water was experiencing an average surface increase by five to 10 millimeters per annum. Although it was small, yet it would impact the convenience of human life if it continued to take place for a long time.

"Besides due to climate change, the water surface increase also happened due to excessive exploitation of ground water that causes the land surface to subside.

Generally, big cities in Indonesia are near to the sea so that we think that the sea surface has risen while in fact it is the land surface which is subsiding," he said.

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Philippine firm tapped to author WOC 2009 Conference Report

Philippine Information Agency, by Arvin Yana

Manila (30 October) -- After supporting the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) of the Government of Indonesia in the organization and management of the highly successful World Ocean Conference (WOC) 2009 in Manado last 11-15 May 2009, Filipino firm PRIMEX was again engaged by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to prepare the report on the Conference.

Ms. Elvira C. Ablaza, PRIMEX President and CEO and Marine and Coastal Resource Management Specialist of the ADB Technical Assistance Team (TAT) that worked closely with MMAF from March to May, drafted a report that summarized the proceedings of the Conference and, more importantly, highlighted the key issues and recommendations arising from the various intergovernmental meetings, Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Summit and preparatory meetings, as well as the oral presentations during the International Symposium on Ocean Science, Technology, and Policy.

The draft report has been submitted to ADB for publication and dissemination to interested parties. CD copies of the WOC 2009 Report will be brought by ADB officials and staff who will be participating at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark this coming December. It is hoped that the Report will add to the global clamor to include discussions on the role of oceans in the climate change response.

"With major natural disasters that recently claimed massive lives and properties, access to various literature that tackles climate change becomes imperative more than ever. This document will prove to be an excellent reference for various national and local governments in re-charting their respective environmental agenda," Ablaza said.

WOC 2009, a forum for the world community to discuss current issues in the marine field, consisted of a number of parallel events, the most important of which were the intergovernmental high-level meetings, which culminated in the signing of the Manado Ocean Declaration (MOD) by heads of government delegations; the international Ocean Science, Technology, and Policy Symposium, which discussed a wide range of ocean-related topics in 31 technical sessions; and Global Ocean Policy Day (GOPD), which was designed as an opportunity for multi-stakeholder dialogue on the importance of the oceans in climate change, mitigation and adaptation strategies, and financing issues.

Another highlight of WOC 2009 was the historic Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Leaders' Summit, where the Heads of State of the six Southeast Asian and Pacific countries comprising the Coral Triangle (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste) gathered to formally launch the CTI, sign the CTI Leaders' Declaration, and approve the CTI Regional Plan of Action.

The six leaders, including Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, agreed on a wide-ranging plan to protect one of the world's largest networks of coral reefs, promising to reduce pollution, eliminate overfishing, and improve the livelihoods of impoverished coastal communities. The Coral Triangle accounts for a third of the world's coral reefs and 35 percent of coral reef fish species. (PIA)

Dead fish drifting in Indonesia after oil leak

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press | Fri, 10/30/2009 6:32 PM

Thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil have been found drifting near Indonesia's coastline more than two months after an underwater well began leaking in the Timor Sea, officials and fishermen said.

Oil rig in Timor Sea catches on fire

An estimated 400 barrels a day of oil has been leaking from a fissure that erupted on Aug. 21 at a rig about 150 miles (250 kilometers) off the Australian coast. PTTEP Australasia, a branch of Thai-owned PTT Exploration and Production Co. Ltd., has failed repeatedly to stop the leak but says it is still trying.

The head of the World Wildlife Fund Australia, Gilly Llewellyn, said Friday that the early impact of the spill is beginning to become clear.

"This is shaping up to be one of the largest (spills) in Australian history," Llewellyn said in an interview. "It is one of the most diverse marine habitats in the world. The impact could be over weeks, months, years."

It is still unclear how far the spill has actually spread because much of it may be undersea, Llewellyn said.

But a slick has drifted hundreds of miles (kilometers) toward the impoverished Indonesian province of East Nusatenggara, where fishermen say they have seen thousands of dead fish drifting.

Residents in the seaside villages of Nunkolo and Bandi, located on small islands off the coast of West Timor, were suffering skin problems and acute diarrhea after eating contaminated fish, local environmental groups said.

"Fishermen have been facing serious difficulties for the past month," Ferdi Tanoni, chairman of the West Timor Care Foundation, said. "Villagers' income dropped by 80 percent because many fish died or smelled oily."

If estimates of the amount of oil leakage per day are accurate, the current size of the spill would have reached nearly 1.2 million gallons (more than 5.3 million liters).

There are fears it could harm whales, turtles and dolphins - some of them rare - living in the deep waters.

Several dead sea snakes and birds have been found in oil and are believed to have been killed by the slick, although tests have not yet determined the cause of death, Llewellyn said.

Samples taken by West Timor's Regional Environmental Agency in waters roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the coast found high concentrations of oil and, in one out of every four tests, dead fish.

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Indonesia's Fishermen Promised a Helping Hand

The Jakarta Globe, Arti Ekawati

A man installs oars on his fishing boat in Jakarta. (File Photo: Tatan Syuflana)

Raising fishermen’s income, providing them with soft bank loans and improving infrastructure to support the industry are the three top priorities of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries over the next five years, the newly appointed minister said.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad said the declining incomes of small-scale fishermen is a major concern. He noted that fishermen along the north coast of Java earn an average of only Rp 800,000 ($82.40) a month. This is half of what the average small-scale fisherman earns in Gorontalo Province in Sulawesi, which enjoys the highest income for fishing in the country.

The poor earnings were closely linked to over-fishing in certain parts of the country, with the North Java Sea, the Malaka Strait and the East Kalimantan Sea being the most overfished, Fadel said. The ministry was considering giving fishermen in these areas permits to fish in other, less diminished zones, he said.

To improve infrastructure, more roads servicing fishing ports and more fish auction centers could be built, Fadel said.

He added that he had already talked to the minister of public works and the minister of energy and mineral resources about this. State-owned banks could also provide low-interest loans to help fishermen develop other businesses to supplement their incomes, he said.

Arifin Djunaedi, a fisheries analyst and former chairman of House of Representatives Commission IV, which oversees the fisheries, forestry and agricultural sectors, said the ministry needed to improve the sector by actually implementing these programs instead of just making promises.

Earlier this year, the House expressed disappointment in the ministry’s performance. Former legislator Rusman Ali questioned the ministry’s decision to spend only 76.6 percent of the money it was allocated in the 2008 budget. Others criticized it for falling short of its target for non-tax revenue collection, bringing in just under half of its goal of Rp 215.7 billion.

Dying whale shark found without external injuries

www.chinaview.cn, 2009-10-28 15:38:07

Members of the Philippine Coast Guard-Special Operation Group (PCG-SOG) tow a whale shark which fishermen found dying near Manila Bay breakwater, the Philippines, on Oct. 28, 2009. Coast Guard divers found no sign of external injuries on the whale shark. (Xinhua/Jonas Sulitr)

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Rising sea temperatures bad news for seaweed farmers

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali | Tue, 10/27/2009 10:45 PM

Seaweed farmers in Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan islands, Bali, are suffering from changing sea conditions as a result of climate change.

Community development group Kalimajari, which assist seaweed farmers in Nusa Penida, said sea temperatures had increased by between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius in the last two years, causing the outbreak of a disease locally known as ice-ice, a condition that causes seaweed to decay.

“Farmers have been complaining about sea temperatures getting hotter, and have found the outbreak occurs every planting cycle,” I Gusti Agung Ayu Widiastuti, from Kalimajari, told a seminar on adaptation to climate change in coastal areas, in Sanur, Bali, on Tuesday.

She said the extreme changes in sea conditions had depleted stocks of Euchema seaweed, previously the most profitable species for farmers.

Seaweed production decreased from 500 tons in 2007 to 200 tons in 2008.

Seaweed farming is the main livelihood of people on the two islands.

Normally, they earn between Rp 1.5 and 2 million each harvest period, but now they struggle to make ends meet.

DKP built 2,236 disaster-proof houses for fishermen

Antara, Tuesday, October 27, 2009 19:52 WIB

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The Marine and Fisheries Department (DKP) has built 2,236 disaster-proof houses for poor fishermen in 55 districts and cities across Indonesia in 2009, an official said.

"The program was aimed at reducing the possible negative impact of climate change and natural disasters on the fishermen," Director of DKP`s Coastal and Sea Division, Subandono Diposaptono, said after attending a seminar about climate change conducted by Bali Collaboration for Climate Change Issue (KBPI) here on Tuesday.

Subandono said two types of disaster-proof houses were built, namely traditional and modern.

The modern type of houses were built in coastal areas where the risk of being engulfed by tsunami was low while the traditional type of houses were built in areas where the tsunami risk was high with waves that might reach a height of more than three meters.

"The traditional house is structured in such a way that it can withstand the horizontal pressure of a tsunami wave so that the building will only suffer minor damage. On normal days, tenants of traditional houses can use the space underneath the house for leisure activities, trading, repairing fish nets or weighing their fish catches," Subandono said.

He said averaging 27.5 square meters in width the traditional houses were built parallel with the probable direction of tsunami waves and in perpendicular lines to the coastline to minimize the pressure big waves on the building structures.

Building disaster-proof houses for fishermen had been a DKP program since year 2006. Up till 2008, the department had built 497 houses for fishermen in 18 districts and cities in Indonesia.

DKP provides the budget for house construction while the regional administrations provided the needed land.

"In 2009, we built 40 disaster-proof houses in each district or city where there were fishermen," Subandono said.

Australia coastal living at risk

BBC News

About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas

Australia may have to force people to evacuate coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten thousands of homes, an official report has warned.

The National Sea Change Taskforce said urgent action was needed to protect Australia's coast from seas expected to rise more than 80cm (31 inches).

It said the government should introduce laws to ban further coastal living and development.

The parliamentary report noted that 80% of Australians live in coastal areas.

Coastal identity

The report urges authorities to consider "the possibility of a government instrument that prohibits continued occupation of the land or future building development on the property due to sea hazard".

There were almost 50 recommendations in the report, ranging from a national coastline plan and greater co-operation between different authorities to a revised building code to cope with storm surges and soil erosion.

It does not say the government should force people to move inland but proposes an independent group look into whether the government could - and should - do that.

Australia's major cities are all in coastal areas, as well as the homes of some six million people outside the main population centres, according to the report, which was issued late on Monday after 18 months of study.

"The committee agrees that this is an issue of national importance and that the time to act is now," the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts wrote.

Alan Stokes, the task force's executive director, said banning development in certain areas is necessary if the government wants to prevent a major loss of life in the event of natural disasters such as tsunamis.

"There's no doubt Australia will remain and continue to be a coastal community," he said.

"But we may have to be a bit more considerate about which parts of the coast we develop further and which ones we don't," he added.

Last week the government reintroduced carbon trading legislation which was rejected in August and is among a package of bills aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25% by 2020.

Palembang to host Musi Festival

Khairul Saleh, The Jakarta Post, Palembang | Mon, 10/26/2009 3:30 PM

Palembang is scheduled to host the Musi Festival from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9 as part of efforts to lure tourists to the city.

The local administration will present various attactions, such as the International Dragon Boat Festival, the Archipelago Culinary Festival and Education Exhibition during the event.

Baharuddin Ali, head of the city tourism agency, said on Monday that the event would be held in parallel with the fourth celebration of the River Days.

“For the International Dragon Boat Festival, there have been four countries that have confirmed their participation,” Baharuddin said, referring to the Phillipines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

He added that the administration would also conduct a similar boat competition for local participants on a national scale.

“We will present the best local foods to attract visitors during the culinary event and will invite some schools for the education fair,” he said.

'Freezer plan' bid to save coral

BBC News, By Matt McGrath, BBC News, Copenhagen

Coral reefs are a key source of food,
income and coastal protection

The prospects of saving the world's coral reefs now appear so bleak that plans are being made to freeze samples to preserve them for the future.

A meeting in Denmark took evidence from researchers that most coral reefs will not survive even if tough regulations on greenhouse gases are put in place.

Scientists proposed storing samples of coral species in liquid nitrogen.

That will allow them to be reintroduced to the seas in the future if global temperatures can be stabilised.

Legislators from 16 major economies have been meeting in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to try to agree the way forward on climate change.

The meeting has been organised by the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (Globe).

Losing the fight

One of the issues they have been considering is what to do with coral reefs, which make up less than a quarter of 1% of the ocean's floor.

Yet the reefs are a key source of food, income and coastal protection for around 500 million people worldwide.

At this meeting, politicians and scientists acknowledged that global emissions of carbon dioxide are rising so fast that we are losing the fight to save coral and the world must develop an alternative plan.

Freezing samples for the future may be a necessary option.

''Well it's the last ditch effort to save biodiversity from the reefs which are extremely diverse systems," said Simon Harding from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

"It would take other work to try and reconstruct the reef so that you can start the process of building up a reef again," he said.

"That is something that needs to be looked at in detail, but we can definitely store the species and save them in that way."

According to recent research, one of the world's most important concentrations of coral - the so-called Coral Triangle in South East Asia - could be destroyed by climate change before the end of this century with significant impacts on food security and livelihoods.

Five Earthquakes Shake Indonesia on Sunday Morning

The Jakarta Globe

The Mentawai islands, where one of Sunday's quakes struck, lie just west of a major fault line. (Photo: Antara)

It's been a busy Sunday underneath Indonesia, with five earthquakes hitting the archipelagic nation over the course of the morning.

The shaking began at 3.54 am Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB), when a 6.1-magnitude temblor hit 176 km southwest of Waingapu, East Nusa Tenggara province, at a depth of 19 km under the seabed..

Ten minutes later, another quake measuring 5.5 hit off Waingapu in nearly the same spot, at a depth of 23 km.

A 5.3- magnitude quake hit 39 km below sea level, 151 km southwest of Tual, Maluku, at 7.35 am.

At 8.50, an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted 69 km southeast of Siberut in the Mentawai islands of West Sumatra province.

Finally, North Sulawesi was rocked by a 5.2 quake 106 kilometers northeast of Bitung, a mere 10 km below sea level, at 9:25 a.m.

There are no reports of damage or injuries so far.

Antara

Morowali residents still missing in ship incident

The Jakarta Post | Sun, 10/25/2009 8:10 PM

Four residents of Morowali, Central Sulawesi were still missing as of Sunday afternoon after their boat was overturned and sunk in the waters between Samarengga and Koikola islands five days earlier.

Antara state news agency reported that Yusdin, Eko, Rendy and Tombo were still missing.

“We found Wasisa who survived the incident. We are still looking for four people,” Winardi, the head of operations at the Morowali Police, said in Palu on Sunday.

He added that more than 20 people including personnel from the local police office and administration were searching for the missing people.

“We will continue searching until next week and hopefully we will find them,” he said.

Head of the Morowali Resort Police AKBP Deden Garnada said a huge wave had hit a ship carrying residents from Menui Island who were fleeing their villages, fearing a tsunami, after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake jolted their island last Friday and Sunday.

“They panicked at that time and boarded a ship that would carry them to Sulawesi,” Deden said.

He added his office suspected that there were too many people onboard the ship, which was probably a major factor in the incident.

“Fifty people boarded a ship that was meant to only carry 30 people,” he said.

Three residents died in the incident. (ewd)

Bali launches coral restoration project

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali | Tue, 10/20/2009 9:58 PM

The first coral transplantation project in Nusa Dua was launched Tuesday in an effort to restore the coral reefs and improve marine tourism in the area.

Initiated by the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) as part of the ongoing Nusa Dua Fiesta, the project invited tourists, fishermen’s groups and several organizations to join the Adopt a Coral program, by donating US$25 for a fragment of transplanted coral.

Some participants donated $500 for an artificial submarine reef and 20 pieces of transplanted corals. The artificial submarine reef is a man-made construction, which is submerged to serve as a platform for transplanted reefs.

The transplanted coral, made by growing small pieces of living coral on a biological substrate, was attached in an artificial submarine reef.

There were 16 submarine reefs, each of which consists of 20 pieces of transplanted corals. The reefs were placed in some spots where the coral coverage was low.'

Gorontalo Governor ready to chief maritime affairs, fisheries ministry

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Cikeas | Mon, 10/19/2009 4:32 PM

Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad is likely to replace Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi in the next administration.

He said Monday that President-elect Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono laid down five main issues related to natural resources and the livelihood of fishermen.

"(Yudhoyono) stressed that we needed to pay attention to natural resources around us for the interest of the people, and we need to pay more attention to (those living in) coastal areas, especially fishermen," Fadel said after the interviewed at Yudhoyono's private residence in Cikeas, West Java.

"There's also the need to maintain the country's sovereignty as we are a big maritime country."

Fadel said he was also asked to better coordinate with the National Police, the Navy and the Transportation Ministry, particularly in border areas.

Indonesia, U.S. launch joint amphibious landing exercise

www.chinaview.cn, Editor: Yan, 2009-10-18 23:09:06

JAKARTA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The marines of Indonesia and the United States conducted a joint amphibious landing exercise at the Banongan Beach, Asembagus, Situbondo in East Java on Sunday, the national Antara news agency reported.

The exercise, called the Interoperability-Field Training Exercise (FTX-IIP) Marine Exercise (Mrex) 2009, was in a series of Joint Exercises held by the Indonesian and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Alfan Baharudin, Commander of the Indonesian Marine Corps, said in the opening remarks of the exercise that the Indonesian-American Marine Corps joint exercises had succeeded in increasing cooperation between the two.

"Indusa (Indonesia-USA) Marex 2009 exercise which involved 1,300 personnel from both countries, is a large scale joint exercise ever held by the Indonesian and American Marines," he said, adding that he expected both Marine Corps would work together to learn, so as to increase personnel capabilities.

According to him, the Indonesian Marines will gain new knowledge about city war (Marine Operations Urban Terrain) in the exercises, while the U.S. Marines will have knowledge of the system used in forest battle.

India, Indonesia take up coordinated patrolling of Malacca Straits from Oct 18

By M Rama Rao - India Editor, Asian Tribune, New Delhi, 18 October,

India will join Indonesia on October 18 to undertake ‘coordinated’ patrolling of Malacca Straits. India is not new to the exercise and what begins on Sunday is the ‘14th cycle’ of cooperation between the two navies.

Code-named ‘Ind-Indo Corpat’, the patrolling of one of the most piracy prone seaways will continue till Nov 5.

Both countries share an International Maritime Boundary of about 300 nautical miles.

In a coordinated patrolling, the two sides remain inside their maritime boundaries but remain constantly touch and keep each other updated on the movements and the situation in the sea.

Such patrolling seeks to prevent piracy, armed robberies, poaching, illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities.

Tactical command of the operation will be headed by Naval Officer-in-Charge (Andaman & Nicobar) on the Indian side and Commander of Sea Security Group of Western Fleet (located at Tanjung Pinang) on the Indonesian side.

The overall control will rest with Vice Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, Commander-in-Chief of Andaman Nicobar Command (CINCAN) and Commander of Indonesian Western Fleet Command (PANGARMABAR), officials said here

The Indian Navy is deploying one Landing Ship Tank (Medium), INS Mahish, under the command of Cdr MVR Krishna and one Fast Attack Craft, INS Trinkat, under the command of Lt Cdr Pushkar Kumar. In addition there will be one Indian Naval Dornier.

The Indonesian Navy is deploying one corvette and a Dornier aircraft.

Operation CORPAT will get underway with an opening ceremony at Belawan, Indonesia; the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Andaman & Nicobar) Cmde P Suresh, will lead the Indian delegation. The closing ceremony will be conducted on 04 Nov 09 at Port Blair.

India is also closing ranks with Maldives to protect their maritime boundary. A Dornier maritime patrol aircraft will be deployed in the Maldives as part of the security assistance.

New Delhi has agreed to help Male to secure its waters from pirates and threat from terror groups.

Maldives cabinet makes a splash

BBC News, 05:48 GMT, Saturday, 17 October 2009 06:48

The government of the Maldives has held a cabinet meeting about five metres (16ft) underwater to highlight the threat of global warming.

The cabinet were joined by instructors and military escorts

President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions.

Ministers spent half an hour on the sea bed and communicated with white boards and hand signals.

Officials from the low-lying island nation say the dive is "a bit of fun", intended to send a serious message.

The Maldives stand an average of 2.1 metres (7ft) above sea level, and the government says they face being wiped out if oceans rise.

Military minders

Three of the 14 cabinet ministers missed the underwater meeting because two were not given medical permission and another was abroad, officials said.

President Nasheed and other cabinet members taking part had been practising their slow breathing to get into the right mental frame for the meeting, a government source said.

On Friday, ministers carried out practice dives off the island of Girifushi, about 20 minutes by boat from the capital, Male.

About 5m underwater, in a blue-green lagoon on a small island used for military training, they were observed by a clutch of snorkelling journalists.

Each minister was accompanied by a diving instructor and a military minder.

While underwater, they signed a document ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, calling on all nations to cut their carbon emissions.

World leaders at the summit aim to create a new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

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Indonesia on alert for tsunami drill

BBC News, by Karishma Vaswani, Jakarta

Indonesians are still reeling from the devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake which struck off the coast of Sumatra last month, killing at least 1,100 people and injuring many more.

However, as efforts shift from rescuing survivors to rebuilding the provincial capital, Padang, and outlying villages, some people have already begun to discuss whether the country is sufficiently prepared for another natural disaster.

Now a tsunami drill being held on Wednesday in 18 countries around the Indian Ocean rim aims to test the responses of local authorities and the public.

Experts are agreed that another powerful earthquake could hit the area anytime in the near future.

But they are unsure if the Indonesian emergency response teams are equipped to react quickly and effectively to a crisis on a similar scale.

The country's National Disaster Management Agency has acknowledged that it was too slow to respond to the Sumatra earthquake, which brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides.

"On the first day, it was just pure panic," Priyo Kardono, a spokesman for the agency, told the BBC.

"We couldn't contact our colleagues in Padang because they were affected by the disaster. It's human nature to save your family first in these circumstances. But everyone needs to evaluate their readiness and response to emergencies like these," he added.

Public response

The panic in Padang saw the city's airport closed for 12 crucial hours - an important window during which the authorities could have sent much-needed emergency rescue and relief teams to the area.

In 2004, the only warning most people had was the sight of a giant wave

The head of the Indonesian Seismological Agency, Fauzi, says that was because many of the airport workers rushed home to check on their families.

"Padang airport was abandoned shortly after the earthquake, because the workers were scared," he adds. "We urgently need systems in place to test the public's response to disasters like this, to see how they will react."

Garnering information about the responses of both the authorities and the public is one of the aims of Wednesday's tsunami drill.

Exercise Indian Ocean Wave 09 will simulate the 9.2-magnitude earthquake which struck off the north-western coast of Sumatra in 2004, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 countries, more than half of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Held on World Disaster Reduction Day, the exercise will be the first ocean-wide test of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS), set up by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) the following year.

When the tsunami struck five years ago, the only warning most people in the region had was the sight of a giant wave heading towards them.

Unlike the Pacific, the Indian Ocean did not have a system to alert residents of coastal areas that a tsunami was imminent.

Shortly after last month's earthquake in Sumatra, an alert was quickly broadcast warning people in low-lying coastal areas of the possibility of another tsunami and ordering them to evacuate to higher ground. It was eventually lifted, however, as a tsunami did not materialise.

Vital co-operation

Unesco is helping to organise Wednesday's tsunami exercise. According to the UN agency, it will be the first time that the IOTWS will be tested worldwide.

Spokeswoman Sue Williams says one of the major challenges has been to get all the countries who signed up to the system to share data.

"The countries have to share their data otherwise this system won't work," she explains.

"If a tsunami is generated off the coast of Indonesia and is on its way to Africa - then African authorities need to have data about the wave at the source, where it began its journey. That means sharing seismic data and maps - and that was a very important part of the discussions and negotiations we had before we signed this agreement."

Another major challenge is getting the information about a potential tsunami out to people in the coastal areas, Ms Williams says.

"The instruments that are used to measure seismic activity and tsunami activity are in the water - the thing to watch is what happens on the beach," she adds.

"We've seen that national authorities can get the message out about a potential tsunami very quickly, but getting the message out to the communities on the coast is a completely different challenge."

"If the fault line of the earthquake is very close to the coast - the way it was in Aceh - then people have only got a few minutes to act," she warns.

Equipment shortage

The Indonesian government wants to deliver tsunami alerts to its citizens and those most at risk from the destructive wave within five minutes of an underwater earthquake in the region.

But experts say that will not be achieved until the country has installed at least 22 buoys, 120 tide gauges and 160 seismographs in its waters.

So far, according to the Indonesian Seismological Agency, it only has 14 buoys, 60 tide gauges and 150 seismographs.

The system is expected to be fully completed by 2010, but is already operational. Much of the funding for it has come from international donors, including Germany, Japan and China.

Wednesday's test will therefore determine whether the Indonesian authorities have spent that money wisely, and whether people are prepared for another catastrophe.

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New govt quota system to preserve coral reefs

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 10/13/2009 12:10 PM

The government plans to set a quota on coral trading to ensure the sustainability of marine biodiversity, a minister revealed Monday.

"Coral reefs are very important for our country, as it is located within *the* Coral Triangle area," Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fredy Numberi told a press conference during a symposium on coral reef management.

The quota system was recommended by the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), Fredy said.

It was reported that a piece of coral is sold for Rp 1,000 (10 US cents) to Rp 3,000 while the replacement of the same coral would cost between Rp 5,000 and Rp 10,000.

It takes at least one year for a coral reef to grow by one centimeter.

A 2003 Johns Hopkins University study revealed Indonesia's 85,000-square-kilometer coral reef area is home to a third of the world's coral and a quarter of its fish species.

Indonesia has fallen victim to destructive fishing, unregulated tourism and climatic changes, as well as coral trading. Data from 414 reef monitoring stations in 2000 found that only six percent of Indonesia's coral reefs are in excellent condition, while 24 percent are in good condition, and about 70 percent are only in poor to fair condition.

Yaya Mulyana, the director of the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program Phase II (COREMAP II), said once the government has set a quota, traders will be advised to sell only transplanted coral .

There are about 50 species of coral in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara that can be transplanted.

State Minister for national development planning (Bappenas) Paskah Suzetta said the government would produce a blueprint to address several maritime issues such as fisheries, tourism, sea resources, and modes of sea transportation.

"The Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry *DKP* and Bappenas will cooperate in drafting the blueprint," Paskah said on the sidelines of the symposium. (naf)