From 17 September until 25 September the WCS team surveyed reefs in the Lembeh Strait to Tangkoko Nature Reserve region of northern Sulawesi. The survey was conducted to evaluate the condition of reefs and the abundance/biomass of reef fish which support the livelihoods of local communities.  Sulawesi has been a priority for WCS for many years. The marine program has identified current needs and opportunities to work with governments and local stakeholders to further refine MPA regulations in Lembeh and Tangkoko.  Through this, we aim to help protect this internationally renowned marine area.

Sumatra has some of the most diverse coral reefs in Western Indonesia where marine fauna, and in particular reef fish, share a unique mix of species from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Of the 2057 reef fish recorded in Indonesia (Allen and Adrim 2003), 60 % have been found in Sumatra.

Limitations to genetic exchange between Sumatra and the rest of the Indonesian archipelago are thought to have contributed to the unique assemblages of marine fauna today. Sea level falls of 120 metres during the Pleistocene vicariance caused the Sunda Shelf to emerge into a terrestrial setting (Voris 2000), impeding genetic exchange of marine fauna and flora between west and eastern Indonesia for considerable time periods (A). Marine populations west of the Sunda Shelf were established from the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean, while east of the Sunda Shelf they were sourced from the Indonesian Throughflow derived from the Pacific Ocean (Hirst and Godfrey 1993, Song et al. 2004, Sathiamurty and Voris 2006) (B). The inundation of the area over time with sea level rise meant that populations could be sourced from larvae to the north, west and east of Sumatra. About 10,000 years ago the passage between Sumatra and Borneo again was opened allowing Pacific Ocean influence to return (C).

Lady Elliot Island, on the southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia was host to a workshop titled “Responding to Climate Change: A workshop for Coral Reef Managers”  from 30 July to 3 August.  The workshop was attended by 32 reef managers and coral reef scientists from South East Asia, Australia and the United States. Discussed were the implications for climate change on coral reefs and practical steps that reef mangers could undertake to reduce this threat. We investigated how measures of reef resilience could be incorporated into our daily work of designing protected areas and assessing the health of coral reefs.  With the novel use of a glass bottom boat, we viewed and discussed aspects of the reef and compared ways in which reef resilience variables could be qualitatively but systematically recorded. Currently no standard methods are available for incorporating reef resilience variables into protected area design and planning and incorporating these into marine resource planning. Issues of ranking and weighting variables and procedures for evaluating “reef resilience” were discussed. This led to some vigorous discussion on ways to systematically evaluate complex factors such as variability in temperature at a given site, the potential for connectivity with other reefs and substrate suitability for recovery. The exercise was used to score two “test” reefs using qualitative measures of 26 resilience factors – the outcome was a relatively consistent set of scores among group members and agreement on the relative resilience of reefs examined.