PNG-1 is growing quick and is home to many new species! Sunny, the clown fish, and his family have been there since day 1 and are growing side by side with the hundreds of species of corals latching on to the Fish Reef Unit. Watch the Underwater video above to see all the new growth!
Artist Rendering
Maisy Lus
Papua New Guinea Managing Director
Maisy Lus completed a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from the University of Papua New Guinea. She is passionate about evidence based environmental monitoring and mitigation of impacts that could be detrimental to the environment, livelihoods and social wellbeing of PNG coastal and Island communities. One of Maisy’s research interest is in cement strength enhancement using different additives for sulphate, chlorite and sea water resistance. Maisy supports the Fish Reef project because of the belief that this project will help minimize long-term negative environmental impacts from development projects and human activity, and sustain the livelihoods of people in our coastal and Island communities.
Interview in English:
Interview in Pidgin:
By Evan Wasuka on Pacific Beat
The community of Fisherman Island outside of Port Moresby is using modern technology to rejuvenate the sea floor and improve local fish stocks.
They’re using a artificial, or purpose-built reef, made from special concrete that encourages fish and marine life to develop.
The first reef units were put in place in May and Dr Wilfed Lus of Reef Fish says the early results have been promising.
“When the current hit the reef unit, they caused a lot of upwelling, with nutrients moving back up to the surface we see a lot fish coming to feed on it,” Dr Lus said.
Fisherman’s Island supplies Port Moresby’s main fish market and entered into an agreement with US-based NGO Fish Reef in 2016.
The community agreed to stop dynamite fishing and in return, the project has been able to set up artificial reefs.
Fish Reef’s CEO Chris Goldblatt says PNG is a good environment for artificial reefs.
“There is no coral bleaching in PNG… [that] makes it unique. It has one of the highest level of biodiversity in the world …there is a population that really respects having healthy oceans,” Mr Goldblatt said.
Reef Fish is keen to now take its technology to other parts of PNG and Melanesia.
Duration: 4min 32sec
Fish Reef Project Interviewed on EMTV in PNG
Papua New Guinea will have the ingenuity of an American reefing project to build artificial reefs to save the marine inhabitants in the country from being further depleted by over fishing. The Fish Reef Project, based out of Santa Barbara in the US, has come to PNG to share their expertise at making purpose-built reefs. The first rehabilitation site will be Fisherman’s Island; an island about ten kilometers off-shore from Port Moresby.
-EMTV
After many years of hard work and dedication, we have successfully deployed all 21 of the long-awaited reefs for coral restoration in Papua New Guinea! We are incredibly proud of the result of such diligence and generosity from our team and from all of our supporters around the world. We will continue to make strides towards building this project into a Global Force For Ocean Health™ — both across the globe and close to home for generations to come.
Listen to speech given by Chris Goldblatt, Founder of the Fish Reef Project on March 8th, 2018.
Chris Goldblatt standing with the ISA Africa group, Ghana to the left, and Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria to the right.
