Sadly the world is in the grip of the 4th Global Coral Bleaching Event and Raja’s reefs need your help!  In December (2024), we reported on a significant coral bleaching event in Raja Ampat.  Raja’s reefs are a lifeline for marine life, local communities, and a tourism industry.  If you missed that post, follow this link, https://bit.ly/4gJKTFy.

Note: Contrary to an increasing number of comments circulating in social media circles, Raja is not dead.  Far from it!  Some areas, especially in the Dampier Strait, are definitely stressed with mortality being reported by reliable sources but more areas than not are completely unaffected or minimally so.

Today’s post is part of a continuing effort to monitor, and hopefully learn how better to protect, coral reefs in the future.  Whether we are divers, local residents, tourism operators, conservationists, governmental agencies or general tourists we should consider the reef’s health our collective responsibility. This is not a crisis we can leave for others to solve. There is no “someone” else to act. There is no “they” to take charge. The responsibility lies with each of us!

This bleaching event is a warning sign, loud and clear, and demands more than passive concern. It demands action.  While we cannot push a button to reduce ocean temperature, we can reduce localized pressures, and monitor bleaching impact in order to improve our understanding of intensity and scale, and learn what we can in order to be better prepared for whatever comes next. Completing this survey after every dive is action. It’s a powerful way to say, “I Care About Raja Ampat. I Take Responsibility.”

“Someone should do something” and “they need to fix this” is not the answer. The ‘someone’ is US. The ‘they’ is YOU.

Monitoring alone, however, is not the solution but it plays an essential role for the future. The purpose of this survey is to raise an awareness about this issue which includes: YES there’s bleaching…but also NO; some places aren’t bleaching.  A survey of this kind will help contribute to a collective intelligence – a good thing to support positive decision making, management and governance.

Now YOU can be a part of resolving the problem by reporting bleaching and general reef health conditions on your dives and snorkels.  This survey/report was created by The Sea People in conjunction with the Raja Ampat Marine Parks Authority (BLUD).  Read about the survey at The Sea People – Reef Health Monitoring. 

Scan the QR code on your device to open the reef health survey
or
Click Here

Your role in protecting Raja’s reefs is to complete this 2 minute survey, for each dive/snorkel.
By doing so you contribute to:

1. Mapping the crisis: Your observations will help identify the areas most affected by bleaching (and equally as important; reefs that are unaffected), providing invaluable data to guide response/recovery efforts.
2. Empowering Advocacy: With your reports, we can deliver informed, compelling evidence to government authorities and management bodies, demanding urgent action       and informing decision making. Each report will be a testimony of a stakeholder that cares for the reef and wants a responsible collective response.
3. Driving Awareness: Every submission supports campaigns that educate and engage the community about the critical state of our reefs.
4. Providing data in a collaborative and cost effective manner: This will facilitate and improve the response capacities of regional authorities.

*In order to gain a clear understanding of reef health, and the true impact of the current bleaching event, it is important to document both HEALTHY and BLEACHED reefs. Reporting healthy resilient and unaffected reefs provides us with information that is equally as valuable as information about bleached reefs. PLEASE INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT the healthy, unaffected reefs you see, by selecting “unaffected” in the Bleach Trend” section.