Diving with The Largest Coral Colony in Nusa Penida “Ocean Gardener”

Could This Be the World’s Largest Coral Colony? Nusa Penida’s Galaxea astreata Stuns Scientists.

Only a few weeks after a remarkable colony of Pavona clavus, claiming the title of the world’s largest coral was found and measured in the Solomon Islands, another giant coral colony was measured in Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia, and discovered to be even bigger. In early December 2024, a team of young Indonesian marine biologists from Ocean Gardener, after receiving training from the Italian University of Milano Bicocca program ‘Map the Giants, located and measured what could be the biggest coral colony in the world! The now famous Solomon Island Pavona colony is 34m wide, 32m long, and 5.5m high. The newest contender vying to claim the title of ‘World’s Largest Coral ’ is a colony of Galaxea astreata found on the north coast of Nusa Penida, off Sental Village, a very popular diving spot in Bali. Although hundreds of divers swim through that colony every day, not many of them realize the astonishing uniqueness of this particular natural living monument. “This discovery has the potential to set a new world record. However, further testing is needed to confirm its status among the world’s giant coral colonies,” Ocean Gardener Research and Science Coordinator Manikmayang explained to the Indonesian National News. “The Galaxea colony was measured at 58 m wide, 71 m long, 10 m high, covering an area of over 4000 m2.” Nusa Penida, Bali, is located in the Lombok Strait and in the middle of the Indonesian throughflow current, where the Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean. It is a major crossroads in the coral world, a central location where corals can grow to gigantic sizes and produce billions of larvae that seed reefs all over the Indian Ocean. For these reasons, Nusa Penida is a critically important location in the center of the Indo-Pacific coral map. Thankfully, the giant coral of Nusa Penida is already located within a marine protected area. The team at Ocean Gardener hopes this coral will be a new focal point within this region, every bit as interesting as the Manta Ray and Ocean Sunfish populations that attract divers’ curiosity and support of conservation efforts.

Aerial drone image of the vast Galaxea astreata reef in the center of the image. This coral is located in Nusa Penida, Bali, with a boat nearby providing scale for its immense size.

We will be presenting our discovery at the International Conference on Sustainable Coral Reefs, in Manado, Indonesia, on Saturday, December 14th, 2024.  

Coral Reef Conservation, through Community building.

Local community work is key to successful coral reef restoration work. In recent weeks, there have been few publications highlighting the importance of coral reef restoration work through training and employment of local communities. This is something that Ocean Gardener chose to promote right from the beginning. A lot of foreigners are interested in getting involved with coral reef restoration, but unfortunately, it’s only with the help of the locals that results can be achieved. Involvement of Local Community: Using communities to restore reefs has a proven record, and numerous publications highlight this. Through the Indonesian Fishermen Association, Ocean Gardener always sought some Fishermen communities interested in working in coral reef conservation. Training and employing local communities to restore and plant their reef leads to the best conservation results.

Local community restoring their reef, in Ped, Nusa Penida. Coral reef restoration involves ecology, diving… training.

Recently a social publication, highlighted the benefits of coral reef restoration trained local communities: Identifying the right reefs with the right community: Finding a suitable community living on the appropriate reef is a lottery game; it can take years to find!

Source reefs:

Identifying the reefs that seed other reefs in the region is one of the ultimate and desperate goals of modern coral reef conservation.

Old and large colonies that resisted former bleaching events are potential source reefs, that could help restore other reefs just through sexual reproduction.

The first step is to identify resistant and resilient reefs, such as those that still hold large and old coral colonies, next to deep, high-flow, cooler water. Those initial observations can after be validated through Hydrodynamics, and using genomics tools such as e-DNA. Unfortunately, these reefs, with all the anthropogenic threats are getting more difficult to find. Conservation minded community: Most communities in a third-world country are focused on daily survival needs. They have short-term issues, such as putting food on the table. And finding a community that has a long-term vision, is a real issue.

Local community installing moorings to protect their newly restored reef.

The chance of finding a conservation-minded community living next to a source reef is tiny, like striking gold. The survey work can take forever. This type of work requires a long-term effort. Changing mentalities is a generational process, one generation at a time. Working with the adult, while educating the youngsters is a long undertaking. To achieve any results, we need to be ready to commit, financially and with our time in the long run.

The result can be so rewarding!

Coral reef restoration work through training and employment of local communities is not an easy task. However; when the planets align, the result can be amazing!