Tag: research

Gearing up to expand our internship program in 2020

Gearing up to expand our internship program in 2020

We started our internship program in 2016, with our aquaculture of marine reef fish and reef restoration in the LINI Aquaculture and Training Centre (LATC), at Les village in North Bali. The program is dedicated to offering Indonesian fresh graduates from fisheries, marine science, aquaculture backgrounds the chance to experience working on a wide range of fisheries and marine conservation issues. Interns will stay at the Centre for at least three months, although many of them extend their internships.

To date there have been 22 interns who graduated from the LINI internship program, with work experience covering captive breeding of the Banggai Cardinalfish, clownfish, preparing green-water and rotifer plankton cultures, building artificial structures for reef restoration, and monitoring the mortality and recruitment of corals on the structures. 

Recently, we expanded our internship program to include our organic garden and education. Amel graduated from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, and Ade from Udayana University, Bali, during the period of September – December 2019, and they both took part in this new program. Amel learned about organic gardening, and Ade helped in educational outreach in the local schools at Les village.

The aim of expanding the program is to explore a wider range of activities for interns in the Centre, and also to help the local community. In 2020, we plan to offer the internship program not only in our Centre in North Bali but also at our field project site in Banggai Island, Central Sulawesi and in Banda Islands in Maluku. Stay tuned for the next news from LINI. We wish you all a happy prosperous new year! 

Amel (left) and Ade (right) helping each other to make the Centre green (photo: Nyka)
Ade and Amel attaching some information posters (photo: Nyka)

Survey of Banggai Cardinalfish populations and their microhabitats

Survey of Banggai Cardinalfish populations and their microhabitats

Since 2007, LINI has been monitoring the distribution and population density of Banggai Cardinalfish (BCF) populations in the Banggai Archipelago. The survey was initiated because of our concerns about the declining numbers of BCF in the environment, which has led to this species being listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List. The BCF population data over a five-year period (2007 – 2012) were published in a paper “Summary of results of population density surveys of Banggai cardinalfish in the Banggai Archipelago, Sulawesi, Indonesia”.

In 2017, in collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia – LIPI) and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), LINI conducted BCF population surveys at 16 sites in the Banggai Archipelago. The purpose of the surveys was to establish a baseline from which the impact of the BCF conservation and management could be evaluated.  Since then, the monitoring has continued to be conducted annually. 

The third round of surveys was held in October 2019, and the results are currently being analysed. The monitoring involved the community groups of Bone Baru, Yayasan KALI and BCF Lestari, who received training in survey methodology. The training was done annually prior to monitoring.  The three community group leaders- Saleh, Sain and Abdul, have been part of the annual monitoring efforts since 2017. It is our intention that the community groups will be able to conduct the monitoring of the BCF on their own in the future. Hopefully, in the future, more and more people from Bone Baru and neighbouring villages will join us in the survey and monitoring activities. The growth of community involvement is essential for the sustainability of LINI’s program. In the long run, we hope that the communities can take the lead in marine conservation and management efforts in their own areas. In this year’s survey, the supporting monitoring team includes Parisa, our intern from the University of Halu Oleo, Kendari, and Dawam from Muhammadiyah Luwuk University.

The 2019 surveyors: (left to right) Khalis (LINI), Eveline (LINI), Dawam (Luwuk), Surya (LINI), Sain (BCF Lestari), Saleh (KALI), Abdul (KALI) and Parisa (Kendari) (photo: @Neni)
Aquaculture Research in the LATC

Aquaculture Research in the LATC

At the beginning of this year, we planned to make some improvements in our aquaculture facility. One of these was to enhance the nutritional intake of the fish, to encourage optimal health of the marine species for our breeding program. Marine Aquarium fish are valued and admired based on their colours and patterns and improved health helps to make fish look more beautiful. We aim to have a breeding program with broodstocks that produce an optimal number of viable eggs and healthy offsprings. Currently, our cultured clownfish have a “bleache” light pale orange colour, which makes them less attractive than their wild-caught counterparts. In addition, many broodstocks have a low frequency in the numbers of eggs laid, or the eggs turn out to be unviable and dod not hatch. These problems may be caused by a lack of essential nutritents, (such as phosphate and vitamins) in the feed we give to our clownfish. In early August, we started trials, where we varied the different kinds of feed given to the baby clownfish. Our intern, Wayan helped us by testing the effect of giving enriched Artemia shrimps (given additional food and supplements) on the growth rates of the young clownfish, and the sharpness and brightness of their colours and patterns. He designed a mini research project to enrich the shrimp (Artemia) with Spirulina, cod oil and a combination of Spirulina – cod oil. The objective of the experiment was to identify which enriched diet produced the growth rates and colouration. In aquaculture industry, the food can cost up to 60% of operational budget, therefore, the effectiveness of the feed in producing healthy organisms is central to the success of the business, both in terms of finance and quality products.

Wayan helping in the aquarium making process (left) and Wayan working on the feed trials (photos: Made Partiana)

We would like to continue the research, which aims to discover the most effective combination of nutrients that produce the best enrichment of Artemia shrimp for feeding to the baby fish. We would like to encourage Indonesian students who are interested in taking part in this research for their thesis in their final year at University. Would anyone who would like to join in this work please send an email to info@lini.or.id we will then provide further details regarding the research schedule and requirements. 

Reef Restoration Research in the LATC

Reef Restoration Research in the LATC

It is nearly a decade since we started helping the community of Les village in North Bali to restore their damaged reefs. Since January this year, we are offering opportunity for Indonesian students to conduct research on our reef restoration site in front of the LATC. To date, we have had two students who conducted their research at this site for their undergraduate thesis. They are Ali from Jakarta and Chevien from Purwokerto, Central Java. Both of them are now writing their thesis on coral growth and mortality on the artificial structures.  Iqbal from Jendral Soedirman University – Purwokerto, is currently looking at fish biomass on different types of artificial reef structures.

From left to right, Ali – Chevien – Iqbal were collecting data for their thesis (photos: Yunaldi)

Our reef restoration program has also attracted much interest from international students. In July 2019, two students from Sussex University in UK, came to volunteer and learn in our reef restoration monitoring program. The students were Aimee, who learned to identify the coral species that colonized the artificial reef structures, while Tash was learning to observe fish biomass in the Fish Dome clusters.Both National and International students were provided with guidance from our experts, and they also learned to scuba dive for scientific purposes, and about safety diving. The students have had the opportunities to meet and network with our partners during their stay with us.

Group foto with our visitors in July 2019, Richard Vevers from the Ocean Agency, Mika Peck and Alice Elridge from Sussex University – UK, and students from UK and Indonesia
(photo: Wayan)
Aimee (left) and Tash (right) were learning how to collect data in our reef restoration site (photos: Mika Peck and Eveline)

We encourage students to contact LINI if they are interested in our program, because they will not only learn about reef conservation, but also connect with various stakeholders who come to our Centre. We believe that every little effort we make to find solutions to help to preserve the marine ecosystem requires strong connections among all the people involved.