Reef Check Italia EcoDivers Discover Coral Day 2016

Indonesia's Bangka Island, north of Sulawesi, sits along the Indo-Pacific's "Coral Triangle," which is second only to the Amazon rainforest in biodiversity. This is what makes me, part of a Reef Check Italia EcoExpedition, and thousands of other divers come here in the first place. 

Read More

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS - BANGKA REEF CHECK ITALIA ECOEXPEDITION 2015

In the year in which researchers of a consortium, established by NOAA, XL Catlin Seaview Survey, The University of Queensland (Australia) and Reef Check, announced the third global coral bleaching event ever, the coral reefs of Bangka Island in North Sulawesi, Indonesia look like they are not affected at all by this phenomenon. These are the evaluations that come from the recent expedition that Reef Check Italia has carried out, for the fifth year, at the Coral Eye Outpost in Bangka.

Read More

Soft corals and coral farming

Soft Corals and Coral Farming: an introduction in the Tropical Ecodiver course 2015

 

 

This year the course on corals identification and coral reefs monitoring approaches held from 26th of October to 2nd of November in the wonderful location of Bangka Island (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) surrounded by the huge biodiversity of Celebes Sea got for the first time a specific class on soft corals.

Read More

THE COMPLEX INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SPONGES AND CORALS - AN INTERESTING CASE FROM SULAWESI 

By Gianfranco Rossi, Reef Check Italia onlus

Chalinula nematifera is a common Indo-Pacific encrusting sponge able to overgrow living corals. Distribution data of C. nematifera are fragmentary; its presence is documented as a potential threat for coral reefs in the Mexican Pacific coast (Ávila and Carballo 2009). 

Read More

Bangka Island’s Coral Reefs in Urgent Need of Protection

Pulau Bangka is an Indonesian island situated in the heart of the area with the world's highest level of marine biodiversity, called "The Coral Triangle". Coral reefs are the main source of livelihood for the local population of 2,700 people, both in terms of fishing and tourism. 

Read More

CORALS ID IN THE HEART OF THE “CORAL TRIANGLE” 

By Gianfranco Rossi, Reef Check Italia onlus

Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. You just need a diving mask to understand the value of this statement. Unfortunately, only few people realize that corals are not just one of the components of this extraordinary variety of life forms and colors, but are themselves the true essence of the reef. 

Read More

Bangka (Indonesia) 2013

The Reef Check protocol was designed following the awareness that there were no adequate data to establish a “baseline” of the health of coral reefs of the planet. The advantage of the protocol consisted, above all, in the possibility of involving volunteer scuba divers, led by marine biologists, who could give a vital contribution to the collection of data otherwise not obtainable.

Read More