After the successful development of the Indonesian Coral Reef Garden (ICRG) in Bali in October-December 2020, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries through the Directorate General of Marine Spatial Management (Ditjen PRL) and Bank Indonesia (BI) conducted ICRG replication in Gili Meno waters North Lombok. This activity is supported by the West Nusa Tenggara Diver Community (Kapela NTB). The design theme adopted was the design of the Garuda statue equipped with a fishdome and hexagonal / spider web structure. This is also a replication of the themes found in Nusa Dua, Bali. The ICRG in Bali involved more than 10 thousand people and produced artificial reef structures of more than 95 thousand units in 5 locations namely Nusa Dua, Pandawa, Sanur, Serangan and Buleleng. This has sparked similar developments in other locations.
Director General of PRL, Tb Haeru Rahayu said this activity was a collaboration between KKP, BI and the local community. Although not as massive as in Nusa Dua, the coral gardens developed in North Lombok have become the Bank Indonesia Social Program (PSBI) through the NTB Branch of Bank Indonesia. "PSBI has built a coral garden with 1 unit of garuda structure, 8 units of fishdome, and 100 units of hexagonal / spider web. In addition, 4 units of mooring buoys have been built with 20 ballast to mark the location of the coral garden," said Tebe, the nickname of Tb Haeru. Rahayu, Thursday (28/1).
Tebe further explained that to support community empowerment, assistance was provided in the form of 1 junior Bauer II compressor unit and an under water camera to assist the supervision group. This assistance also complements the assistance provided by the KKP to the NTB Kapela in the form of diving equipment and tubes of 8 units in 2019. "This is given to support their vision and mission as a community that cares about the sustainability of marine and coastal ecosystems and the development of marine tourism," he said. Meanwhile, Director of Marine Services Miftahul Huda added that the ICRG Bali replication shows that ICRG carries a positive message for the preservation of coral ecosystems, new marine tourism attractions and the impact on increasing people's income during the pandemic. "The tourist attraction of the Garuda statue in North Lombok attracts many tourists to be involved in maintenance and to become a selfie location so as to revive new tourism activities in North Lombok," he concluded.
