Welcome To The Gili Islands
Coral Catch’s location is on a tiny island in Indonesia called Gili Air which is part of the world-famous Gili Islands. The Gili’s are famous for the amazing underwater world and lots of turtles! Divers from all over the world come to experience the warm and clear idyllic waters as well as the diversity of marine life.
Our location is classed as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) called The Gili Matra Marine Reserve. It covers roughly 30 km2 (as it actually covers the land too) and was created in early 1993 by the State Ministry of Demography and Environment.
The reefs around the Gili Islands are an important area for tourism, as well as ecologically important being within a marine park.
The Global Centre Of Marine Biodiversity
Being part of the Coral Triangle, the marine biodiversity around The Gili’s should be one of the highest in the world. Unfortunately, the reefs surrounding the Gili Islands were subject to destructive fishing methods such as blast fishing and cyanide fishing in the past where large reef systems were destroyed and the number of reef fish declined dramatically.
Although this method of fishing has since been banned there is still significant rubble in all areas which creates a huge threat to healthy coral colonies. Rubble moves easily and when it comes into contact with healthy coral colonies it can easily smother them and cause these corals to break too which means they then become part of the rubble substrate.
Asides from unsustainable fishing practices, the coral reef has also suffered due to coastal development, poor waste management, anchoring, heavy boat traffic, inexperienced divers and snorkelers crashing into the reef and earthquake activity.
In an effort to reduce further mortality of healthy coral colonies being impacted by rubble movement and to restore what has been lost due to the local and global pressures over time, we’ve created an artificial reef and set up a coral nursery.
