With the 1997-1998 economic crisis, the people of Indonesia and their coastal communities suffered considerable loss of income. Vincent Chalias, a marine biologist with an aquaculture background, saw the opportunity to transform the tropical marine aquarium industry from collecting wild live corals, to a farm-based one whilst giving these coastal communities another form of income. He came up with the idea to mariculture these corals, so they no longer need to be taken from the reef. Also, these farmed corals can be used to replant and restore damaged reefs.

He found in Mr Manumudhita a great partner and inspiration. Mr Manumudhita, after working for many years as the Director of the Fisheries Department, retired and became the head of the Bali Fishermen Associations, helping defend the livelihood of fishermen all over the country. The first trial was in Nusa Dua in 2000. Since then, many more nurseries have been installed in many corners of Bali, as well as other islands of Indonesia. growing almost any possible coral species.

In 2018, Ocean Gardener was created as a non-profit dedicated to coral education and coral reef restoration. The first line of work was education. We created educational material for different communities to help increase knowledge and understanding of corals. Next, coral nurseries were started in Candidasa, Sanur, Lipah, Ped and Bangka. Also, different reef restoration projects were started.

With Vincent’s 25 years of expereince in commercial coral farming, the projects quickly showed good results. Our list of nurseries, coral restoration projects and trained people to maintain and garden their reef keeps growing.