A colony of whip coral
other, every polyp vying for space. It was colourful, not just the slate-grey tones associated with Acropora corals, but with purple, blue, even golden hues gifted by the corals’ symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae.
While the coral is unquestionably beautiful, the same currents delivering nutrients also bring floating rubbish from across the archipelago. This is a harsh truth – there may be organised recycling in popular centres like Manado, but smaller communities either burn their trash or drop it into the Molucca Sea. We saw gyres of plastic bottles, flip-flops and food bags.
The weirdest item I saw was a children’ s duvet cover wafted along by the current. I write this not in judgement of island communities, but as a fact of life across the Coral Triangle today. If we want to stem the tide of ocean-borne plastic in developing nations, we’ re going to have to fund it.
Table coral pagodas
Gorgonian fans jostle for space
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