Throughout the world, coral reefs have suffered enormously from the warming of the seas, for example after El Niño in 1998. In Bali, this was followed by a crown of thorns starfish epidemic, an invasion which can be fatal to the coral. In combination with years of fishing with cyanide and dynamite, this had resulted in severe destruction of the area’s reefs.   
Chris Brown, the owner of Reef Seen Aquatics, was the initial force in educating the local people to ban destructive fishing with cyanide and dynamite, and the fishermen were invited to help restore and maintain the reefs. A number of artificial reefs were created and existing reefs restored. New coral growth can be further encouraged by sinking metal cage-constructions charged with a weak dc current in a process called Bio-Rock. 

The Reef Gardeners of Pemuteran were created by Chris in 2005, and consists of a group of 8 local workers from the fishing community, who were trained and are now working full-time on repairing and improving the reefs, protecting the fish stocks and educating local residents and tourists about reef preservation. For more information and/or to support the scheme, visit www.pemuteranfoundation.com