By: Nining Rahayu (Marine Buddies Jakarta Coordinator)

The Thousand Islands is one of the areas that is quite famous for its natural beauty and tourism potential. Its location in the capital city makes the Thousand Islands a preferred tourist destination for urbanites. One of the islands that are part of the archipelago is Tidung Island. Tidung Island is quite famous and attracts the most attention from tourists thanks to its natural beauty. This is the reason why the Marine Buddies Jakarta Community organized a CORAL (Conservation through education travel) trip to Tidung Island on July 15-16 along with 23 other participants with diverse backgrounds.

It takes approximately 3 hours to reach Tidung Island from Kali Adem Harbor by boat. Tidung Island consists of two parts, namely Tidung Besar Island and Tidung Kecil Island, both of which are connected by a long bridge which is called the Bridge of Love by the local community and is a special attraction for tourists. Mr. Ghiver as the local guide welcomed the trip participants with enthusiasm. He did not forget to explain the ins and outs of the beauty of Tidung Island, "In the past, the condition of this island was quite good, but gradually due to the influx of tourists and their lack of awareness, the island is no longer as good as it used to be."

"Considering the number of tourists who often come from outside the region, it would be nice if Pula Tidung immediately becomes the attention of the DKI Jakarta government, especially for waste management, infrastructure improvements and safe transportation.", he added.

Exactly at 13.00, under the shade of the sun that was not too hot at that time, participants began exploring the island to Payung Island, which can be reached for 30 minutes from Tidung Island. Curiosity about the richness of marine life made participants even more enthusiastic about snorkeling. The organizers reminded the participants on how to snorkel properly, as most of them were doing it for the first time. After snorkeling, the participants continued the mangrove planting activity on Tidung Kecil Island. Mr. Eric as the representative of Tidung Island conservation area explained how to plant mangrove properly. "This time we use propagules, because it has been proven to have higher mangrove survival when compared to the use of mangrove seeds, propagules that can be used also have a total of 5 leaves" explained Mr. Eric.

The next day the participants' activities continued with coral transplantation activities. The choice of location, the type of coral transplanted, the readiness of the management community and water quality, is the key to the success of coral transplantation. The method used is cement or cast media that is molded in such a way and in the middle of the pipe. The function of the pipe installed in the center is as a place to tie coral reefs that will be grown. The binding of coral reefs in the transplant media uses one type of coral reef, namely Acropora sp. The binding is done by attaching the coral reef to the pipe using black rope. A total of 50 transplantation media were placed in the waters of Tidung Island.

At the end of the event, the committee and participants together assessed the marine conservation area on Tidung Island using the Marine Buddies application. It is their hope that the assessment and reporting that they have provided can be followed up immediately by related parties so that marine conservation areas remain sustainable.