Whilst living on the beautiful Caribbean island of Aruba we kept being told by local divers / instructors and everyday ocean lovers that the corals and fish population has been decreasing over the years. An intimidating report by CARMABI, the leading organization in the Caribbean on applied natural sciences by means of knowledge acquisition, ‘leaked out’ in 2021 where local errors had been addressed proving the need for action. After meeting Parc Nacional Arikok, Scubble Bubbles, Pure Diving Aruba, Mr Green Solar company and other local organizations. We reached out to Gili Eco Trust, The Marine foundation, Coral Aid, Marine Biologists at University of Wageningen (WUR) amongst others to get the latest biorock information and it wasn’t that hard to get most minds aligned and set up our first test model for a biorock installation. With a small leatherback turtle shape made out of rebar, connected to an electrolyte system the testcase came out successful! To continue we upgraded and build The Kraken!
Release The Kraken!
A 4 x 4 x 2 meter high octopus holding the little turtle up and clinging on to a roman pilar as anchor, it’s quite the sight to stumble upon whilst snorkeling. To keep the electricity flow most stable it’s best to use similar thickness of material, in this case 6-8 mm rebar. Building it and getting a helpful, skilled crew together to place the object was a briljant adventure. We couldn’t have done it without the help of these local heroes!
Now, its placed under small solar current and decorated with stag horn corals, observed and maintained to grow full of corals over time and create a new nesting ground for bio diversity.
Special thanks to the local partners that jumped up and helped out on this endeavor!