Surfers destroying the coral reefs of Bali? - 2012/01/25 17:09I wrote something recently about a coral reef regeneration project in Bali which was needed due to the local tradition of dynamite fishing. This got me thinking about the damage that us surfers do to coral reefs.
Obviously surfing isn't comparable to dynamite fishing in terms of its destruction of coral reefs but if you go to let's say Uluwatu, Balangan or Impossibles, among others, you will no doubt stomp your way out across the reef and break countless heads of coral (albeit small ones) as you go. With the hundreds of surfers doing this every day in Bali, and having done so for the past few decades, it made me wonder just how much coral we have destroyed underfoot, making the phrase 'leave nothing but footprints', which so many surfers pride themselves on, seem rather ironic.
Coral reefs are extremely fragile so it seems that stepping on them constantly cannot be doing them any good, despite most of us claiming to be so eco-friendly.
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