Over the last 15 years Paddling Palau’s founder, Marine Biologist Ron Leidich, has worked tirelessly to help protect Palau’s precious marine environment.  In addition to his numerous conservation victories, Ron has also trained a team of local Palauan guides and boat captains, who have since become ambassadors to the reef. 

SHARK FINNING BAN: 

The Republic of Palau has shamefully been allowing foreign long line fishing fleets to capture migratory tuna within our territorial waters for over 20 years.  Palau receives approximately 1 million dollars per from this 400 million dollar annual industry (that revenue is less than the annual electric bill for our national capital building).  To make matters worse, the Long Line Vessels historically illegally targeted Sharks during their fishing forays.  The sharks are cruelly finned while the bodies are wastefully discarded at sea.  This oceanic tragedy continues around the world just so that status conscious Asian businessmen can consume “Shark Fin Soup.”  Global shark populations have plummeted as a result of this heinous practice.

In 1995, Biologist / Dive Instructor Ron Leidich released an educational package to the Palau National Congress which focused on the shark’s place in a healthy Eco-system and the shark’s importance to Palau’s tourism based economy.  Sadly, these primitive lobbying efforts had little effect.

The Foreign long lined vessels continued killing sharks and openly displayed the drying fins on the bow rails despite the blatant violation of their contract with the Republic of Palau (“the vessels may target tuna and tuna-like species only”).  With a complete lack of enforcement Ron began leading teams of Dive Instructors and Boat Captains onto the vessels where they would then confiscate and destroy the catch.  This grass roots efforts caught the attention of a Discovery Channel film crew which subsequently publicized the plight of sharks in Palau in a documentary (Predators in Paradise / Sharks in Peril).

This internationally viewed documentary helped to increase awareness and placed additional pressure on the Republic of Palau.  The R.O.P.’s conservation minded president, Tommy Remengesau took matters into his own hands and passed a law banning shark finning within Palau’s 200 mile exclusive economic zone.  To symbolize his fierce stance against this atrocious act of oceanic piracy, President Remengesau confiscated a fishing boat hiding shark fins and publicly burned the catch in a nationally televised event.  Palau today stands as the only Pacific Island nation to have created a “Shark Sanctuary” within our treasured waters.

ROCK ISLAND JET SKI BAN:  With an increase in Asian Tourism to Palau in 1999, new businesses were springing up out of nowhere.  Sadly, some of these companies imported high impact Jet Skis with load two stroke motors and oil emitting exhaust systems.  As this form of tourism was new to Palau, there was no legislation regulating Jet Ski activity.  As a result, these personal water craft were racing at high speeds amongst the most protected waters of Palau’s famous rock islands.  The Jet Skis were contributing to noise pollution, oil emissions, and they created boat wake within protected sanctuaries for old growth corals.  Within three months of their arrival the turtle population within Nikko Bay had disappeared and the sea bird rookeries had dwindled.  The Jet Skis were leaving behind an oily film on the ocean’s surface which at extreme low tides settled directly on top of shallow water corals.

Biologist Ron Leidich, incensed at this natural travesty, created a photographic presentation documenting the damage done by this new form of tourism.  The Koror State Legislators (who control & protect the majority of Palau’s rock islands) rose to the challenge and quickly banned the jet skis from all rock island sanctuaries.  Within six months of the ban, turtles and sea birds had returned to Nikko Bay, while the Jet Skis were limited to open water habitats.  Today Jet Skis are allowed in only two areas away from the rock islands, where there environmental impacts are minimal. 

CROWN OF THORNS STARFISH REDUCTION CAMPAIGN: 

The Crown of Thorns Starfish, Acanthaster planci, (COTS) is a native species to the Indo-Pacific.  The ancient Echinoderm feeds be crawling over live coral with it’s tube feet (kind of like hydraulic suction cups) and then everts it’s stomach onto the coral polyp.  The corals are thus killed and digested leaving behind a bare bleached white dead skeleton.  Under normal circumstances the COTS can act like a forest fire creating new habitats for recruiting coral.  This can actually increase the diversity and health of the reef.

The problem with COTS occurs when the ocean ecosystem gets out of balance.  When human wastes, nitrogenous fertilizers, and farming sediments enter the ocean, algae blooms are the immediate result.  It’s essentially akin to fertilizing your lawn and increasing the growth rate of grass.  The increased oceanic algae in itself can be a problem as the filamentous strands can quickly choke out corals.

But the problems with algae continue.  The “Fertilization” (or eutrification) of the ocean also creates phytoplankton (free floating algae) blooms.  When a female Crown of Thorns Starfish reproduces, she releases (spawns) up to 20,000,000 eggs at a time.  The newly hatched egg then develops into a free floating Bipinnaria larvae, which feeds on phytoplankton.  Thus the more nutrients we dump into the ocean, the more coral feeding starfish we feed.  The results can be disastrous to the reef as thousands of COTS descend in an army like formation onto a reef.  They can literally consume 100% of the coral cover leaving behind a lifeless wasteland.  It’s quite comparable to clear cutting an old growth forest.

If confined to a few limited areas this “clear cutting” of the reef is only a temporary set back.  The reef can heal itself in a matter of years by spawning new coral recruits which will resettle the reef.  In 1998 however, Palau received a “One-Two” punch.  An oceanic warming episode related to El nino had bleached up to 90% of our reefs.  Coincidentally Crown of Thorns Starfish had already been blooming to epidemic proportions.  This “Perfect Storm” of anthropogenically influenced events created a devastating scenario for Palau’s treasured reefs.

Biologist Ron Leidich quickly organized volunteers from dive shops, the scientific community, school groups, the conservation community, and the Koror State Marine Rangers.  After a few painful lessons in how to best remove the well defended spiny starfish, the team perfected a highly efficient removal method.  Using four foot long wooden stakes with cross bars, the volunteers were able to remove thousands of starfish in a single afternoon.  The record removal from six volunteers in three hours was a total of over 1500 COTS.

The Crown of Thorns are physically taken out of water and disposed of on land on beaches and caves.  The team, led by Ron Leidich soon adopted a site specific management plan which insured that the most treasured coral gardens received 100% protection.  As a result, these select coral gardens stand today as a symbolic reminder of the “Old Growth” coral habitats that once dominated Palau’s Reefs.  The plan was similar to protecting a city on fire:  Choose the most valuable buildings and let the rest burn as resources were limited and time was short. 

The COTS removals continue to this day, though the plague proportions seemed to have dissipated.  COTS are now removed in the hundreds rather than the thousands.  If you’re visiting Palau be sure to snorkel Lolita’s Coral Gardens, Lighthouse Channel, and Kital Rirs “Rainbow Reef,” and witness the grandeur of intact coral habitats after the dedicated labor of a handful of volunteers.