Chriselle’s Enterprises.

Cambridge Dive Center

Cambridge Farm Hotel

PO Box 41, Nunez St, Purok Malakas,

General Santos City, Philippines 9500.

Tel: (083) 301-6130.

Cell: 639204377119.

E-mail: dvgensan@yahoo.com.ph

Cambridge Dive Center at present has an ongoing Artificial Reef Project which was started on the 17th April 05. This project will help to restore damaged coral areas of reef and also construct new areas of reef where none existed before!

Environmentally friendly concrete domes are constructed and deployed on the sea bed from 12 to 50 feet deep! Holes are set in the outer shell of the domes in order to give access to the hollow center of the domes where fish and other forms of marine creatures can have habitat and hide from larger predators!

Holes are predrilled on the outer shell of the dome in which coral transplants can be set; this is proving that corals can easily be transplanted direct without any special preparation! Soft corals have managed to attach themselves to the domes in as little as two weeks from the domes being set in the water! Many other forms of marine organisms are already attaching themselves to the outer surface, some to survive while some are food for other creatures!

Many fish are taking up habitat in and around the domes especially on sandy areas where there was no cover before the domes were set!

To break up the standard shape of a dome we add what we call extensions! These are concrete pieces of random size and shape which also have transplant holes drilled in them. These are very effective and can be transferred to new domes once growth has started!

The domes are of a size which can be moved into position by a single diver and can be stacked and set together to form a reef of any shape and size. Most artificial reef projects need heavy lifting gear to set the reef modules, with only manpower required to move our domes makes great savings on costs!

This project is totally non profit, all donations from Clubs, Business and private individuals go to construct the domes, all transport to site, labor to get the domes in the water and divers to set the domes on the sea bed are all voluntary by a small group of dedicated people who want to restore the reefs back to their original form!

To Date, 15th October 2007 We Have Set 4000+ Artificial Reef Domes In The Water!

For more information about the project please contact:

Chris Dearne PADI MASD 461992 on dvgensan@yahoo.com.ph 

TUKA MARINE PARK, KIAMBA, SARANGANI -- Cambridge. Mushroom. Fish Port. Makar. They are hard to fathom, right? Well, don’t get crazy deciphering these words.

Actually, these words are the "crazy" ideas of two foreigners that are now helping the protected seascape of Sarangani Bay.

Cambridge, Mushroom, Fish Port and Makar are the artificial reef domes that British national Christopher Dearne, American John Heitz and a couple of Filipino scuba-diving buddies have been dropping at the seabed of the bay and Celebes Sea to restore damaged coral reefs.

"We are doing this freely with our own money and with some funding coming from the private sector," Mr. Dearne told BusinessWorld in a chance interview on board the group’s boat off Celebes Sea.

His group, the Sarangani Bay Divers, was having a fun dive in this marine park that hosts, said Mr. Heitz, hundreds, if not thousands, of species of corals.

The two foreigners came up with the idea of rehabilitating corals damaged by dynamite fishing, pump boats’ anchors and fishing nets in the bay in one of their many bar encounters.

The duo opened it up later to their local diving buddies, who did not hesitate to throw their full support to the project.

Obviously, the diving aficionados have the money to spare for such project given that their sports is financially intensive. In April this year, the group made its first artificial reef dome it named Cambridge, so named because the brainstorming was done at the Cambridge Farm Hotel in Gen. Santos City, which is owned by Mr. Dearne.

Framed using plywood, the cemented Cambridge dome has holes all over for the corals to thrive and as habitat for various kinds of fishes.

All the other reef domes, which vary in shapes and sizes, were produced using cement, sand and steel bars as major components.

A reef dome the group produces costs only from P350 to P450 each, significantly cheaper that those constructed abroad that fetches at least $80 (P4,320) at P54:$1. So far, since the group started its coral rehabilitation project, it was able to submerge 838 artificial coral reef domes around Sarangani Bay, surpassing its target for this year, said Mr. Dearne.

A project briefer sent to some benefactors said that from last April until December, 700 artificial domes would be put across the bay.

Mr. Dearne noted that various civic organizations in the city and abroad have been lending his group financial support as he expressed optimism that more would take notice of their endeavor for a wider scope of coral rehabilitation in the bay.

Asked how many domes it would take to restore the reefs to their former glory, he said, "As many as it takes." The group’s pioneering efforts are successfully paying off, bringing a sense of pride and satisfaction to the members.

Within two weeks after setting up the initial reef domes at the bay, Mr. Dearne noted that organisms have attached themselves to the infrastructure.

"Tiny barnacles and white worm housing were visible. Algae were soon to follow along with small green tunicates. Damsel fish, Toby’s lion fish and even a mantis shrimp took residence within the domes," he said. "Other creatures which have been seen in and on the domes include octopus, crinoids, scorpion fish, a carpet anemone, shrimps, goat fish, grazing fish and porcupine puffers."

The marine creatures are attracted to the domes following the transplantation of corals into the holes drilled on the outer surface. Among those transplanted are the fast-growing stag horn corals and soft hand corals.

At any one time following the group’s pioneering efforts, they would drop as mush as 30 artificial reef domes in one diving expedition, Mr. Dearne said. Usually, they placed the domes from 4.572 meters to 15.24 meters down from the surface of the sea.

Barely seven months after the domes were plunged to the seabed, Mr. Dearne noted that "every dome now has resident fishes or other forms of marine creatures. "An octopus has been seen on several domes. Many have crinoids attached with cucumbers, sea stars, urchins and other creatures grazing on the surface life on the domes," he said.

Particularly for shrimps, Mr. Dearne said they seem "to like the artificial habitat." Dupalco beach in Gen. Santos, the area where they set the domes and transplanted stag horn corals, used to be just a sandy bottom with very little obvious life. "Now there are plenty of fish in the area. This result is very encouraging," he said.

In the group’s almost weekly monitoring of the artificial reef domes, Mr. Dearne admitted they have discovered that vandals in some areas have been messing up the project.

"This is unfortunate and the height of stupidity. I hope they would realize that we are doing this for the general public and the future generation," he said, appealing to saboteurs to stop destroying the domes.

For the remaining coral reef areas in the bay, Mr. Dearne noted that the biggest problem is still the use of fine-meshed nets to harvest fish from the reef.

He described the method as very destructive and should be stopped even as he pointed out those employing it are not fishermen but ordinary people looking for an easy living.

Government agencies, according to him, should step in to prevent further destruction of the remaining natural reefs and the dwindling of the already-minute fish population. But how can ordinary people help sustain the coral reef rehabilitation of the group?

Buy a shirt for only P450 each at Cambridge Dive Center in Gen. Santos. Mr. Dearne said they are producing the shirts to further fund the coral reef rehabilitation of Sarangani Bay. The main feature of the shirt, of course, is the artificial reef dome.