Indonesia Plants Reefs and Corals to Restore Lives under the Sea

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - This afternoon (15/8/2015), Indonesian President joko 'Jokowi' Widodo officially launched the nation's first heroic action of saving its ocean, by dispatching some of its professional divers from the Indonesian Navy Force to plant more reef and corals in three geographical points within the Indonesian ocean: Sabang, Manado and Ambon.

Such activity called 'Ekspedisi Sejuta Terumbu Karang' marks the nation's preliminary stage of rebuilding its ocean design, saving what was initially damaged and the restoration of the life under the sea.

As an archipelago nation whose ambition is to become a maritime power in the near future, Indonesia has to focus on repairing the damaged part of its ocean before it could actually attain the maritime power status.

"In order for us to earn the maritime power status, we have to utilize our human resources, and make them useful in the restoration of our ocean and its beauty. We have to assure the preservation of our corals and reefs under the sea," President Jokowi informs during a live special interview conference held with SCTV this afternoon.

"And then infrastructure is of paramount importance too, especially the construction of anything related to our maritime such as the building of ports in areas that do not have this yet, because their functions could largely help the preservation of our ocean," he continued.

President Jokowi also reminds the nationwide audience the importance of participating in the venture to rescue the ocean's from any kind of contamination by preserving it and cherish this 'once in a blue moon' phenomenon of having the nation's professionally trained TNI Navy divers to plant corals and reefs in three differing areas within the Indonesian ocean.

Indonesian recently appointed Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Rizal Ramli said that many people have contributed to the damaged of the ocean without even realizing it.

"Indonesia is very rich with its natural resources especially from the its vast sea, but many of them did not realize that they have ruined it by bombing it, poisoned it and continue that habit of littering. Maritime Ministry with Indonesian Navy and also with the Indonesian people should all collectively commit to the preservation of our ocean life and plant more lives down there for them to grow and sustain the underwater life," Minister Rizal Ramli said at Liputan6 studio, SCTV Tower, Jakarta, Saturday (15/8/2015).

He also went to share how the preservation will have a positive impact in many sectors such as tourism and economy. With the ocean being properly perserved and sustained, there will be more fish available thereby allowing for fishermen to catch more to be sold and surely such move would improve the economy's growth and improve the fishermen's welfare in general.

(Akp/Tnt)