Today we all helped out building more concrete units for the ribbon reefs that we are planting with coral and installing on the ocean bottom to help the coral reef regenerate after fish bombings - The photos below show how we do it:
First step in building the units for the Ribbon Reefs that we are making is to make concrete! Joe (staff) and Ricardo (volunteer for a week) were mixing it
Next step is to clean and prepare the frame that we use to make sure the building blocks are all the same size
Then it is time to pour the concrete into the frame
While the guys were working hard on getting the concrete ready all the less strong people (read girls/women) cleaned the glass bottles that we put into the contrete once it has dried a little bit
Next step is placing the bottles into the concrete building units and before it dries conpletely we cut the long line of concrete into blocks - each block containing 6 glass bottles
After 48 hours of drying here is the final product!! The building blocks are then ankered to the ocean floor and hard coral is attached in between the bottles thereby creating a good stable environment for growth - the also creates a good hiding place for fish and other marine life.
