IPB University Students Learn to Identify Coral Reefs

Fisheries Diving Club (FDC), IPB University practiced identifying coral reefs in the "Coral Finder Training" Workshop on 26-27 October 2019. This activity is an annual activity of FDC IPB University which aims to introduce methods of identifying coral reefs using the Coral Finder book.

On this occasion, FDC IPB University invited presenters Rizya Ardiwijaya from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Beginner Subhan, a lecturer at IPB University.
 "I have studied coral for 20 years, but in the past teaching ordinary people about coral was very difficult. You have to go back and forth with a thick book first, "Riyza Ardiwijaya said when describing the difficulty of learning to identify coral reefs before the Coral Finder Kit. Coral Finder Training teaches you how to use the Coral Finder Kit book coherently. Starting from seeing the shape of growth, the shape of the wall, the type of corallite, to the size of corallites and others. This makes it easier for someone even who is very unfamiliar with coral reefs to retrieve coral reef data.

The participants seemed enthusiastic about the two-day training program. Coral Finder Training participants come from various backgrounds ranging from students to coral conservation activists. Participants were very enthusiastic in learning how to identify coral reefs using the Coral Finder Kit.

Many participants who started the training were only armed with the spirit to gain new knowledge and then have the ability to identify coral reefs thanks to this training.
When asked about the obstacles commonly encountered when identifying coral reefs, M. Iqbal Abdurrahman, Chairperson of Coral Finder Training, said, "It is not learning about corals if we do not find anomalous characteristics of corals from one another."

With this "Coral Finder Training" training, participants are expected to get knowledge about coral identification and can also implement it directly as needed. (AVR)

Keywords: Coral Finder Training, Coral Finder Kit, Fisheries Diving Club (FDC), IPB University students