On Saturday, October 14, 2023, we held a study session on the precious local "Awasango" coral at Suo-Oshima High School near the Suo-Oshima Office. Members from the Tokyo and Kamiyama offices who were there for the workshop the next day also participated, making it a successful event with about 40 people.
First of all, what is bubble coral?
When you hear the word "coral," what do you imagine?
...I'm sure you imagined a colorful, branch-like, hard-looking coral.
Common coral
Corals are broadly divided into "soft corals" and "hard corals."
Soft corals have no skeletons, so when they die there is no trace of them.
Hard corals are skeletal, meaning they are the type of coral that leaves behind bones when they die.
The Japanese Awasango is classified as a "hard coral," but I personally think that its appearance is best described as "swaying and fluffy." It is a type of coral that lives in East Asia and inhabits rocks in shallow waters.
Within Suo-Oshima, they have been confirmed to live in Jizogaura, Chikamuro Marine Park, a 10-minute walk from the Suo Office, and on Kominase Island in Okikamuro, the island next door to Chikamuro.
The bubble coral colony on Suo-Oshima is actually one of the largest in the world.
...I'll say it again: it's one of the largest in the world.
In addition, the areas where it has been confirmed to live are limited, and the bubble coral at Jizogaura, Chikamuro, came close to extinction in September 2020; with only a small population, it is extremely rare.
Commonly known as the "bouquet of the sea" Japanese fringe coral
It all started with a meeting to improve the Suo-Oshima office.
At the Suo-Oshima Office, we hold a " Suo-Oshima Office Improvement Meeting " once every three months.
Under the guidance of facilitator Aoki, the meetings have become important, with members discussing things like, "Couldn't the office be improved if we did this more?" and "This is a good rule, so we want to continue it!"
Suo-Oshima Improvement Association
At one time, when we were meeting to improve the Suo-Oshima office, the lack of conference rooms was identified as an issue, and we even went so far as to define detailed meeting rules so that everyone could work comfortably.
Meanwhile, we heard that a facility for protecting bubble coral and for visitors to rest would be opened next year about a five-minute walk from the office, as a joint venture between the Ministry of the Environment and the town of Suo-Oshima. We decided that in return for being allowed to use the facility's free space when our company's conference rooms were full, it would be great if we could be of some use to the facility as well.
Since this is a facility for protecting bubble coral, we thought it might be good if we could provide simple guidance to tourists.
That being said, at the time we had no knowledge of bubble corals, and had never seen one in person.
So we decided to hold a study session to learn about bubble coral!
We asked our teacher and third-year students in the environmental studies course at the local Suo-Oshima High School , who are raising Japanese bubble corals, and Mr. Fujimoto from the NPO Nature and Fishing Network , which conducts research and conservation activities for Japanese bubble corals, to cooperate with the course.
Once we had decided on the members who would help, everyone was very busy.
Each participant worked hard over the course of a month to prepare for the event, including public relations activities to recruit other participants, preparing stickers to hand out on the day, creating materials for the lectures, and rehearsing.
On the day, 40 people participated, exceeding expectations.
The day of the Awasango study session has finally arrived.
There were more participants than we expected, partly due to the presence of Monosus members from Kamiyama, Tokyo who were there for a workshop the next day, which made us happy but also made us nervous.
First, a lecture on bubble coral was given by the high school students and Mr. Fujimoto. The high school students gave an easy-to-understand explanation in the form of a quiz, and the audience was excited.
Mr. Fujimoto's talk about the current state of the bubble coral and its future prospects made me think more about the bubble coral and the environmental issues here on Suo-Oshima than I had previously realized.
Presentations by high school students
Mr. Fujimoto's lecture
The reception on the day will be staffed by Monosus members.
Using the knowledge gained from these presentations, the children finally had the chance to try out guiding! They split into groups and tried out roles of guide and visitor.
After the experience, I thought, "It's difficult!" I realized that to be a successful "guide," you need knowledge on the level of high school students and Fujimoto-san, but with the support of the high school students, I somehow managed to complete the guide experience without any problems.
Guided Experience
After the entire program was completed, one of the second-year high school students who participated in the study group said, "We want to do this again next year. Next time, we'll create a "Bubble Coral Quiz" to spread the word about Bubble Coral even more!" We also received comments such as, "It was fun," "I'm glad I did it," and "I want to get involved in Bubble Coral conservation activities!" We are already excited to do something to carry this on into next year.
The event was also covered in the Chugoku Shimbun newspaper.
It was a very good experience for us, as we rarely have the opportunity to plan something and bring people together.
We hope to plan another event next year and work with local people to spread the word about Suo-Oshima's treasure, the Japanese Awa Coral.