Education and Fun at Once in Mangroves

Mangrove forests can be interpreted as a type of forest that grows in tidal areas that are flooded at high tides and not flooded at low tides such as lagoons and estuary where mangrove vegetation has a high tolerance to salt content (Kusmana et al., 2003). Mangrove forests are generally found throughout the coast of Indonesia and live and grow and develop in locations that are still affected by the tides that flow in river flows along the coast (Tarigan, 2008).

Mangrove ecosystems have a variety of important ecological, socio-economic and socio-cultural roles, for example, maintaining coastal stability from abrasion; nursery ground, feeding ground and spawning ground of various types of marine organisms; sources of firewood, charcoal, building wood and medicinal materials; as raw material for the paper industry and coloring chemicals (Hogarth, 1999; Setyawan, 2002; Cruz, 1979 in Setyawan and Winarno, 2006; Nontji, 2007).

Coastal of the Bali Province has mangrove ecosystems scattered in several locations, namely in the West Bali National Park covering an area of ​​602 ha, the Taman Hutan Raya (Tahura) Ngurah Rai area of ​​1,373.5 ha, and in Nusa Lembongan covering an area of ​​202 ha. These three mangrove locations are very famous in Bali. Learning about mangrove ecosystems, especially in Bali, is a fun thing because we can learn and recreation at the same time.

Aquatic Resource Management Study Program, Faculty of Marine and Fisheries, Udayana University very often conducts field study to the mangrove area. One of the courses that study about mangrove ecosystems is the Tropical Marine Ecology course. In that course, students are invited to learn about what mangroves are, how to identify the species of mangroves, and mangrove community observation methods. One of the locations that are frequently visited to conduct field study is the mangrove ecosystem at Mertasari Beach, Sanur.

           The observations show that there are several types of mangroves on Mertasari Beach, namely Rhioprhora mucronata, Rhizoprhora apiculata, and Sonneratia alba. Mangroves in that area are the result of rehabilitation so that the species found tend to be uniform. The condition of the mangrove community on Mertasari Beach is relatively good.