A Naturalist's Guide
to Surf ' Sand and Sea
Virtually all visitors to Bali spend some time at the beach -
wandering along baking strips of sand watching bathers, surfers
and sun worshippers, or even lying prone absorbing the sun's UV
rays (something the Balinese wouldn't think of doing!). Few visitors,
however, appreciate the natural interest that is all around them
as they stroll toward the sunset, moan under a masseuses' fingers
or paddle in the shallows. For those who feel a bit bored with
normal beach activities, the following is a brief guide to beach
combing from a naturalist's point of view.
The cool, early morning when the disco crowd is still in bed is
a good time to look for interesting items washed up during the
night. This is also when Bali's feral dogs congregate on the beach
awaiting the first life-sustaining offerings of rice from the
faithful. The dogs' fight and amours are typical of wild carnivores
and the leaders, wimps and sneaks can all be identified.
Time and the tides
The beachcomber's most important tool is a tide table - distributed
free by surf shop such as Tubes, on Poppies Lane Il in Kuta. These
let you identify the rewarding period of relatively low water,
when surfers mope about wondering what to do or watch surfing
videos but beachcombers are out in force.
The most common beachcombing activity is shell collecting, and
a wonderful variety can be found here - we have found 30 different
species along Kuta Beach and nearly 50 at Sanur. Empty shells
washed up on the beach may have been tumbling around in the water
for a long time but many are still beautiful glossy.
The shells offered for sale in street stalls and by wandering
vendors are in very good condition because they have been collect
live in other parts of Indonesia (those from around Bali were
sold long ago). Some of the larger shells are protected by law
and the clams are now also protected by international convention.
Customs will not be pleased to find clam shells among your souvenirs.
The beaches of Bali show considerable variation, and one of the
most obvious is in the sand itself. Around Kuta the sand is a
mixture of coral and shell fragments mixed with gray volcanic
ash washed down from the mountains by the rivers. At Nusa Dua
and Sanur it is a pale golden color without any ash, and many
sand particles are quite large.
A closer look reveals that many of the larger particles are rounded
tetrahedrons, with four evenly-spaced points. These are skeletons
of single-celled marine animals called foraminiferous. A little
way offshore they can be found in huge numbers attached to various
aquatic plants, where they filter small organic particles out
of the water. The skeletons of these "forams" (as they
are known to the cognoscenti) do not pack closely even when wet,
and this is why walking along the upper levels of Sanur Beach
is so tiring and motorcycling is impossible, whereas Kuta with
its hard packed, small-particle sand is a jogger's and motorcyclist's
dream.
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