FROM THE EDITOR 



Challenges, Opportunities for Indonesia 



I he Indian Ocean tsunami may have been thousands of miles from 

 North Carolina, but the news of the devastation hit home. 



Our hearts immediately went out to hundreds of thousands of victims 

 and their families. And we knew that our colleagues with the Indonesian 

 Sea Partnership Program ( SPP) would have their work cut out for them for 

 months — even years — to come. 



Coastwatch readers will recall that in 2002, North Carolina Sea Grant 

 hosted a visiting delegation from Indonesia. 



Widi Agoes Pratikto, director general of coasts and small islands in 

 the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, knew that with the 

 country's newly decentralized power structure, provincial leaders would need 

 technical support — to provide sound science groundwork for future policy 

 decisions. 



And he had a model in mind: his doctoral work in coastal engineering 

 at North Carolina State University had been funded in part by North Carolina 

 Sea Grant. 



Since the 2002 visit, we have kept up with the astoundingly rapid 

 growth of SPP — from its pilot universities to the full-fledged program 

 that, in just two years, has 10 regional centers in place and seven additional 

 provinces seeking to join the program. 



In light of the tsunami, the university/community partnership model 

 will see some of its greatest challenges — and greatest opportunities. 



"Material damage has been considerable, about 1 .3 million houses, 

 120 kilometers of road and 1 8 bridges have been destroyed. This means that 

 97 percent of Aceh's GDP or 2.2 percent of the national GDP of Indonesia 

 has been lost," Adiyatwidi Adiwoso Asmady, Indonesia's deputy permanent 

 representative to the United Nations, reported in January. 



"The harder task will be to rebuild the lives of the people who have not 

 only been displaced and deprived of their livelihood, but also traumatized by 

 the calamity," she continued. 



Additional reports cite 70 percent of the fishing fleet destroyed. 



IN THIS ISSUE 



Contributing Writers: 

 Kathleen Angione ° Ann Green ° Lilly Loughner a Katie Mosher 

 Ryan Reynolds ° Pam Smith s Marie Zhuikov 



Contributing Photographers: 

 KenBlevias ° Cheryl Burke ° Shawn Fitzpatrick ° Michael Halminski 

 Daniel Kim ° CCMauer ° Beth Mast h KathiMcBlief 

 RayMidgett ° Pam Smith ° Scott Taylor ° Danielle Waples 



North Carolina's diverse coast offers countless interestingsubjects. 

 The large dots on the locator map indicate story settings in this issue — 

 including the Outer Banks, New Bern and Wilmington. 



crippling the industry that normally generates about 100,000 jobs. The 

 government's fisheries agency lost 90 percent of its assets in the tsunami 

 areas. Water and sewer destruction in the tsunami region ranged from 40 to 

 75 percent on the eastern coast to 80 to 100 percent on the western coast. 



National, regional and local leaders will be looking at immediate efforts 

 to cope with the inundation of salt water and coastal sand up to 5 kilometers 

 inland, as well as extensive debris in coastal waters. 



In coming months, the rebuilding process will need short- and long- 

 term plans — coastal management policies that consider mitigation, disaster 

 prevention, building codes and other aspects included in the state and local 

 planning process along our shorelines. 



And, of course, there will be great need for education and 

 communication efforts. Plans have been initiated for the technical aspects of 

 a global tsunami warning system. This system will need to be complemented 

 by a public awareness campaign to tell coastal residents what to do when 

 another tsunami — or other natural hazard — is forecast or reported. 



Back in the 1970s, North Carolina Sea Grant's fishery extension 

 program was nurtured through the support of "highliners" — fishing captains 

 who held the respect of the community. On a similar note, I expect the SPP 

 will be looking for community leaders to become bridges to the universities. 

 Their trust in the technical information — and assistance in sharing it with 

 local residents — will be crucial to the success of a new program. 



Another model may be Sea Grant's response to devastating hurricanes 

 and flooding — joining state and local officials in determining initial, 

 intermediate and long-term damage assessments. Those tallies may then 

 factor into policies during the recovery. 



We wish our SPP colleagues the best in these trying times. Not only 

 will they be helping the devastated communities in Indonesia but they also 

 could become a model for potential university/community partnerships in 

 neighboring countries. 



Katie Mosher, Managing Editor 



