Fishing with dynamite and cyanide, untreated sewage and rising water temperatures had all pushed the reefs, and life they supported, close to the limit.
"Tourist numbers fell due to destruction of dive and snorkeling sites (while) fishermen had to go further and fish longer for less catch. Hunger was a real threat," says Narayana Randall Dodge, project manager of the Pemuteran Coral Regeneration project.
The fact that the reef also acted as a natural flood barrier increased the town's exposure to coastal erosion from rising sea levels, he adds.
Today however, Pemuteran Bay's coral reefs are once again teeming with life thanks to Biorock -- an electrically-powered coral reef growing scheme.
Coral is placed on underwater electrified steel frames that are connected to a power source on land. The electrification speeds up a process called "mineral accretion" that helps damaged corals grow and repair themselves.
"Living corals are carefully collected and transplanted onto the structures by attaching with wires or wedged between (electric) steel bars," says Narayana
The project has been so successful that not only has it preserved the reef and surrounding marine ecosystem but it has also become a tourist attraction in its own right, says Narayana.
Despite the success of the Pemuteran Bay project, Biorock technology -- first discovered by German-born architect, Wolf Hilbertz, in the 1970s -- is it still only used on a small scale.
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