More news today about Bonaire: Christopher Pala of Inter Press Service writes about the island’s resilient reefs:
Scientists are closely examining the reefs of this island just north of Venezuela to determine why it has escaped the devastation that wiped out 85 percent of the Caribbean’s corals since the 1970s.
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Bonaire … enjoys exceptionally clear water, which has made it a diving Mecca since the 1970s. In a classic virtuous circle, the local government has successfully restricted fishing to keep the fish and coral reefs in good shape and the free-spending recreational divers coming.
Still, diseases prevalent all over the Caribbean have almost wiped out the elkhorn and staghorn corals that once carpeted Bonaire’s shallowest parts, just off the beach, and provided habitat for myriad edible fish and crustaceans.
A little deeper, many of the massive star corals, key building blocks of reefs, have suffered the same fate, but quite a few are still alive.
On a recent morning in Bonaire, Bruckner, a coral scientist, laden with a scuba tank, a clipboard and measuring devices, wades into the water off one of Bonaire’s deserted, unspoiled beaches, known to divers as Taylor Made.
He is leading a team of a dozen colleagues on a week-long expedition to count dead and healthy corals, along with fish populations. Under water, Bruckner points to some of the last staghorns. Then we reach some giant star corals, up to six metres high, that are between 500 and 1,000 years old and he raises his thumb: they are olive green and healthy.
A little farther, other star corals are half olive green, half brown, separated by a whitish line. It’s called white plague disease, one of a family of pathologies that have decimated Caribbean corals. Bruckner gives a thumbs-down. But on many of the dead corals, he points to little lumps of live coral on the dead parts: thumbs-up again.
Back on the pebble beach, Bruckner takes off his mask and remarks, “What we’re seeing here is a reef that’s suffered from disease and bleaching, but the new corals tell us the reef is rebounding fast.”
Find out more by reading the complete article at IPS News.
[Photo: Galen Piehl]
