As a tech rep contracted to the Navy down in Puerto Rico, I was fortunate to be allowed in with the Navy dive club and over a few months earn a NAUI open water and later a PADI divemaster rating. Basically if I wasn't working I was getting fifty cent air tank fills and diving. Scuba day and night, shore dives and boat dives. My vacation days were spent at other dive sites a plane hop away in the British and US Virgin Islands. Manatees, shark, big lobster (one of the few things we hunted - in general not much on spearfishing etc.), octopus, Moray eels, and every color of amazing fish. Beautiful coral polyps out filter feeding. An amazing time to dive.
The 1980s were a time when very little coral bleaching was seen - even post storm damage the coral bounced back quickly. However diving in 2005 near St John twenty years had a big impact. The small but constant oil input from motorboats, sea acidification increase from higher CO2 levels, and slight increase in temperature had combine to create large bleached and dead areas in fragile coral. New divers thought the coral skeletons were the norm and I generally didn't talk much about my disappointment. Trash in the form of waste was more common too. Plastic especially.
There are good spots I have seen and still others I'm told. There are some protected areas free from motor oils and diesel exhaust are faring better such as several large Cuban preserves where the stressors are limited to just CO2 and temperature and the coral fairs better with smaller damage. Overall however the destruction is unmistakeable in the 35 years I have been in scuba. With my own eyes I can tell you the Caribbean is suffering.
The oceans are our best hope keeping this planet's life healthy. They are in peril and not close to fully functioning. Islands of plastic, dying coral, and overfished populations of sport fish are having the effect of killing the seas we love. Simply by chance my job and hobby let me testify to this personally.
No comments:
Post a Comment