Pristine and Untouched Reefs....Thoughts, Opinions and Reflections

[Pacifico]

Good evening all,

This will be my first post on scubaboard although I have been making use of the website's forums for almost one year now. I am an advanced open water diver with just approxiamtely 80 dives. The following is a personal reflection but please feel free to ocmment with your thoughts and opinions.

Perhaps some of us on scubaboard, at some point, have stopped to imagine and wonder what it would have been like to roll back into the ocean 5 to 10 thousand years ago on a prehistoric liveaboard trip. At that time, many of the reefs and inshore environments would have teemed with large predatory fish (large snappers and groupers, sharks etc...). Dugongs, manatees and whales would have been common visitors throughout coastal and oceanic environments of the Indo-Pacific and the Tropical Western Atlantic. Most of the coastline adjacent to such places would have been wild and intact and human influences would have been at the very most undetectable. I imagine crown of thorn outbreaks, intense tropical cyclones, El Nino Southern Oscillation events and major tectonic activity would have been the only sources of local punctuated degradation. With the baseline of today's average coral/rocky reef, these reefs of the past would inequivocally have been the pinnacle of such terms as awesome and spectacular.

Time and again, we come across people seeking areas of pristine corals, significant diversity of most taxonomic groups and the presence of large pelagics - those last unspoilt and preserved edens. The unfortunate reality is that this is likely what most reefs and locations in the Indo-Pacific boasted before humans began having a significant footprint on the planet's marine ecosystems. The Wider Caribbean was also likely completely different from what we know it to be at present.

I, dreaming of diving today's last pristine areas, have glanced over many a map looking for any island or speck of land in the tropics that might return little to no information regarding its surrounding waters off a web search. They do exist - Ducie, Henderson, Oeno, Sala y Gomez, Southern Line Islands, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Chagos, Clipperton, Wake Island, Kingman Reef, Howland and Baker etc... These are remote outposts lost in the vast expanse of the hydrosphere that make the most adventurous among us divers dream of discovery and the feeling of being on the edge of some final frontier. However, even these locations do not lie beyond the tentacules of modern society's influence. The world has indeed changed and few if any coastal reefs have not been spared the many detrimental impacts of rapid development.

If someone asked me where I would go diving if the realm of possibility were without limits, I would, without hesitation, tell him/her that I would drift along the seward slope of some continental reef in the Indo-Malayan Archipelago 10 000 years before present revelling in the splendor of the ocean at its most raw and primeval.


Jose

[TSandM]

Although the phenomenon of shifting baselines is very real, I felt as though I had a chance to see some of what those reefs would have looked like (probably fewer pelagics today, though) when I visited Rangiroa. With no industry and no agriculture (and very little land, in reality) and being fairly far from anyplace that HAS those things, the reef is unspoilt. It was an astonishing privilege to dive there.

[Pacifico]

Hey TSandM,

That's incredible that you got to dive at Rangiroa and indeed a priviledge. Yeah, the oceanic islands that have little to no industry seem to be in best shape. It's a shame to think that most of the coastal reefs were at least as vibrant at some time in the past. In any event, I am curious to know just how much one would have to spend on a diving trip in the Tuamotus. If one stayed at local pensions (do they exist in the Tuamotus). Maybe one day, I'll be able to get there.

On an aside, although diversity is far lower than most anywhere else in the Indo-Pacific and even the Caribbean, Coiba Island, a continental island off Panama, does have relatively healthy and preserved reefs. It is no wonder that alot of the adjacent coastline is undeveloped and that the Island has remained largely undisturbed for a long time owing to the prison it haboured until very recently.

Thanks for the reply,

Jose

[baitballer]

There are still some places that have survived intact such as the Line islands which you mention and various other places in Micronesia and the pacific. On of the reason is simply because they are practically impossible to get to without your own boat that is capable of crossing the Pacific. There are some other places such as Papua New Guinea where the impact of man has been very minimal and it is amazing to see the life on the reefs there where you do feel at times you might be the first person to ever see that particular reef.

On of the problems now is that there is so much information avalible to everyone that 'undiscovered' places do not remain so for very long. Unfortunatly I would guess the NG show on the Southern Line Islands attracated unwanted attention from longliners who would have seen lots of $ signs in the same way they emptied out the pass at Bikini atol after watching dive vidoes from there.

When you do build your time machine you do not need to go back thousands of years, a couple of hundred would be all that's needed, in most cases less that 50. We have managed to mess the seas up in that tiny fraction of time! If you look at some of the old Cousteu videos the Med' for example is full of large predators etc, now it is practically dead in comparison.

[Pacifico]

Hello Baitballer,

So longliners in some way follow in the tracks of divers that chart out new dive sties, reefs and islands?! Wow. In many coastal areas where human populations had become established, there is significant evidence that larger species of fish and sharks had already been fished out by humans using basic fishing techniques. I agree that 100 years ago, many areas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans were a world apart from their current state. But, it is my view that 10000 years ago, virtually all coastal areas boasted pretty much intact communities. I guess the problem now is that even the tiniest and most isolated speck of land is not at the mercy of large ocean going vessels that can visit these without too much difficulty.


I am guilty, just like any other I suppose, of wanting to find these last edens and get that feeling of being on the frontier of diving. As a poor graduate student, that will become a reality at some later time.

Any other thoughts?

Jose

[vjongene]

I spent almost two weeks this summer diving isolated atolls in Micronesia (Sorol, Ifalik, Satawal, Lamotrek). Not one of them was in anything like a pristine condition, not even Sorol which is uninhabited. Not only were there almost no large pelagics, but the coral reefs themselves were dying. We had some marine biologists on board who all agreed that overfishing, both by locals and by large trawlers, was the root cause. Satawal was the saddest of all, nothing left but algae and a few dying coral heads.

On the positive side, Rongelap Atoll in the Marshalls, which has been off limits for many years because of radioactive contamination, is an absolute wonder (or at least it was six years ago). A sad commentary on the consequences of our human actions...

[circusoflife]

For a lesson in how fast an area can recover..check out Apo Island in the Philippines near Dauin, Negros Island. It's a reserve that was once fished out...but turned into a reserve and after not too long the place is incredible....the soft coral coverage is amazing. Lots of schools of fishes too...not too many large pelagics from my memory though.

History happens in cycles...we are at the trough (bottom part) of a cycle now which is a reflection of our state of mind...all things will pass.
But, many only think in linear terms. No wonder -- cuz that is what how/what we are taught in modern school curricula...

[vaughan99]

You have to have a concept of deep time. Our whole human evolution can be seen as all happening in around 2 million years, from small furry ape to here. Most species have a short lifespan, say 10 million years on average. There are exceptions like crocs and sharks but most species have their time on stage and then leave, as we will too one day. The ecosystem will continue, adjusting as it always has to absences and presences. Coral reefs have come and gone many times and will again. Some other sentient species will be asking the same question in 10 million years or so, which is no time at all in this planet's lifespan.