Cozumel-post Wilma

[SKINIC]

Hola,
I am a new member.
I will be traveling to Cozumel on Nov 14, diving with Aqua Safari and staying at the Safari Inn, both of which are fully operational after the storm. Bill Horn, the owner of Aqua Safari, has put out a call to come down and help them meet the payroll during this difficult time till Christmas. Divers will be most welcome! The first cruise ship is also due on Nov 14 so that is a good indication of the success of the recovery effort.
I hope to be able to give you a first hand description of the shallow and deep reef conditions upon my return.
SKINIC

 

[Donnafarns]

I would be very interested to know about the shallow snorkeling areas. I am not a diver, but a snorkeler and I am eager to know what conditions in the shallows are like before taking advantage of visiting the island to stay at a friend's house in January.

 

[SKINIC]

I've read that they have major damage but I will attempt to find out for certain.

 

[SterlingDiver]

Here is a sad report I came across Friday. I hope it is inaccurate!

Dave

Mexico City (Reuters) - A fragile coral reef off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula could take more than a century to recover from a thrashing by Hurricane Wilma last month, the government said on Friday.

Mexico's National Protected Natural Areas Commission, known as Conanp, said the storm's three-day rampage across the eastern region in late October damaged a 25-mile (40-km) stretch of delicate reefs off the island of Cozumel.

"The area was hit hard by the storm and it could take at least 100 years for the reef to recover," Conanp regional director Alfredo Arellano said in a telephone interview from the resort city of Cancun.

"Whole colonies of coral were torn from their original site and tossed into the abyss," he said.

Cozumel's delicate coral gardens form part of an archipelago of reefs stretching for hundreds of miles (km) southward to the coast of Honduras, comprising the largest reef system in the hemisphere.

Arellano said a team of 10 divers and conservationists had begun rebuilding sections of the damaged reef, using pneumatic drills to bore holes in sea-bed rocks to reattach loose coral fragments with epoxy cement.

He said the restoration work was painstaking and that Conanp hoped to volunteer sport divers in the Cancun area would help.

"It's slow job and help would be very welcome," he said.


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[DandyDon]

Hope you'll complete your Dive Info and Profile. Enjoy...

:zorros: don

And don't be shy about posting. Click Forums above, tour the long list of choices, and jump in anywhere you're qualified. PM me with any questions, and I'll try to find a pretty good answer.

I would be very interested to know about the shallow snorkeling areas. I am not a diver, but a snorkeler and I am eager to know what conditions in the shallows are like before taking advantage of visiting the island to stay at a friend's house in January.

Welcome to you, too - except you may like to post your own Introduction on a seperate thread...

May I refer you both to our Cozumel forum. PM me if you cannot find it...

 

[SubMariner]

Moved from Introductions & Greets forum.

 

[Moodiejeff]

I would be very interested to know about the shallow snorkeling areas. I am not a diver, but a snorkeler and I am eager to know what conditions in the shallows are like before taking advantage of visiting the island to stay at a friend's house in January.

Cozumelmycozumel.com report on shallow reefs, snorkelling & beach clubs.

DO NOT believe the Reuter's story... once again, sensationalist journalism!

 

[Christi]

First of all, the people that wrote it are not divers and they have not persoanlly seen the reefs before and after...AND..they are journalists and I don't know any journalism these days that isn't inflated!

Of course there was damage to the reefs...how could there not be and it would be absurd for me to pretend there wasn't. It can be argued that for the reef to be exactly how it was before Emily and Wilma, it will take 100 years...but that should NOT be mistaken/misunderstood to mean that the reefs were completely devastated and are no longer desirable to dive.

As I said after Emily (which really was minimal damage) this will not necessarily change the vacation divers experience as far as the diving goes, particularly if you've never been diving in Cozumel before. There is still PLENTY of reef and more abundant life from reports I have heard from my crew and friends and colleagues who've been diving this past week...and of course as we experienced after Emily. There is still great diving in Cozumel and visibility is already back up in the 50 to 60 foot range...improving everyday.

If it's not your "back yard," you don't notice what's NOT there, you notice what IS there. The fact remains that there is still ALOT of reef there...it was not totally wiped out. It would take alot more than a WILMA to bring those majestic formations crashing down. Some swim throughs are closed up, while others are bigger and others that are now passable (by disciplined/controlled divers). There are sponges gone, sections that are now covered in sand, others that were uncovered by sand...and it will just be a "remodeled" back yard for awhile.

As things start growing back, they will grow back stronger and healthier than before and we'll all be saying in a year and 5 and 10 years...WOW...that sponge didn't used to be there...and look how it's grown!

Remember Grand Cayman was hit very hard by Ivan last year, structurally, they had much more damage than Cozumel. The reef there is already recovering according to many sources, including my friend Casey (Neptune’s Divers...(Hi Casey!) who has been a wonderful friend through this ordeal.

I think every once in awhile, mother nature needs to come through and clean things up...and then her reward is to replenish with more abundance and beauty than there was before.

Anyway, those are my fifty pesos

Viva Cozumel!

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks for your assurances, Christi...!!

The reefs there have survived hurricanes since the Ice Ages, this is a part of the natural order - unlike man's pollution and physical damages, and I can imagine that nature has a wonderful rebuilding plan already in action at the larval stages - with soft corals and sponges seeking out available space for immediate colonizing.

But it is nice to know that vacation dollars spent to visit now will be well rewarded.

 

[halocline]

Of course there was damage to the reefs...how could there not be and it would be absurd for me to pretend there wasn't. It can be argued that for the reef to be exactly how it was before Emily and Wilma, it will take 100 years...but that should NOT be mistaken/misunderstood to mean that the reefs were completely devastated and are no longer desirable to dive.

Christi makes a good point about the distinction between "fully recovered to it's pre hurricane state" (which quite honestly will never happen; instead, it will grow in new and different ways) and "recovered to having conditions which will allow for great diving". I was in Cozumel a few days after Emily, and while visibility was down and there was alot of broken coral on the shallower reefs, the diving was still excellent. In fact, the damage itself is something very interesting to see; maybe a little sad, but still worth diving to check out. Since the damage was caused by a traumatic event and not by generally deteriorating conditions (like pollution or long term temp increases) I would predict that most of the marine life, including all the large animals everyone likes to see, will be generally unaffected in the long term by the hurricane. In fact, ironically enough, if the hurricane causes a substantial drop off in the number of divers on the reef for a while (especially new divers that might be more likely to bump into corals) there might be an environmental silver lining to this. I know the people who live and work on the island that depend on divers might not see it that way!