Just got here Sunday and did three days of diving before posting. I wanted to see for myself what things looked like after all the discussion lately about how the reefs here are in decline.
Short answer - the bleaching for one particular type of coral is pretty bad. I have never seen anything like it in person, and it's a bit shocking. There are huge areas on some reefs where it looks like it snowed, there's so much white coral. Other reefs seem barely touched, so it's certainly not everywhere, thankfully. Everything else, in terms of fish quantity, pelagic life, the other coral types, etc seems the same as always to my untrained eye. So while I find the bleaching incredibly concerning and sad, I am going to try to write the rest of my report in a positive light. This is not to minimize the terrible climate crisis we are all bearing witness to.
So far in six dives this week I have seen plenty of evidence that life continues as usual for most of the marine life. My count so far is at least 5 hawksbill turtles, two splendid toadfish, two juvenile reef sharks, two sleeping nurse sharks, two green morays, three nudis, and one magnificent, large eagle ray. There was an absolutely monstrous lobster walking around about 50 feet below us today, could be the biggest I've ever seen but hard to tell from that distance. Not to mention Charlie the loggerhead who I got to see munching on a conch shell yesterday. The usual assortment of reef fish seem to be present and in good numbers, and I even saw a fairly large adult grouper hanging out near Cedral Wall today. The two notable absentees so far are seahorses (boo) and lionfish (yay!).
So as far as I can tell (again to my untrained but very concerned eye) the fish and the big life seem to be putting up with the too-warm water. Of course seeing is believing, so here are some pictures and videos I took the last couple days:
Nurse shark havin' a snooze.
The bleaching is pretty bad in some places.
Really half-assing that camouflage today, buddy!
This friendly guy hung out and circled me for a bit. Sizing me up for a snack? He ended up not trying it.
This brave trunkfish was out in the wastelands, doing a solo hunt for lunch. Watching him puff up the sand as he searched was cool.
That's all for now. More posts to come, as I've still got another 12 days here! I'm hoping my video of the big eagle ray cruising by us today turned out well, so look for that soon. For now, adios!
Short answer - the bleaching for one particular type of coral is pretty bad. I have never seen anything like it in person, and it's a bit shocking. There are huge areas on some reefs where it looks like it snowed, there's so much white coral. Other reefs seem barely touched, so it's certainly not everywhere, thankfully. Everything else, in terms of fish quantity, pelagic life, the other coral types, etc seems the same as always to my untrained eye. So while I find the bleaching incredibly concerning and sad, I am going to try to write the rest of my report in a positive light. This is not to minimize the terrible climate crisis we are all bearing witness to.
So far in six dives this week I have seen plenty of evidence that life continues as usual for most of the marine life. My count so far is at least 5 hawksbill turtles, two splendid toadfish, two juvenile reef sharks, two sleeping nurse sharks, two green morays, three nudis, and one magnificent, large eagle ray. There was an absolutely monstrous lobster walking around about 50 feet below us today, could be the biggest I've ever seen but hard to tell from that distance. Not to mention Charlie the loggerhead who I got to see munching on a conch shell yesterday. The usual assortment of reef fish seem to be present and in good numbers, and I even saw a fairly large adult grouper hanging out near Cedral Wall today. The two notable absentees so far are seahorses (boo) and lionfish (yay!).
So as far as I can tell (again to my untrained but very concerned eye) the fish and the big life seem to be putting up with the too-warm water. Of course seeing is believing, so here are some pictures and videos I took the last couple days:
Nurse shark havin' a snooze.
The bleaching is pretty bad in some places.
Really half-assing that camouflage today, buddy!
This friendly guy hung out and circled me for a bit. Sizing me up for a snack? He ended up not trying it.
This brave trunkfish was out in the wastelands, doing a solo hunt for lunch. Watching him puff up the sand as he searched was cool.
That's all for now. More posts to come, as I've still got another 12 days here! I'm hoping my video of the big eagle ray cruising by us today turned out well, so look for that soon. For now, adios!