Page 67 - Coral Reef Teachers Guide

Coral Reef Teacher’s Guide Benefits, Threats, and Solutions

(Photo: Craig Quirolo)
health of marine resources and the neces-
sity for education and the cooperative partici- someone asks Craig, “Well, what do you think?”
pation of ev-eryone. A slide show of sick corals “Not good.” He has taken photos of algae spewing
is derailed by a broken projector but color out of rocks, potentially indicating an upwelling of
photocopies showing examples of white pox, nutrient- laden waters. “The Siderastria sideria disease
black band, yellow band, and white plague is here.” This rapidly progressing white blotch-ing
type II are passed around. Local dive masters affliction of star corals only recently appeared in
as well as students and researchers from the the Keys. It is a shock to find it in Cuba. The dis-
Institute are in attendance. One dive mas- coveries of each dive have been documented
ter looks at the cop- ies and mouths the with numerous still photos.
words, “I have seen these here.” After the disheartening finds at Cayo Cocos, we
The same dive master will take us on pin our hopes on undeveloped Maria La Gorda,
our last dive at Cayo Cocos, an offshore reef shielded from human impacts on the landward
40 feet deep Massive towers of eroded boul- side by the deep forests of the biosphere reserve.
der corals greet us, surrounded by gorgonians Two days later, within minutes of descent, our
and iridescent tube sponges. This reef’s corals hopes are dashed. The reef is covered in Halime-
are diverse, but not ex-empt; there is a heavy da algae and like the reefs of Cayo Cocos, its fish-
overgrowth of algae covering them. Back in the eries are de-pleted of commercial spe- cies (Figure
boat, 3-16). The divemasters talk at length about the
changes they have observed and ask for more in-
formation to identify the problem.
Like a canary in a coal mine, the conditions of the
reef at Maria La Gorda can be understood to imply
a wide- spread degradation of Caribbean wa-
ters; that distant pollution and nutrient sources
are not neutralized by dilution in the ocean cur-
rents; and that the ocean’s capacity to clean itself
is being exceeded. One can point an accusing fin-
ger at the unbelievable black oily sludge mixed
with raw sewage pouring out of Havana Harbor,
the sec-ond most polluted harbor in the world; at
the oil wells, refineries and chemical plants lining
the perimeter of the Gulf of Mexico; at the runoff
from South America; at all the Caribbean nations
that use the ocean as a dumping ground for sew-
age, trash and industrial disposal.
Ultimately, we end up pointing the finger at
our-selves: in the l960’s Cousteau alarmed the
world when he showed footage of Calypso’s crew
pluck-ing tar balls out of the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean. How could the whole thing be dirty?
Thirty years later, we have yet to act together
in such a way that addresses the reality of the
world’s oceans as a single body of water. The
coop-eration of scientists, governments, conser-
vation groups and individuals in conducting re-
search and sharing information locally is critical
if we are to understand what is sickening the
Figure 3-18. Cuban scientist Juan Pablo Gar- earth’s seas and to develop programs for their
cia dives the coral reefs of Maria La Gorda as recovery. After returning to Havana, REEF RELIEF
part of the 1997 REEF RELIEF survey of Cu- representa-
ban coral reefs. Sea fans filter the ocean water
as they sway and move in the ocean currents.

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