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Aruba’s visitors come from all over the world:

Indian couple discovers the beauty of Aruba

ORANJESTAD — Let us tell you the vid-19 pandemic and the closed
story of Milana Ram and Himanshu borders made that impossible this
Bhaisare, originally from India, who year.
fell in love with Aruba. Himanshu
is from Mumbai and Milana from Love, like necessity, is the mother of
Bangalore, they met in San Francis- inventions. The couple decided to
co, while they were pursuing their meet where both could travel to,
Master’s Degrees at San Francisco and “googling” they discovered
State University. She was getting Aruba. Searching for an Airbnb
her degree in Electrical Engineer- lodging, they found the Guest-
ing and he in Computer Science. house in the listing of Milagro’s Gar-
After graduation they found jobs den Apartment and immediately
in San Francisco and have been booked there. Milana arrived first.
settled there for the past 12 years. Himanshu had to wait two days for
the result of the Coronavirus test
About two years ago, Milana was required of him to travel from USA.
recruited by none other than the Since neither of them is techni- Lovebirds Milana and Hismahshu
Dutch technical giant Phillips NV cally on vacation, they ‘work from
and moved to Eindhoven, Neth- home’ on their laptop and must ings with her colleagues in Holland. visit the marvelous restaurants.
erlands. About every two months maintain close contacts with their During the day they do what ordi- “We have been happy to host
Milana would travel to California to offices. Because of the time differ- nary tourists do when they come to these lovebirds from India and we
spend some time with Himanshu, ence, Milana on several occasions Aruba. They visit the beaches, they are happy to share with others the
or they would vacation together has had to get up at four in the go snorkeling, they tour the island story of how they came to visit our
somewhere in Europe. The Co- morning to attend virtual meet- in the car they rented, and they island,” says Clyde Harms.q

Population structure and connectivity of reef-building corals in the

Southern Dutch Caribbean

KRALENDIJK, BONAIRE — A new reef-building corals and the distri- ual reproduce: “broadcast spawn- and fitness of other marine organ-
study will examine the genetic bution of coral reefs are strongly ers” and “brooders”. Broadcast isms that depend on them for their
connectivity of corals located influenced by the physical environ- spawners release eggs and sperm survival. The magnitude of envi-
around the ABC islands (Aruba, Bo- ment. into the water column and the fer- ronmental change that is occur-
naire, Curacao). The goal is to find tilization and larval development ring within the Caribbean region
a link between the spatial arrange- Coral Reef Reproduction occur in the water column. Other as well as globally is considerable,
ment of hard coral species to con- Hermatypic corals can reproduce species of corals are brooders, and solutions will require investi-
nectivity and population structure asexually, where they produce ge- which undergo internal fertilization gating how populations of corals
between the islands. Understand- netically identical clones of them- and release their offspring as lar- are connected as well as under-
ing these relationships will help selves, leading to the production of vae. standing how the interaction be-
expand our knowledge of coral massive skeletons that collectively tween genotype (organism's set of
reproduction and island intercon- form the limestone framework of Factors such as mode of sexual heritable genes) and environment
nectivity to guide coastal zone tropical reefs. reproduction of coral species (seascape) and external stressors
management in the future. (whether they are “brooders” ( or impact coral larvae dispersal.
Corals also reproduce sexually, “broadcast spawners”), currents
Coral reefs are among the most di- whereby they create genetically and coastal zone habitat influence
verse and productive communities new individuals from the combina- the distance, direction and extent Scientific Investigation
in the marine environment. Particu- tion of male and female gametes of coral larvae (planulae) disper- Therefore, the goal of this research
larly in the tropics, they are an icon- (eggs and sperm) produced by sal as well as their eventual suc- project is to link the spatial arrange-
ic ecosystem since they are hot- different parental colonies. New cess of coral larvae to settle to the ment of hermatypic coral species
spots for biodiversity, attract major genotypes and slight variations ocean floor and grow into adult to connectivity and population
tourism, provide employment for over many generations can lead corals (recruitment). The successful structure between the islands that
many locals and represent the to adaptations to resist the suscep- reproduction, connectivity (or the make up the southern Dutch Ca-
complex nature of the marine en- tibility of corals to stressors such as exchange of planulae between ribbean (Aruba, Bonaire and Cu-
vironment. Hermatypic corals, also disease, increased temperatures reefs) and recruitment of planu- racao).
known as reef-building corals, are and pollution. lae is fundamental to coral reef
the basic building blocks of tropi- health and development and this
cal coral reefs. The growth of these There are two ways corals can sex- is directly linked to the abundance Continued on Page 32