 |
 |
 |
 |
 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanMay 10, 10 Comments Off
Good evening from Curacao. Here’s a real shocker for you all tonight, this is what a dying coral reef looks like up close and personal! I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this reef USED to be just two short years ago. Hurricane Omar hit our South coast line with such force that it just wiped out everything in the shallows and as you can see here even in deeper water as well. When a Hurricane comes to shore it drives massive waves with it that completely churn up the ocean bottom. This means the sponges are the first to go as they are so delicate and are only attached at the bottom to some kind of solid substrate. The corals immediately get covered in silt and sand and slowly choke to death as there is no current to flush the sand away and your end result is this, just barren mounds of rock where corals and sponges used to call home. While swimming thru this mess we saw so many different kinds and colors of algae and moss that are now taking over making it impossible for new coral growth to begin. Also the water temp here at Varsenbaai was warmer than usual which also is a clear sign of Global Warming and is the fuel that keeps the alga’s growing.
Yet another super busy day at the aquarium today, this sure has been two busy weeks!! Many thanks for the countless compliments on the Sea Lion photo from yesterday, boy was that ever an unseen hit with everyone!!
It’s off to bed, the puppies are wearing us out!! Barry
SITE MAP
CategoriesArchives |
|
